Social Implications of the Computer Revolution. Advantages and Disadvantages
Informatica e Diritto › Numero 2001-2, Giugno 2001
Legato come :
Riassunto
1. Marconi's invention and the dawn of the information age - 2. The computer and the information society - 3. The artificial man and the computer civilization - 4. The State as an enterprise and administrative automation - 5. Towards the factory of the future without human resources - 6. New labour relations in the office and the factory - 7. Company directors and Information technology - 8. Personal data banks and privacy - 9. Information freedom and the European Convention on Data Protection - 10. Privacy and computer programs - 11. The automated taxation register and risks to the citizen's privacy - 12. Advantages and disadvantages of an automated taxation system - 13. Relations between technologically advanced countries and developing countries - 14. New perspectives for informatics in developing countries - 15. Towards the informatics agorà.
Vedere l´intero contenuto di questo documento
Riassunto
Social Implications of the Computer Revolution. Advantages and Disadvantages
Paper presented at the Conference held on 19th May 1987 at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies of Queen Mary College, University of London.
1. Marconi's invention and the dawn of the information age Two events of singular chronological importance occurred at the end of the last century and at the beginning of this century, which were destined to become emblematic as the historical link between two different epochs in human civilization. The former of these events was the first radio news service transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi between 20 and 22 July, 1898 from the coast of Ireland during the yacht races sponsored by the Royal Yatch Club. Thanks to the radio link, the «Daily Express» of Dublin was able to publish an account of the race even before the yachts had come back into port. The latter event, to which we refer, occurred on 12 December 1901 and once again Marconi was the protagonist. On that date he received a radio message, whilst on the island of Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada, transmitted across the Atlantic from the Poldhu Station in Cornwall1. A new century had begun and with it a new epoch in the history of mankind. Let us briefly reflect on the significance of these two events. Firstly, they marked a real turning-point in human communications when information comes to be seen as an accumulation and transmission of experience which is acquired and organized in a symbolic system. Information, up until then, had as its constant feature been linked with, or indeed incorporated in, a sentient phenomenon: the human voice, visual and acustic signals, and the written word. The use of electromagnetic waves gave the message the ethereal character and rapidity of human thought; across seas and oceans, until the limits of space disappeared and time was cancelled as communications became instantaneous at any distance. Secondly, communications always took place previously between one point and another, between one person and another, between the transmitter and the receiver, and were therefore linear (even along the telephone lines which already utilized electric impulses). From then on, it became widespread, radiating and omnicentric2. And, thirdly, by crossing the ocean and establishing contacts between people living at the antipodes one from the other, information became planetary, spreading throughout the word and common to all men. 2. The computer and the information society ...Vedere l´intero contenuto di questo documento
Collegamenti sponsorizzati
