Futurism

First, I don't think Kurzweil is right at all, in fact he sounds a little over ambitious and slightly insane to me. He seems to have envisioned a future that sounds exactly like a science fiction novel. Some of the things that he envisions for the future sound very plausible, but most are nearly impossible and could never be achieved in the amount of time he has predicted. I am positive that people will not have computers in their retinas by 2009 because that is next year and we certainly have not developed the technology and do not have the resources to widely distribute. I also do not think that there is a chance to instill consciousness into robots, and I don't think that twenty years time is enough to develop something like this. I don't doubt that this world is full of many intelligent people who will make great successes in advances in technology, but I don't think that there is any reason to fear them. On that note, I don't know that I agree with Bill Joy either, we aren't going to destroy humanity with technology. I think, if anything, maybe we can improve people's ways of life, people who are sick or in pain. I don't believe that it is right to hope for immortality, people are meant to die, life has a cycle and if there is one thing technology can potentially ruin it is that natural cycle of life. But Still, I do not think it is possible even in the next hundred years that technology will create a way for people to live forever. I believe that there will be more practical inventions and creations that will improve our way of life but never take it over, nature will always override science.

electronic voting

1. People are concerned that the electronic voting machines are easy to tamper with, that anybody who knows about technology can just upload a "vote stealing" program onto a memory car and sneak it onto a machine. People are worried that this happens more often than not and that more people have access to tamper with votes because the machines are not secure and they have design flaws that don't protect them from viruses either.
2. I think that the only foolproof way to ensure that all of the votes are counted correctly is to spend more time getting the results and more effort to organize the process. Part of the process would most definitely have to be done by hand, people counting ballots. And the other could be electronic, but there has to be a different way of identifying votes, like maybe stickers put onto ballots that have a code that the computer recognizes specifically as a vote for that candidate. Something else that could be done, but would be time consuming, is to change memory cards every hour, completely erasing everything on the computer before each new one is put in. This would be helpful to do right before people started counting votes or voting.

the digital divide

These are the reasons why digital divide can potentially become a problem in these areas of society.
Education: Technology is becoming a huge part of our education, but computers are costly and some places (not just all over the world, but also in the US) cannot afford them. Also some schools don't have the means to train teachers how to adequatley teach students how to utilize technology. Because not all students have access to technology this can cause an imbalance in their futures, they will not all enter the job force with equal oppurtunities. And this will not help to solve the world's growing poverty situation.
Government: Again, those of the population who don't have access to technology are the ones who will unltimately suffer. It can be used for many things such as: censuses, filing taxes, receiving aid, public feedback, etc. Many of the people who need help and need to be heard are not apply to use technology for their benifit.
Health: There have been many technological advances in medicine in America, but if other, developing countries, don't have the means to pay for that kind of technology then all of those people in those countries will suffer with outdated medical procedures.
Entertainment: Socially, in America, the internet has become the most popular source for entertainment. If we don't all have access to the internet then society becomes divided into those who do and those who dont and who knows what this could mean for the future of those who don't.
Work: It's a fact that everything is becoming more and more technological. That includes the work force. It is not only the poor who aren't computer savy but also those who grew up in a different time without so much technology. It is becoming increasingly more important that a person should have computer skills in order to qualify for a job. So if not everyone has access to computers and access to training, then unemployment rates will go up, along with poverty rates.

web 2.0 lab

1. http://www.411sync.com/cyi-bi the APIs are 411sync and Yahoo Map Image, I thought that the 411sync application on cell phones was really interesting, you just type in 411sync+ an address and it will text you back and tell you where all available parking is within a mile.
2. http://mashfu.com the APIs are Eventful and yahoo local search. This website is really interesting to me because you can find any events that are happening around you and things like places to eat and local concerts.
3. http://www.mibazaar.com/costofiraqwar/ the APIs are google maps. This website shows how much money has been spent on the war in Iraq and what that money could have been used for instead of war. This is interesting to me because I think that it is important to be aware of what is happening in my country, and have to a means to disagree with what my government is doing.

File Sharing!

