In “Computers of Society” by George Nikolaoeff, he explains that the advent of computers into society has “transform[ed] science, medicine, government, education, defense, [and] business.” (Nikolaoeff 18) With technology advancing so rapidly, the world changed dramatically in many different ways. Man was only capable of processing so much information on its own so instead “he learned to gather and differentiate knowledge, and so to transform it into something useful” (Nikolaoeff 19) such as the computers we know today that contain access to all the knowledge that previous generation had and much more. First, we were able to store and communicate data at a vastly superior rate than any other generations before us which allowed for a more streamlined way for experts in fields such as science and computers to communicate causing an even bigger influx of technology readily available to the population. With the efficiency of streamlined idea flow now in play, medicine, justice systems, and other fields that are not, on their face, directly related to computers and up until this point, were not at all, began seeing radical changes. A more advanced example includes the fact that modern medicine has advanced to use robots that can perform precision operations that is just not within a human’s capabilities while a simpler yet needed advancement includes the cop-car computer that allows an officer to run the plates of a car and it to immediately tell if the car is reported stolen or if the owner of the vehicle has warrants out for their arrest. Without modern computers, humans would be nowhere near their current capabilities such as artificial intelligence, or A.I. for short, which can, through many generations of advanced computer code, evolve a figure that on its own can learn how to run, jump, climb, and duck in order to avoid obstacles.
“Internet of Things for Smart Cities”, by Andrea Zanella, Nicola Bui, Angelo Castellani, Lorenzo Vangelista, and Michele Zorzi, envisions a future where everyday objects are connected to each other and to the internet, forming an “Internet of Things”(IoT), in order to be more productive and collect data that could be useful in a variety of fields such as medicine, traffic management, and elderly assistance to name a few. The authors claim that, if such a future lied ahead of us, the quality of service provided to citizens would be increased while simultaneously decreasing the price of said services. An Urban IoT could help reduce waste with smart bins that detect the waste and determine the best means to discard them, determine where pollution levels in a city are highest using sensors on phones or other items people carry every day, or even reduce travel times using sensors placed along the road that detect traffic and give you the best route to work or to the mall. This could only be possible with mass data collection of the items of every day citizens and given that citizens are able to gain access to the information once it is collected. The infrastructure or the IoT depends heavily on the communication between sensors and the distribution of that dialogue to the surrounding people. There are a few political, technical, and financial roadblocks in the way before we have a shot at achieving this interconnected future. Politically speaking, millions of people would have to agree to this data sharing in order for the IoT to be successful. Economically, there isn’t a big enough market with enough support in order to put this into a large-scale operation. And technically, the issue consists of the lack of interoperability of the current technologies used in cities. Once the obstacles are removed “Smart Cities” could flourish like the University of Padova, or “The Padova Smart City”, which has started using these sensors to collect pollution levels, humidity, temperature, and noise, as mentioned earlier and has shown what the project could look like on a broader scale by providing more than hypothetical analysis of the idea and instead proving the capabilities of the program.
The Field of Computer Science by Jacob Terrell 