Cars that Drive Themselves!

I was astonished as I read the news to find out that many car makers including BMW are making cars that actually drive themselves. With the help of the latest in technology such as sensors with complex algorithms, these cars will be able to maneuver through roads effortlessly and with ease. The driver in most cases, will have full control of the vehicle in the midst of the process. The whole story can be read here. On this news I thought, Wow, Artificial Intelligence is really reaching its peak, or is it? This technology has the ability to change the face of transportation as we know it, making the roads much safer as a whole. Even though it is still in its testing phase, it has successfully been introduced to the streets. But the question is, can this technology pose any threat or has potential to backfire. There is a nuisance regarding the speed limits and how it tediously abides to those. Given this fact, will it be able to perceive exactly how a human would scan traffic? Or is there possibility of failures in specific situations. These questions are extremely important and I am confident that car makers such as BMW are hacking their way through them. Despite this, I would like to give them a round of applause for their innovative efforts and contribution towards this rapidly growing field. 

Is Privacy Dead?

Well here goes my first post towards this blog that I intentionally called “Computers and Society,” because it will cover everything that comes under this definition (and maybe more). After doing an extensive essay on Information Technology and its effects on privacy, I found that there are many unresolved issues to this day on the ethics of computers and how societies have a stance that is unclear in many ways. In one of the parts I mentioned that as technology is advancing, people are also changing or “accommodating” their views in the midst of this progress. Mike Lynch, who is often referred to as the "Bill Gates of UK" has said in an interview that ultimately certain aspects in today's societies are doomed such as privacy. The full article can be read here.  

This may be true in some ways but can't it be said that society itself is redefining what privacy means to them every day? In other words is it adapting to the efficient technology culture in sacrifice of its current beliefs or is it truly feeling a sense of deprivation of its freedom? With the emergence of Social Networks such as Facebook and their overall popularity, I think that people are overlooking the threats that they may cause (such as individual privacy) and are keen 

on joining the majority of users to reap the benefits of a social community. We are now in an era that relies on smart phones and I think this brings a shift in consciousness, making people more "easy going" towards the threat to privacy that information technology poses. This ultimately shows that the comments made by individuals such as Lynch can be deemed irrelevant in a society such as ours; where I believe that technology has an immense effect on society in terms of the beliefs it holds on issues such as privacy.