LESSON 1: HUMAN FLOURISHING

 Eudaimonia, literally “good spirited,” is a term coined by renowned Greek philosopher Aristotle (385-
323 BC) to describe the pinnacle of happiness that is attainable by humans.
 Human flourishing (in literature) likening humans to flowers achieving their full bloom.
 Human flourishing arises as a result of different components such as phronesis, friendship, wealth, and
power.
 As time change, elements that comprise human flourishing changed, which are subject to the dynamic
social history as written by humans.
 Our concept of human flourishing today proves to be different from what Aristotle originally perceived
then―humans of today are expected to become a “man of the world.”
 Competition as means of survival has become passé; coordination is the new trend.
 Interestingly, there exists a discrepancy between eastern and western conception regarding society
and human flourishing.
a. Chinese Confucian system or the Japanese Bushido, both of which view the whole greater than
their components. The Chinese and the Japanese encourage studies of literature, sciences, and
art, not entirely for oneself but in service of a greater cause.
b. Greek Aristotelian view, on the other hand, aims for eudaimonia as the ultimate good; there is
no indication whatsoever that Aristotle entailed it instrumental to achieve some other goals.
 Flourishing borders allowed people full access to cultures that as a result, very few are able to maintain
their original philosophies.

Science, Technology, and Human Flourishing

 Every discovery, innovation, and success contributes to our pool of human knowledge
 One of the most prevalent themes is human’s perpetual need to locate himself in the world by finding
proofs to trace evolution.

Science as Method and Results

It presents a general idea of how to do science:

1. Observe and determine if there are unexplained occurrences and unfolding.
2. Determine the problem and identify factors involved.
3. Formulate hypothesis that could explain the said phenomenon. The goal is to reject the null hypothesis
and accept the alternative hypothesis for the study
4. Conduct experiment by setting up the dependent and independent variables
5. Gather and analyze results
6. Formulate conclusions and provide recommendations
Verification Theory

The earliest criterion that distinguishes philosophy and science is verification theory or also known as
verificationism, verification principle or verification criterion of meaning. The idea proposes that a discipline is
science if it can be confirmed or interpreted in the event of an alternative hypothesis being accepted. The
verification theory of meaning claims that the meaning of a sentence is the method of its verification. It is the
philosophical doctrine that only statements that are empirically verifiable through senses are cognitively
meaningful, or else they are truths of logic. This was espoused by a movement in the early twentieth century or
1920s called the “Vienna Circle”, a group of scholars who believed that only those which can be observed
should be regarded as meaningful and reject those which cannot be directly accessed as meaningless. It was
a central thesis of logical positivism by the efforts of a group of philosophers who sought to unify philosophy
and science. Its shortcomings, however, proved to be a somewhat too risky – several budding theories that
lack empirical results might be shot down prematurely, causing slower innovation and punishing ingenuity of
newer, novel thoughts. Aside from discoveries in physics, Einstein’s theory and quantum mechanics critique,
this theory completely fails to weed out bogus arguments that explain things coincidentally. A classic example
is astrology, whose followers are able to employ the verification method in ascertaining its reliability. The idea
is that since one already has some sort of expectations on what to find, they will interpret events in line with
said expectations. American philosopher Thomas Kuhn warned us against bridging the gap between evidence
and theory by attempting to interpret the former according to our own biases, that is, whether or not, we
subscribe to the theory.

According to verification theory, only statements that can be verified by sight, sound, touch, taste and smell
can have true meaning. The only exceptions are "tautologies" of logic, for example, "God is God," "Beauty is
Beauty," and "Morals are Morals." In other words, we may speak of metaphysical objects if we make useless
tautologies of them. Verification theory rejects cognitively "meaningless" statements specific to entire fields
such as metaphysics, theology, ethics and aesthetics. Such statements may be meaningful in influencing
emotions or behavior, but not in terms of conveying truth value, information or factual content.

Falsification Theory

The Falsification Theory, proposed by Karl Popper, is a way of demarcating science from non-science. It
suggests that for a theory to be considered scientific it must be able to be tested and proven false. In a series
of famous works starting in the late 1950s, Popper criticized some (supposedly) scientific fields of study as
insufficiently rigorous. It seemed to him that some researchers were focused only on finding positive evidence
that could be used to confirm their favorite theories rather than really challenging their theories by trying to find
evidence against those theories. Falsifiability is the capacity for some proposition, statement, theory or
hypothesis to be proven wrong. That capacity is an essential component of the scientific method and
hypothesis testing. The requirement of falsifiability means that conclusions cannot be drawn from simple
observation of a particular phenomenon. For example, the statement “all swans are white” would be falsified by
observing a black swan (or admitting the possibility of a black swan somewhere in existence). If the statements
are proven false, then it becomes unreasonable to support the theory any longer.
Science as Social Endeavor

 Science as a social endeavor means the application of science to figuring out how the world
works/exists/originated etc. Another dimension of Science as a social endeavor is to solve various
problems, satisfy various needs and sustainable development of society with the help of scientific
knowledge. The study of science as a social endeavor has a prominent place in any curriculum that has
‘science literacy’ as one of its aims. Development of Scientific literacy is considered to be the major aim
of studying science as a social endeavor.

