Suspicious Technologies

As someone who is somewhat familiar with computer terms and development processes, while reading the first paragraph in Anna Everett’s article I was taken back by her near assumption that software engineers had settled upon the terms “master” and “slave” because of existing human relationships. For her to think about this every time her computer starts is more of a reflection of the way she perceives these terms than that of the people who started using them for “geek talk”. In my mind, there really are no better terms in the English dictionary for describing the relationship between two hard-drives (one that controls the other) connected to a computer using one cable and until she made the connection with African American slavery I had never thought about this before. Is it possible that these terms are completely neutral yet Everett finds them only as derogatory and negative?

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed Kavita Philip’s talk and found many of the concepts she touched on to be useful in discussion about modern technologies. Her outline of the way the internet use is defined in relation to economic productivity and even suspected terrorism reminded me of my new government job where without the internet I have no job. During my first two weeks of using the government’s internet connection and computers, while doing a search for some needed software, my computer and internet connection were suddenly shut down and I was suspected of sharing government files. While a “full investigation” is still underway, I am currently unable to do my job in any capacity. This is not the first time I’ve felt that unwarranted suspicion in the name of security is one of the biggest causes for lost productivity. The more we depend on technology the more suspicious we become of those who use it much like Philip discussed in relation to the Supreme Court Betamax case, the peer-to-peer file sharing case and the undersea cables. I have no doubts that this is part of our human nature however I believe that the more we don’t understand about a technology, and where it will lead, the more suspicious we become.