First I will address the series of scenarios that you provided and then I'll tell you a little bit more about my personal ethics. So, downloading a song that I don't own from a major label artist, well I do think that this is ok. I am one of the people who believes that if they make quite a bit of money already and if they really won't suffer financially from giving it for free then they should be able to let listeners download their art. Now downloading from a struggling artist I think is wrong, I believe that a lot of new bands struggle because people are able to download music like they do today and they end up making no profit. Some people say that struggling bands like to just share their music anyway, I have no proof of this but if that is true then that could almost be a means for justification, there are many other factors though of course. Downloading a copy of a song I already own, I think that this is ok, if it is something i've already paid for then why not? This doesn't stop people who haven't paid for it from doing it though. Shoplifting is obviously very wrong, and I wouldn't ever say that it was ok because not only are you stealing from the artist but you're stealing from the shop owner as well. But I can definitely see the relation to downloading a whole CD for free. I don't think its ok to download a song and if you like it you'll buy the CD, because there is no guarantee that you will and plus you can usually listen to part of a song on a website advertising for the CD anyway. Copying a CD from a friend, I think that this is ok, because it has been paid for and it is better than the both of you just downloading it from the Internet, so maybe its the lesser of two evils? I think that making music you own available to your friends as well as publicly available is ok too, because if you view music as art then why should restrictions be put on whether or not it can be shared? I mean are we going to have to take all of the pictures of paintings off of the Internet too? Should an artist get paid money for every time that someone looks at their painting on their website? I know that hearing and seeing is different, but art is art in my opinion. Now me personally, I didn't even own an ipod until a couple of months ago when my CD player broke and I've tried to download songs but I'm just not very good at it and i've probably only downloaded about 2 and a half songs in my whole lifetime. But I did get all of my songs that are on my ipod from a friend, and they were from CDs that were burned onto his computer, so i'm not sure which category that puts me in. But I think one of the main problems lies in the fact that most people don't realize what they are doing, they don't understand that they are in fact stealing by definition. Its easier to do it because all you have to do it click you mouse and there is nothing else to think about. Nobody really takes the time to think about the ethics of it, they just want instant gratification.

Analog to Digital

I think that the digialtization of the art world has probably affected me the most, since I paint, draw and do photography. The first time I felt this was probably in high school when I was taking my AP studio art class and I found myself struggling next to all of the other students, a lot of whom were using drawing tablets to "perfect" their artwork. I also used the computer to help improve my work, it was only photography but I did use photoshop on occasion to make things look more "interesting". But what I learned from that experiences was that my best photographs were ones that were not altered, they were ones that capture the natural asthetics of the world. Also, while the digital media is great for distributing artwork and becoming more famous, nothing digital can replace the beauty of a painting that someone has done by hand.

E-Waste Post

The reason in which the issue of e-waste is such a difficult one is because for most people it seems to be an "out of sight, out of mind" issue. It isn't entirely difficult to recycle your electronic products but it takes more effort than to just throw them into a recycle bin, also in all of the environmentally safe ways you most likely will have to pay a fee. It seems that most people don't care as much to take the time to go through these measures to ensure that their e-waste is safely recycled. Considering that e-waste is such a huge problem in the developing world, it appears that our government and the the governments of other well developed countries don't care because it is a cheap solution to an annoying problem. They don't have to worry that their children or themselves will get cancer or some other life-threatening illness. These people are poor third-world civilians who make no difference to them. So the issue is can you care enough about these people who are government has deemed insignificant?
I would say that my own habits are driven by this need to not over consume electronic products. I keep my cell phones for as long as they will function and that goes for everything else: laptop, ipod, etc. I also made a point to not even purchase an ipod until my portable CD player broke. I think that this is more efficient then just buying the newest model of everything because its "cooler" or because it has lots of special new advances, such as a phone that takes pictures. As far as recycling goes, I still have all of my old cell phones and my family still has the very first computer that we ever owned. So I don't think that we've ever attempted to recycle our electronic waste, but I can say that when the time comes I will make sure that we are sending our old and broken products to a reputable company that will safely recycle them.