week 3

1) In Paulina Boorsooks Book "Cyberselfish" she contrasts the development of technologies that were group efforts and thus stand in stark contrast to the myth of the lone 'hero' entrepreneur. Name two such more group-based technologies. (Under the heading "Closer to the Machine")

a) The World Wide Web

b) Microsoft Windows

2) In the section labelled "Human, Too Human" Boosook describes one type of technolibertarian - the "Extropians". What do extropians want or yearn for?

They want to maximise human potential by integrating themselves with machines and computers. They want to try and eliminate the defects of being human, and become more algorithmic, to make less mistakes.

3) In her film BIT PLANE, Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart as being a pioneer - of what? (view film via VIMEO link in separate post)

A pioneer of personal computing.

4) In "Silicon Valley Mystery House" writer Langdon Winner compares the Silicon Valley to the Winchester Mystery House. In what way does he consider them similar?

5) In Langdon Winner's essay "Silicon Valley Mystery House" he describes East Palo Alto as a very different kind of place from areas such as upscale Stanford and downtown Palo Alto. What type of area is East Palo alto, "just across highway 101"?

6) In her Processed World article "The Disappeared of Silicon Valley" Paulina Boorsook's "Deep Throat" (inside information source) describes some unpleasant realities of most Silicon Valley startups and how they end up. List two.

7) What is the Long Now foundation and why was it formed?

It is an organization which is trying to promote a different way of thinking as opposed to the faster/cheaper way of product development and ideas. They want a more substantial thought process more focused on sustainability and long term slower/better ideas.

8) In the documentary DOCUMENTARY - SILICON VALLEY - A HUNDRED YEAR RENAISSANCE (1997) Steve Jobs describes the joy of successfully making "blue boxes" which let he and his friends make free phone calls. What aspect of this experience does he say was so important to the creation of Apple computer?

9) List three aspects of the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - (see the "Our Work" section of their website)

They seem to be concerned with

-preserving rights

-helping aid disabled and accessibility

-privacy

10) According to Richard Stallman's website, what is his status in relation to the social media site Facebook?

He is fully against it and the way it tracks your browsing and supposedly gives it to the CIA.