How Technology Has Changed Society, Essay Example

Introduction

The USB or Pen drive is a portable device that may be plugged into any personal computer, notebook or laptop.  The purpose is to allow a high volume of personal storage (files) to be transmitted between computing devices. As such providing freedom of movement for transporting your data, photographs, music or such other digital media as required. For a relatively small device, smaller than your thumb, the device takes a huge storage capacity. The average being 4 gigabytes with possibilities to 64 gigabytes and beyond.  Historically computer storage was fixed, directly to hard drives contained within the computer. Hence it was difficult to both access and travel with your information. This device removed these constraints allowing portability of information without the need for carrying heavy storage devices.

The device works by plugging it either into a hub ( a small device that contains multiple USB port access) or directly into the USB (serial) ports of any computing device.  An added advantage is that many digital Tele-visions also contain USB hubs allowing the ability for video or slide file presentations on the TV.  This technology generally falls within the realms of electronics ( Electrical Engineering) and Computer Science. The USB Flash drive was first introduced to the business community in 1996.  It has been disputed who was the actual inventor of the technology, however Dov Moran who worked for M-Systems has been credited as an originator of the first flash drive.  The first actual distributor in North America was IBM. Other leading contributors include Dr.Fujio Masuoka for invention of NOR and NAND flash memory.

One of the advantages of the product is the low retail costs. We have witnessed 2 GB storage devices sell for as little as $3 whilst higher end range products in excess of 32 GB storage can cost in excess of $100.  The main users of this technology vary from domestic consumers, small business units through to Executives of large Corporate enterprises; in fact anyone who has a need for portable data storage. Indirectly business benefits by empowering its employees to have information that is readily available to them 24/7.  This does come with some disadvantages though, for example:

• The obvious data security implications – losing the pen drive, other people gaining access to the information etc
• The issue of data integrity – uncontrolled data formats may create inconsistent data sets within the organization, equally such data may be invalidated

This technology should continue in the foreseeable future, however as we progress towards more micro based technology applications i.e. the concept of miniaturization, we will most likely see higher capacity storage on even small drives.

Religious Implications

USB drives would essentially fall under the remit of computer technology and communication devices.  As such the technology is linked to the internet and the ability to bring information to the global community. Such capability may be perceived as both an opportunity and a threat to world religious communities, including the Christian faith.  A positive attribute being that the internet is being used widely to broadcast the gospel and Christian faith. Search engines such as Yahoo or Google indicate that GOD is on the top of the highest number of searches world-wide. “Historically we have never been able to reach such a vast audience where people may sit in the comfort of their homes and interrogate the bible for spiritual questions and awareness.”  (Edmiston).   USB drives have the capacity to contain an entire BIBLE on one small drive allowing portability of that information to any computing system that has a USB drive ( virtually all of them). ”

In the tale of the Good Samaritan ” Jesus replied and said,  A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan,  who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on {them;} and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell into the robbers hands. And he said, The one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do the same. In an analogous context computer technology can be used for doing good in the world by promoting and communicating the religious values of the bible i.e. humanity, brotherhood, compassion, equality and human rights. In essence a good Samaritan to all races and creeds. Equally it can be used in a counterproductive way proving inaccurate or misguided information, ignoring the important truths and values of the Christian message, similar to those who walked on by past the injured man.” (Luke 10-34)

In the Bible God gave Mankind dominion over the Earth  ” And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26 28).  Essentially the book of Genesis making vital reference to both technology and the laws of nature. A divine mandate being given to man from God.   The laws of nature for man to discover and harness for his own use leading in turn to technological innovation. Equally within this context goes both accountability and responsibility. Essentially God instructed Man to replenish the Earth and do good things with his technological innovations. Here lies the moral responsibility God endowed with mankind. It can be argued that technological advancement has provided man with a huge amount of positive benefits, equally it has created a great deal of destruction and misery – for example: the advancement of technology in warfare.

Sam Harris in his text “Letters to a Christian Nation” (Morgan) essentially concluded that the only enduring hope for society is the elimination of religion. As with the abolition of slavery he hopes religious beliefs will follow a similar path.  ” The Bible seems not only to provide justification for horrific violations of basic human rights, but also enslaves people to needless fear of future retribution in the afterlife”.  It is the irrational beliefs in religion that are at odds with scientific values and as such makes it difficult to protect the advancements of a technological society.  Harris goes on to say that there is a reference to morality ” Questions of morality are questions about happiness and suffering”  Further.. ” To the degree that our actions can affect the experience of other creatures positively or negatively, questions of morality apply”.  In this sense he finds Christianity guilty as the human race would have experienced far less suffering if the bible and other holy books were not in existence.

