Computers Reshaping Society :: Technology Computers Essays

Computers Reshaping SocietyThe emergence of randomness processing systems in our society as a means of the gathering and processing of information for the sorting of it has played a major role in reshaping the society it exists in. After the introduction of computers as a business, and later personal, tool, and the large-scale assimilation of such for both purposes, the computer proceeded to spurt our society by its own needs. This reshaping took the form suiting all business and personal life of humans around the elementary component of the computer -- information. Information has become the one most important entity in our lives, far more important than most other needs, thanks to the efforts of gathering and organizing the vast occur of information that was brought about by the introduction of computers. The next obvious issue is privacy. Privacy is by definition the withholding of certain information which is of some brilliance to the group or individual exercising this righ t. It has now become however an active battle with the computers seeking to organize and index all aspects of our life, while we touch to the last bits of this information, to privacy, to the frontier of battle over information. It is not surprising that privacy has become the central issue in todays digital years. The following is an excerpt from the US government report Cryptographys Role in Securing the Information Society by the National Research Council. Todays information age requires U.S. businesses to competeon a worldwide basis, sharing sensitive information withappropriate parties while protecting that information againstcompetitors, vandals, suppliers, customers, and foreigngovernments. Private law-abiding citizens dislikethe ease with which personal telephone calls can be tapped,especially those carried on cellular or cordless telephones.Elements of the U.S. civilian infrastructure such as thebanking system, the electric power grid, the public switchedtelecommunicati ons network, and the air traffic control systemare central to so many dimensions of modern life thatprotecting these elements essential have a high priority. Thefederal government has an important stake in assuring that itsimportant and sensitive political, economic, law enforcement,and military information, both categorise and unclassified, isprotected from foreign governments or other parties whoseinterests are hostile to those of the United States.As you can see, the federal government is showing great concern over the misuse of information which it hopes to try to protect by enforcing stricter guidelines on the respect of privacy (by methods of encryption). This is a clear reflection of the cultural mindset that was developed by the presence of computers.