Name Victoria Terhaar Class time: 12 pm
KEEP THIS TO 1-3 – PAGES LONG (EXCLUDING REFERENCE PAGE)
Author: Sara Baase
Date of Publication: 2008
Book: A Gift of FIre
Sections read: 8.1 & 8.2
1. (Knowledge)Tell three interesting elements of this chapter:
a. I couldn’t believe when I read about the sex offenders getting murdered because their addresses were posted online for the world to see, especially in the cases where the person attacked wasn’t actually the offender. (pg. 408)
b. When Baase talked about the problems that happened in voting systems on page 416, and I knew what she was talking about, I thought it was interesting because I felt a sense of connection to the information because I lived through it.
c. I thought learning about the Therac-25 was interesting because my father owns a cancer care treatment center, and they use a machine for radiation treatment similar to the Therac-25. I couldn’t imagine if there was a fatal result what would happen if that occurred at my father’s center. (pg. 425-430)
2. (Comprehension) Summarize what is being discussed within this chapter?
In chapter 8, Baase in the first section explains numerous situations where something has gone wrong because of a technological problem whether it either failed or caused errors. Baase categorizes each problem by the cause, the seriousness of the effects, or the application area. Baase begins by explaining some errors that have happened for individuals. This has included billing errors from businesses or credit agencies, and misread public data. She then gives examples of some failures and errors that have occurred to complete systems. Examples she uses are AT&T losing service for an extended period of time, a system called Warehouse Manager that completely messed up system information for dozens of companies around the United States, the problems in the voting systems, with hard to read ballots, or not properly stored machines, or missing ballots. Problems that have occurred in airports, with delayed opening, and failures in baggage systems, the waste of money on abandoned systems, old systems that won’t be able to be used anymore because they don’t have a “legacy”, and the problems that pilots had in whether or not to trust a completely computer run airplane (pg. 405-424). Section 8.2 focused specifically on a case dealing with a radiation machine called the Therac- 25. This machine was supposed to help patients with cancer get their radiation treatments to help cure them. The machine had bugs and glitches that weren’t tested and would give patients overdoses in radiation, and constantly show errors on the machine screen. This case ended up taking the lives of three people due to radiation overdose (pg. 425-430).
3. (Application)Name a specific example or NEW solution for this type of problem/similar situation in society or that you have experienced – BE SPECIFIC AND EXPLAIN?
One situation I have personally experienced was one Baase used in a positive light. Automatic interlock brakes when your car is sliding or skidding in the snow. Every single year when the roads are packed with snow I always drive carefully with my snow tires and four wheel drive on. However, that isn’t always enough. Sometimes your car can just hit a patch of black ice and your car goes sliding. Thankfully, my automatic interlock sliding brakes turn on and stop my car from running into another one or causing an accident. I am very thankful for this computerized system in my car and the amount of accidents it has saved me from. I do agree with Baase when she says that this is one piece of technology that has not failed us yet.
4. (Analysis)Address ANY that apply. How can you compare one of the situations in this chapter to something that does not relate to computers, technology, or the Internet? Be sure to reference the chapter and your solution. What ideas NEW can you add to the issue that is being presented within the reading? Try to connect what you have by reading this article and how it applies to the stages in Bloom's taxonomy in 2 full sentences.
Several times a month, my family receives mail in our mailbox that is not for us. It may either be the family that lived here before us, or maybe a neighbor or ours, or someone who we don’t know at all. The error made here is one made by a person that has nothing to do with technology. The mailman has made a mistake in putting the wrong mail in the wrong mailbox. This error in judgment may not be on purpose, but it is still an error. So if sometimes our family does receive the wrong bill because it is completely not ours that would not be an actual billing error like Baase explained in the book that would be a human error in receiving the wrong mail.
5. (Synthesis) Address all that apply. Do you agree with what is being said within the article (Why/Why not? Back up with FACTS)? What new conclusions can you draw about this (or other topics) after reading this material?
I do agree with what is being said within chapter 8 because these technological errors Baase is describing are some things that people have to deal with every day. Whether it is a personal problem, such as an incorrect bill, or a problem that affects more people, such as the plane crashes that occurred due to faulty systems, or the deaths from the Therac-25, we live in a society based on technology. Trying to escape these problems are inevitable, they can only be found and hopefully corrected. I don’t think the answer is trusting technology, I think it is beating it. Finding the problems, or glitches, or bugs, and fixing them before they can do harm to our society.
6. (Evaluation) Address all that apply. Judge whether or not this topic is relevant in today’s society? Evaluate why you are viewing the topic in this manner based on your experiences. What ethical evaluations (see Chap1-1.4 for exp of Ethics) or decisions were made/can be assumed from this chapter? What new ideas will you make after reading this chapter?
This topic is definitely relevant in today’s society because as I stated earlier, at least with the Therac-25 case, my father has a radiation treatment machine just like that one in his cancer treatment center. If the same errors were happening in 1985-1987 today, there would be a major problem. The online ethics center for engineering and research saw this case as one with risks and errors made by the program software and the manufacturer’s attitude (http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/19049/therac25.aspx). The ignorance of the error messages and the low risk assessment’s factored into the death and overdose of radiation for the patients, and they should be held morally responsible for the deaths of those three people. The look of the Therac-25 model is similar to the one used in my father’s treatment center, but thankfully the results for my father have been dramatically different than that of the Therac-25 (http://50quidsoundboy.net/?p=71).
References
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/19049/therac25.aspx
http://50quidsoundboy.net/?p=71
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