Sam Harris puts forward some convincing arguments, particularly so in his book entitled “The End of Faith” ( explains morality concepts in greater depth than LTCN).  One of the difficulties with Harris is that his self-proclamations become a standard for the remainder of his works. Unfortunately many of the key questions remain unanswered, for example:

• what are the benchmarks or standards for suffering and happiness to be measured against?
• How do we determine the polarities of suffering and happiness i.e. one is good and the other bad?
• Do other standards exist?

Religions essentially provide a set of moral guidelines for the masses. In this sense they provide direction on the perception of “right or wrong”. Biblical values assume that such values stand the test of time. Equally they were established at a time when most of the people ( target audience) were both uneducated and relatively ignorant. Over time mankind has grown in terms of education, awareness and technological advancement. Unfortunately this has not been uniform growth throughout our world.  We have an advanced technological society in the West, an emerging technological society e.g. China and India and other parts of the world (third world communities) like Africa and Asia still in a pre-industrialised society.  Christianity does seem to have embraced technology better than other religions like Islam for example. The fundamentalism within that faith has prevented many from experiencing the positive benefits that a technological society has to offer. I do believe that one can have moral values whilst being agnostic, it is not a pre-requisite to have faith in an omnipotent being.  You can set your own high moral values and live by them without being an integral part of a religious sect. Forbes “The Big Issue” covers some splendid thought provoking arguments on convergence between Science and Religion ( See Gorge Gilder – The Brightest Star  P163 refers). (ASAP)

Evolution

USB Flash drives in the first instance were really a marketing device. Initially they has low storage volumes and could be used to transport a small number of documents or images.  Since 1991 they have evolved into being serious storage devices capable of addressing a wide range of business needs.  They offer a mobile computing platform that supports both data encryption and biometric protection.  The technology helps humans to collect a wide range of data and images and store these on a small portable device.  The analogy is having your own personal small portable library and photograph album. The concept has evolved into audio / visual applications with the development of MP3 players and IPod technology. The concept of placing all your favourite CD’s into a vast music collection stored on a single USB drive.  Storage of data on personal computers and laptops can be a problem if you do not create adequate back-ups of data. You could lose all of your important data files, audio/visual applications if the hard drive became damaged or corrupted.  The USB drives provide a fast and convenient means of taking back ups.

USB drives are very adaptive technology components. ” Steffan Frank Helmond, General Manager for Lexars USB Flash drive business unit, says that because the thumb drive unit is basically devoid of standards, other than USB-port connection, there’s tremendous room for creativity”. (Mearian) . Natural Selection also plays a role in consumer choice of the drives with people looking towards eco friendly devices that can be easily recycled without leaving harmful effects to the environment. For example: ” Thallbach, a company from the town of Wasserburg, makes USB flash drives with ordinary insides of 4gb and extraordinary price of almost 100 euro, and a choice of external body being made of a selection of woods, from birch to palisander, polished and varnished to pseudo-natural perfection”. (Christine).  The product has many versatile design changes adopting a range of different stylistic designs and colours. From very conservative styles and colours for the businessman to that of flamboyant futuristic designs for children and the more adventurous.  They have the ability to be personalized with the incorporation of personal or business logos.

USB drives have taken on iconic values with people wearing them as artefacts. One of these couplings has been to attach the USB on personal identity tags. These often worn around the necks enable the user to carry around his personal data files with his security identification and key door pass.  There is almost a natural instinct and fitness of purpose for the USB drive to evolve in this direction, further outlining its characteristics of portability, individual personalization and convenience of use.  The ability to transport large volumes of information on a small single device has received universal acclaim as a benefit to users of computing technology. There are certain setbacks however.  Not all data drives have built in encryption for data protection. They often come with software pre-loaded that you have to run and set up. This provides you with individual choice and freedom in determining whether or not you desire tom password protect your data. If you fail to use the software you run the risk of your data being accessed or easily broken into.  The other issue relates to the size and portability of the devices. They can easily be lost or mislaid and as such you could lose important or vital data.  This is particularly dangerous where the pen drive is being used to store original data.

Environmental Issues

We  now have the bio-degradable flash drive. Essentially a drive that can be recycled and does not pose any danger to the environment. ” The Bio-Degradable USB Flash Drive is the latest development in eco-friendly media options. This USB Drive is manufactured from a form of polylactide (PLA), which is produced from renewable plant resources and is completely bio-degradable! (Wow). In this sense the USB drive is eco friendly posing little risk or danger to human health.

