The abuse of the new technology is not a strange topic. In the two article I have read recently the abuse of the brain mapping is mentioned. If I was the researcher of the technology brain mapping, I will try my best to predict the potential abuse of it and then to minimize the unethical abuses.
First, the most possible abuse of the brain mapping is that the employer will want to keep watch over the thoughts of the employee, which definitely trespasses the private right of the employees. To avoid such tortious acts, the laws focus on the brain mapping is a must. The laws can stipulate that the employers can only view their employee's thoughts under the limited situations, and before that the employer must get the permit of related department of the government. In such case, I think the technology could work very well. Second, the brain mapping technology is reliable but not perfectly accurate, so too much reliance on the brain mapping technology is also a kind of abuse. Because brain is a very complex organism, though the computer is able to "read" it more or less, nobody can guarantee the accuracy of the brain mapping. As to this kind of abuse, the solution is that the testing results of the brain mapping can only be treated as references. Maybe with the development of the technology, we can depend more and more on the technology.
Third, the most controversial one, the parents will try to match their children's brain scans to the famous celebrities. It will easily lead to a brain testing juggernaut tomorrow. This is quite bad for the whole society, and many children with undiscovered potential may probably lose the opportunity to develop those ability. More rules should be established on the brain mapping on children.
That is my prediction and solution of the possible abuse.
2008年10月29日星期三
Portfolio 4
The module MLE 1101is a quite tough module to me. The name of this module is "Material Science and Engineering: An introduction". This module comes in the scopes of many fields about material, such as the basic property of material, the structure of polymer and composite and so on. I have two main difficulties in learning this module.
The first difficulty I encounter in this module is that there are quite a lot terms about organic substance which are quite long and hard to memorize. What is worse, most of the organic substances have more than one name! For instance, the substance ethene whose chemical formula is C2H4, is also called ethylene! This really puzzles me at the beginning of the module. It is only a very sample substance and the name of the more complex matter will be even harder to recognize and memorize. While now I find that there are disciplines in naming the matter, though it is not as systematical as the way named in Chinese, I find a bit better in dealing with it.
The second difficulty is the accent of the lecturer. Above all, all the lecturers are very profound, but at the beginning I cannot adjust to their accents of English. For example, the first professor would like to pronounce the word "atom" like "ATAUM", which makes me quite bemused and confused at first. The longer terms of this module are even more difficult to understand. However, with time going by, I adapt to their accent more or less.
Those are the two difficulties that I come across in learning the module MLE 1101.
2008年10月6日星期一
Portfolio 3
Summary of “Terrorism protection is engineering challenge, Branscomb says”
Branscomb whose talk on Sept.20 ranks 2nd in the Brunel Lectures Series on Complex Systems sponsored by MIT’s Engineering System Division says that science and technology can make the US safer but nit invulnerable to attack. It is the science and technology that created America’s vulnerability.
Reducing vulnerability is a highly complex systems problem and the NRC report also warns that there is danger of a severe domino effect, bringing down many other systems with it. Branscomb also thinks that the Department of Homeland Security is ill equipped to deal with the problem. He noted that many systems which include health care and food systems, energy systems, communication and information systems, transportation systems and people are potential targets. He highlights the people are the targets and the main danger is loss of public confidence in public offices, which would lead to the consequence that the democracy will become fragile. Because of some engineering problems, which are some of the biggest hurdles in fencing off attack, more effort in creating a foreign policy so that there is less incentive to become a terrorist should be taken.
Branscomb whose talk on Sept.20 ranks 2nd in the Brunel Lectures Series on Complex Systems sponsored by MIT’s Engineering System Division says that science and technology can make the US safer but nit invulnerable to attack. It is the science and technology that created America’s vulnerability.
Reducing vulnerability is a highly complex systems problem and the NRC report also warns that there is danger of a severe domino effect, bringing down many other systems with it. Branscomb also thinks that the Department of Homeland Security is ill equipped to deal with the problem. He noted that many systems which include health care and food systems, energy systems, communication and information systems, transportation systems and people are potential targets. He highlights the people are the targets and the main danger is loss of public confidence in public offices, which would lead to the consequence that the democracy will become fragile. Because of some engineering problems, which are some of the biggest hurdles in fencing off attack, more effort in creating a foreign policy so that there is less incentive to become a terrorist should be taken.
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