Bill Gates

In my opinion one of the most influential and important people of all time is Bill Gates. In the article below is the condensed life story of Bill Gates. He started out just like the rest of us, and grew into the shoes of the richest man in the world. He followed something he was passionate about and started one of the biggest corporations in the world who forever changed the face of technology, It is virtually impossible to go somewhere and not use something that was at least either first patented or created by Microsoft and its affiliated companies. I cannot think of another person who helped usher in the age of technology more than Bill Gates. On top of being incredibly smart, he is also incredibly charitable. He and his wife, Melinda, donate billions of their massive fortune to charity and those in need. He is truly a revolutionary individual.

Bill Gates

Warfare and the Ever Expanding Technology

It is no big surprise that with the ever increasing need for bigger and better weapons, society has risen to meet the challenge. However: when should the line be drawn? The days of fighting with swords and flails are long behind us, and the stakes have never been higher. Bombs and missiles are thrown around like confetti at a toddlers birthday party, and the collateral damage and mental distress they cause are irreparable. Drones and other UAV's lead to a disconnect between the people who pilot them and those who are on the receiving end. In the past, combat was close and personal. Now, you can safely level an entire block from the other side of the world. While I am all for drone warfare, I believe that it is a potential disaster waiting to happen. The following article about Obama's drone campaign in '16 highlights the pros and cons along with the moral side of drone warfare.

Drone Warfare

Women and Eugenics

No one in society should have the power to deem an individual worthy, or unworthy, or going through pregnancy and having children. Forced sterilization, or eugenics, is a shameful black eye on any nation that may enforce such a barbaric practice. Something out of Nazi Germany, it takes away the rights of men and women who are thought of as inferior, no matter how false these accusations are. When an action or process is closely related and compared to Hitler and the Nazi regime, something is not quite right and should be a red flag to any level headed individual. The evidence of forced sterilization being a momentously horrid action can be seen in further detail in the article below.

Forced Sterilization

Government is Watching

This article, The government just admitted it will use smart devices for spying. by Trevor Timm is very interesting because I never realized that basically any device in your house can be used to listen in. In the article it shows how in Samsung's privacy policy for their T.V. it says that any information that is spoken around the device might be heard by a Third Party. To me this is crazy to even think about. The picture below shows another example of what the government could be using to listen in to what people are saying in their everyday life.

Relationship Between Technology and Warfare

I read the article Science, Technology, and the Future of Warfare by Margaret Kosal. This is a very interesting article about the rapid pace of the technological advances. Once someone comes out with a new technology the whole world knows about it because of how fast news can travel. A very interesting statement she said was, "In today’s world, recognition of the potential applications of a technology and a sense of purpose in exploiting it are far more important than simply having access to it."(Kosal) So instead of using the technology since everyone has access to it nowadays. Finding ways to exploit the countries who heavily rely on these technologies is more important then using them.

Totalitarianism and Technology

Our future society is doomed to be under constant surveillance. Currently, it seems that a person can't shop, dine out or simply go for a walk around the block without being watched by cameras. Do you act in the same manor while being out and knowing that you are surrounded by cameras as you would if they were not there? A negative response to this question would suggest that surveillance prohibits the distinction between playful and sophisticated behavior. If a person goes out with worry of being caught on camera, they are most likely not going to act with their normal demeanor.

Survailence Culture

This article does not come as a surprise to me. During my spring break, I visited universal studios and when I entered the park I was required to give them my finger print without even being told why. This article gave me an idea on what happened during my trip. I believe surveillance like this is unnecessary in places like parks. Cities like New York should notify the citizens on their secret surveillance. If they do not let people know, I believe this is an invasion of somebody's privacy because a persons information can be accessed at anytime through a camera. It sounds like a bad futuristic movie where a person hacks into a system to access people's cards. I understand where Naomi is coming from because he feels it is unsafe for the government to scan your movements.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/15/new-totalitarianism-surveillance-technology

Technology and Warfare

This video discusses the technological developments of World War I. During the war, the governments of all the different warring powers put enormous amounts of time and effort into scientific and technical development so the advancements, which would have happened anyway, happened at a much more rapid pace and according to the priorities of the military powers. It was really the first war in which all of the technology, science, and industry of the 19th century were put to the sole purpose of killing people. 

Technology and Warfare

The advancement of science and technology has its positive and negative factors. Medically, technology has played a significant role in improving health with cures and life expectancy. Technologically, much of the hard and dangerous labor has been made more efficient by machines. Developments of new substances, like plastic, has increased production of goods by being a substitute for more expensive materials. Like everything else, science has also advanced weapons in warfare. This has resulted in weapons that are more and more deadlier and cause the most harm to a human being. Compared to swords, arrows, and rifles, war today is much different than it used to be. Heavy and dangerous weapons are the result of scientific and technological improvements. World War I first showed signs of these improvements when aircrafts, submarines, barbed wires, poisonous gas, and tanks began to come into the battlefield. Later in World War II, flame throwers, rockets, mines, and more advanced aircrafts and guns came into play as well since technology was still advancing. The Manhattan Project to this day is known as the turn of the tide in the war. This was a research and development project that created the first nuclear weapons. With science becoming more advanced, the equation e=mc^2 (created by Albert Einstein) helped reach the goal of this project. Today, weapons of mass destruction are enough to wipe out cities. Essentially, although technology has helped human civilization progress, it has also played a role in weapons becoming more destructive.

Tech in Wars

The affect of technology in war first appeared during World War 1. before that, armies would use the gorilla method, in which armies were lined up across from each other and fire at a specific pace. When world war one occurred, armies developed new weapons. these weapons consisted of poisonous gas, tanks, and the machine gun. With the development of these weapons, came a new way to fight these battles. The bunkering method was introduced which allowed soldiers to camp in trenches. Another big advancement came in world war 2. The destructive hydrogen bomb was created which allowed the owners of this bomb to be a big threat. It is said that because of these advancements in technology, death rates have decreased since. One can say that technology is the principal shaper of war in the modern world.