One of the great advantages of USB drives is the low energy consumption. The flash memory inserted into computers does not need to be battery powered as it is non volatile memory.  Equally given the less traditional hard disk storage devices, the USB device generates very little heat so there is no need for a fan or cooling system.  The concept of non-volatile storage means there is no need for a continuous flow of electricity to the unit.  The solid state memory uses low powered silicon providing efficiency in energy management. In addition to these semiconductor “Green features”, increasing manufacturers are using recycled materials to build new USB drives. (Flash-Drives.com)

Summing up USB drives can be said to have the following advantages:

• Large number are eco friendly being made of recycled materials and bio-degradable materials
• They do not require the harmful chemicals of battery power
• They use low power consumption
• They do not vent gases or heat into the atmosphere
• They are relatively small making disposal easy

Disadvantages to consider are:

• Bright colours are attractive to children and pets. Given the small size they could be swallowed. There are no statistics to support such occurrences as such this is considered to be low risk

In my opinion the positive attributes of low cost, eco friendly USB storage devices outweigh the potential negative attributes. (Geere)

Government

The US Military recently banned the use of USB drives ” The Defence Department has banned the use of removable flash media and storage devices from all government computers, according to a series of notices put out by the services this week. The action comes following reports that a worm virus known as “Agent.btz” was discovered infecting some DOD networks, according to Wired magazine.  LeAnne MacAllister, 5th Signal Command’s director of Strategic Communication, U.S. Army Europe, said this week that leadership directed her office to stop using thumb drives — portable memory devices used to store or transfer files. A separate internal Army e-mail told some government computer users across Europe to turn in all removable media devices. (Korea). Like any other storage device USB Drives are capable of transporting viruses. Unless these are scanned by anti-virus software it is possible to infect other computer devices. This imposes a need for due diligence over all portable storage devices.

In an e-mail sent Thursday to all Navy European customers in Naples, officials said “effective immediately all USB Thumb drives, memory sticks/cards and camera flash cards are PROHIBITED from use on any Navy Network (NIPR or SIPR) until further notice.”

It is useful to note that there are literally millions of USB drives in existence and as such all Governments need to exercise due diligence in regard to protection and security of data. This action was further updated in 2007 – ” On July 3, 2007, John Grimes, the CIO for the Department of Defence, issued a new policy requiring that all sensitive but unclassified (SBU) data stored on mobile devices be encrypted according to NIST’s Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2. The prior year, the Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum

M-06-16, directing all Federal agencies and departments to encrypt all sensitive data on mobile computers and devices ” (San Disk Corporation).

Similar action against USB Drives has been adopted by the US Navy ” The Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, Calif., in an all-hands message sent on Nov. 20 said, “All NPS faculty, staff and students are directed to immediately discontinue use of USB media storage devices on any computer attached to any NPS computer network. This includes privately owned laptops that are temporarily attached to the NPS networks via wired, wireless or VPN connections. USB media storage devices include but are not limited to, thumb drives, portable hard drives, cameras and removable camera media, portable music devices, cell phones, digital picture frames, etc.” (Bob Brewin).

There are three political views in the USA that provide a stance on applied use of technology. These are defined  as Conservative, Liberal and Libertarian. Conservatism might best be defined by former President Ronald Reagan. ” Former President Ronald Reagan: “The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is”. (Justin Quin).  President John F Kennedy best described a liberal ” But if by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.” (Kennedy).

Based upon the definitions above then the actions of the US Department of Defence may lean towards more conservative values.

In matters of Defence the Government has to take a more proactive stance as the outcome impacts the entire nation. In this case preventing a spread of harmful viruses into the military command and control systems is absolutely justified in imposing a technology ban on the USB drives.

Freedom

“ With each passing day we are losing more and more of our freedoms, yet, most of us are totally oblivious to this fact.  How much more can we afford to lose before we realize that all the guarantees and safeguards written into our Constitution by our wise and prudent forefathers have all but been lost?  For surely, if we continue allowing man to set the tenets by which we live and his science to be the conscience of our society, the freedoms we cherish most, will not be ours much longer.” (truechristian.org)

” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness ” (Declaration of Independence).  It is perhaps the 4th Amendment concerning the protection of data privacy ” The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places,  and protects the privacy upon which [a person] justifiably relied;  in the words of Justice Harlan’s concurrence, it protects reasonable expectations of privacy”. (Gerwitz) Hence security of information and protection of people’s rights, in the context of information stored on these devices, applies to this amendment.  The difficulty in the USA is that these laws are interpreted differently and as such much is left for interpretation with the judicial bodies i.e. Katz u United States (389 U.S. 347 [1967] refers.

Countries like Rwanda in Africa have restricted uses of computer technology because of poor infrastructure, lack of basic power and electricity, communications and transport impact development of technology. This theme is carried across other third world countries and has been termed as  the “digital divide” (forbes)

Responsibility

China has been producing low cost USB drives of variable quality and less eco friendly. These have hit the mass market and widely adopted. The short life span of such products generates a far greater wastage and disposal problem adding more non bio degradable matter into the community at large.  As people become more educated about Climate Action, the environment and the potential hazards they are more likely to move towards “green goods”; most people recognize the important of preserving the well being of our planet.  We are seeing increasing examples of this in cleaner fuels, energy, and domestic consumer goods.

Works Cited

ASAP, Forbes. Big Issues. New York: Wiley, 2001.

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Declaration of Independence. 4th July 1776. 9th October 2009 <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm>.

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