Computer in Use. Маркушевская Л.П - 58 стр.

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Университет ИТМО | Санкт-Петербург

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58
c) Match the antonyms.
Adjectives
1 2
1. obsolete
2. potential
3. beneficial
4. abundant
5. private
a) real
b) harmful
c) individual
d) public
e) sensitive
f) poor
g) contemporary
Scan-reading
NEW AGE, NEW PROBLEMS
Like any powerful tool, computers can be a force both for good and for harm.
They can give physicians instant access to all of the information available on a
patient in crisis, but they can also give unscrupulous charlatans the names of all
cancer patients. They can give a business important new control over its inventory,
but they can also give it privacy-invading control over its employee. Computerized
robots might make work obsolete while producing abundance for everyone, but it can
also throw millions of people into unemployment and poverty. To maximize the
benefits and minimize the harms, those making decisions about the implementation
of computer systems (e.g., programmers, systems designers, computer scientists,
managers, legislators) must le sensitive, to the potential problems as well as to
potential advantages of computers.
Because the computer gives us fundamentally new power, we are faced with
decisions for which our experience may give little guidance. The danger of applying
old standards to a fundamentally new situation might be well illustrated by the law
passed soon after the production of the first automobiles, which required cars
travelling the roads to be preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag. This law
reduced danger, but robbed the auto of its intrinsic power. Similarly, we could stop
one type of computer crime by outlawing electronic fund transfer, or prevent a
potentially dangerous accumulation of governmental power by outlawing the
interconnection computers storing different sets of information about individuals, or
prevent robots from taking workers jobs by outlawing robotization. It is possible to
respond to every danger by cutting off the power that leads to that danger. But it is
more productive to respond by analyzing each situation as it occurs. This way we
may conclude that our fundamental values are better protected by changing our
expectations or rules rather than by denying ourselves opportunities to take advantage
of what the computer can do. Such an analysis requires some understanding both of
social problems that computers may cause and the nature of our moral system.

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