Name (last name first): ,
Note: Unless otherwise specified, answers should be as short as is reasonable, usually just one word or a short phrase, sometimes a sentence.
Questions about the Background in Ethics:
1. What is the connection between the social contract theory of ethics and the U.S. constitution?
2. Would someone who adheres to utilitarian ethics think it acceptable if two healthy children died in the country as part of a new vacination program to protect children from AIDS? Why?
Questions about Identification:
1. Telephone answering machines often use a 2-digit code to allow the owner to access messages remotely. What is the problem with this method?
2. Give a short list of personal features that law enforcement uses today to identify an unknown individual who committed a crime. Why don't they use iris or retinal patterns for this purpose?
Questions about Agents:
1. Are the modern agents mainly hardware or mainly software? (One-word answer.)
2. In my writeup, how was I proposing that a gasoline station should use an agent?
Questions about Anonymity:
1. How does anonymity support free speech?
2. Give one specific advantage of having an anonymous discussion group.
Question about Anti-technologists:
1. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, wants to do away with all technology. Give a specific example of a problem with this plan in our current society.
Questions about Fingerprinting and Crime-proof Hardware:
1. Give an example of a fingerprint on an object like a car.
2. Give an example of a fingerprint on data, for example, on a typed memo that you hand out.
3. How could one create a ``crime-proof'' CD player for a car?
Questions about Computers in Education:
1. People expected motion pictures, radio, and television to allow a huge improvement in education, but these technologies have not made as much difference as was hoped for. Give one way in which computer technology is different from these earlier technologies, so that it might offer a greater improvement in education. (Give just one difference.)
2. Say briefly how computers are used in the training of airline pilots. (An essential application of computers.)
3. In the terms of my discussions and writeup, can knowledge reside in books? Give a short reason for your answer.
Questions about Knowledge bases and prolog:
Consider the following short list of prolog items:
male(ralph).
male(neal).
parent(ralph, neal).
father(X, Y) :- male(X), parent(X, Y).
1. Which are facts above and which are rules?
2. Say in words what
parent(ralph, neal).means.
3. Say in words what
father(X, Y) :- male(X), parent(X, Y).means.
4. Give the new fact that prolog can deduce from the above facts and rules. (Write it in the form of a prolog fact.)
Questions about Bad Uses of Computers (Warfare, Pornography, Gambling, and Counter-measures):
1. What aspect of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or Starwars) did experts identify as the most difficult part to make work (the most difficult to create)?
2. Give an example of a way that a foreign country could attack our country using only software.
3. Why is Internet gambling a special problem for the U.S.? (Just one special problem, in case you know of several.)
Questions about Planning (its difficulty and the relevance of computer technology):
1. Give one reason why long-range planning is so difficult.
2. Give one way in which computer technology helps support planning.
Questions about the Importance of Privacy:
1. Give one short reason why you think that privacy is important.
2. What are U.S. companies doing with data that affects privacy of individuals?
3. What main computer technology can be used to protect privacy?
Questions about U.S. Cryptographic Policy:
1. Why did IBM not want to develop the first cryptography standard (DES), by itself, but instead sought a public standard developed with the National Security Agency?
2. Is it legal under U.S. law to import any cryptographic device that you want to import? Is it legal to export any cryptographic device that you want to export?
3. Why is the U.S. attempt to suppress cryptography failing?
Questions about Computerizing the Workplace:
1. Are computers causing the loss of jobs in the U.S. workspace? (Give your own opinion briefly, more than just ``yes'' or ``no''.)
2. Give one way in which computers are changing the kind or the quality of work in the U.S.
3. What factors do you think have made RSI (repetitive strain injury, that is, injured hands and wrists from typing) a growing problem in the workplace?
Final Essay Question:
SCENARIO. A supervisor of a company routinely examines the e-mail of the employees working under him. He finds one employee repeatedly criticizing him in e-mail to co-workers. After the employee calls for coordinated action against him, the supervisor confronts the employee and fires him. The employee sues the company for ``unfair labor practices,'' and ``invasion of provacy.'' The company has no stated policy regarding e-mail.
Write a short essay discussing your opinion of this situation, including what you think the resolution of the individual case should be, and the broader issue of how a company should deal with this kind of problem. (You might put yourself in the position of a judge at the trial, of or in the position of the President of the company. Each of these individuals might not like either the supervisor or the employee, and might not approve of how either one acted.)