History of Cyberpunk

Mind control in the future

Regarding the rapid development of computer technology in the last 20 years, it is obvious that things will continue to change. Though it is not popular today, many technologies have proven that our brains can be connected to a computer (Halpern, 2013, p. 1). Imagine if you could upload all knowledge to your head, no one would have to learn again. Imagine this would imply that every thought could be downloaded as well. Like we all know, the communication and our behavior on the internet is affected and recorded by big companies like Google. These companies try to gather as much information about everyone as possible. Moreover, they try to find the best algorithm to combine all this collected knowledge. Their overall aim is to predict our needs and our interests, perhaps even before we become aware of them. Thus, they can personalise the adverts we see on our homepage and influence our demand behavior. If we have a desire in our subconscious mind, a fitting ad could manipulate these feelings. 

If computers could be able even to read our minds, companies like Google could control every decision we make. They could not only personalize the advertisement in a most effective way, they could upload desires directly into our heads and we would not be able to distinguish what we really want and what desire the company has created to maximize their profit. 

This very conceptional thought could be one option about how, not the society, but a company will control our lives in the future – an option that hopefully will never become true.

Sources:

Halpern, Sue (2011) 'Mind Control & the Internet', New York Review of Books, viewed 10/08/2013 < http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/>

New Communication Technologies and their impact on my life

When I think about new communication technologies, the first thing that comes to my mind is Skype. I started using Skype many years ago to stay in touch with a good friend that moved away. It was the easiest, and at least cheapest way to see each other. But since I have become an exchange student at Griffith University one month ago, it has become even more important for me. Even though Australia is a great country, you have so many things to do and have nearly no time to get homesick, sometimes it is not avoidable – especially in the first days. With Skype you are not only able to chat with your friends and family, you can even call them – with audio and video call. Skype makes me feel closer to my home. And it helps my family and friends to get a better impression about my life on the other end of the world.

Facebook is another important part of new communication technologies for me as well. Its main focus on socializing makes it easy to tell everyone at once what I am doing and what experiences I make, and to show photos of all the places I have been to and of the people I have met. For me it is important that Facebook is private and neither my lecturer nor my employer can see it. Facebook’s privacy settings are often discussed but as long as nothing goes public it is acceptable for me. Facebook uses all its data to place advertisements in a very efficient way on its website (Research and Markets: Facebook 2013). That is how this company earns money and as long as this advertising is not disturbing, and I am not putting private contact details online, the opportunity that Facebook offers is great, although you have to pay with your data.


Sources:
Research and Markets: Facebook: The Future of its Ad-Supported Business Model, viewed 04 August 2013,
<://finance.yahoo.com/news/research-markets-facebook-future-ad-162500648.html>

WebRTC - Web Real Time Communication

Dealing with the topic of new communication technologies, one new innovation, which is not fully developed, is WebRTC - Web Real Time Communication. WebRTC allows users to make video and audio calls, and even to send text messages, in the browser. No plug in or application needs to be installed, it uses JavaScript and HTML5. The new versions of most browsers are already supporting WebRTC (WebRTC 2013). It will be interesting to observe if WebRTC will have the predicted impact on communication in the future.

I can highly recommend the following video if you want to have a comprehensive idea about what WebRTC is and what it might be able to do.

The first time I heard about WebRTC, and that is the reason why I have chosen this topic, was in the telecommunication company in Germany I am working in - Deutsche Telekom AG. The project 'WebRTC' and a correlated master thesis wanted to help developing and improving WebRTC, at least to integrate it in other applications and products from the company. 

Sources:

WebRTC, viewed 03 August 2013

<https://sites.google.com/site/webrtc/>

In today's world everyone is used to the presence of computers. Most people could not imagine working, learning or even communicating without computers. The article 'Questions about the usefulness of microcomputers in 1980s Australia' describes the doubts about microcomputers from over 30 years ago, and how a small group of people tried to find more application areas for computers. In the beginning playing games on computer was one of the most popular activities (Swalwell 2012, p. 2). Nevertheless, in the following years these hobbyists developed more and more programs that can be used by everyone. Consumers do not even need to know why a program is working, they have just to find out how to use it (Swalwell 2012, p. 7).

Sources: 


Swalwell 2013, Questions about the usefulness of microcomputers in 1980s Australia, viewed 28 July 2013, 
<https://bblearn.griffith.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-502011-dt-content-rid-896290_1/courses/1501HUM_3135/Swalwell%2080s%20Oz%20Computers.pdf>