Science and Results

 A scientific experiment has a beginning and an end. The results are simply the end of the scientific
experiment: What you found in your study. It do with a series of steps followed by scientific
investigators to answer specific questions about the natural world. It involves making observations,
formulating a hypothesis, and conducting scientific experiments

Science as Education
Science, along with mathematics, were perceived as the most in-demand track as people thought that these
will land them high-paying jobs and lucrative careers after graduation. In the Philippines, schools mostly use
science and mathematics in entrance exams at the secondary and tertiary levels to ensure the adeptness of
students in the aforementioned fields. This can be reflected on the number of students enrolled in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)-offering schools.

However, when one student who came from a science high school was asked to report Paul
Feyerabend’s work How to Defend Society against Science, he strongly refused the idea of the author and
critiqued him instead. This only proves that the former kind of academic environment made students
unwelcoming of objections against science. The idea of Paul Feyerabend aims to hone and preserve students’
capacity to entertain other options and will allow students some level of unorthodoxy. It means that his idea
encourages students to accept facts other than what’s usual or accepted by the society. Innovations are
brought by visionaries and not the prude legalists, which means the creative ones are those who have wider
perspective and higher scale of imagination and not those who just stick to norms. Similar to Aristotle’s concept
of Eudaimonic where a person is required to be knowledgeable not only on science but also on other things of
equal importance. He should not focus on one aspect alone but rather as a whole. The reason why it is called
science is because of the variety of procedures it offers in an experiment to come up with the result.

LESSON 2: TECHNOLOGY AS A WAY OF REVEALING

The curiosity of people towards science and technology led to numerous inventions that enhanced everything
around us not limited to culture, language, or rights. The way of living today contrary to those of the past gives
us an insight as to how the existence of science and technology influenced a much-pronounced means.
However, it cannot be denied that a certain generation gap hinders everyone from enjoying the perks it brought
considering there are varieties of technologies within reach that are too complicated for older generations due
to the fact that they were accustomed to a more simplistic form of lifestyle in the past. Worry not, this does not
create boundaries between generations if taken as a challenge to work on for the betterment of all. Younger
generations could work on making these technological advancements user-friendly with the intention of making
them accessible and less addling to their superiors as the world changes itself everyone needs to adapt to
certain changes to enable flourishment to take place.

It proves that there is little capacity for our ancestors to contemplate and perceive things outside themselves in
a more reflective matter, with little to no access to written accounts except several cave drawings and
unearthed artifacts, It is hard to pinpoint where exactly this all started but the early ancestors’ primal need to
survive paved the way for the inventions using their wits to utilize abundant materials for their ease and
comfort. For an instance:

Homo Erectus
- used fire to cook without realizing the law of friction and heat by tools from stone and flints that marked the
Stone Age Era.
Home Sapiens
- sharpening of stones such as a simple machine called a wedge.
Venus Figure (Miniature statues prevalent in the Paleolithic Period)
- a rudimentary carving of a voluptuous woman out of ivory stone that infers a fixation to female anatomy
found in excavations in different parts of Europe.
Minerals
- metalwork; substances that are more malleable, durable, and luster.
Fur clothing and animal skin
- primarily used for comforts from harsh winds.
Early accessories
- found in excavations that suggest an engagement to the concept of beauty.
An initial order of primitive God's
- ceremonial figures found in excavations pertained to prior civilizations honoring deities for things out of their
control.
- in windy places like mountains, there are mountain gods to explain wind currents and ask for provisions.
- in coastal areas, there are water gods when asking for a good catch.
Elephants and Mammoths majestic creatures that might have been awed by their size and worship as the
owners of the land.
- On the contrary, might’ve hunted them for the entire community to eat.
Sun
- a generic god shared by many prior civilizations.
Religion
- remains to be the strongest contender to science.
The earliest case of man-made extinction occurred 12,000 years ago brought by hunting and territorial
disputes.
The Holocene extinction ( between 100,000 to 200,000 years up to present)
- pertains to the ongoing extinction of several species both flora and fauna due to human activity.
Growing population
- necessitated overhunting and overfishing which were endemic to the era causing several species to lose
competitors in food and territory.
Formation of communities
- paved the way for civilizations as it caused humans to expand for in every factor.
The constant need for resources taught the early civilizations to engage in less bloody negotiations through
trade leading to cross towns and cross-cultural interactions. Wealth became the main goal for survival, it
triggered producing things in the prospect of profit. As humanity became more complex, the primary goal was
not merely to survive, but to live a good life.
Martin Heidegger
- a philosopher in the advent of postmodernism who argued that the essence of purpose and being of
technology are different from each other.
- Expounding a point that can be perceived; First, a means to achieve man’s ends. Second, paints technology
that each period reveals a particular character regarding man’s being.

In conclusion, the Human condition improved but as to initial aims things did not much make a difference as it
is only a rehashed version of its formal self. Some people still battle for their daily survival. The two paradigms;
Religion and technology are still being used as an attempt to understand circumstances. Aristotle’s conception
of human flourishing entertains the idea of holistic enrichment of person situated in his society which starters
could consider for other concepts enlivened with technological advancements through the notable distinction
would fall under the consideration of virtues and their role in achieving a good life. Regardless, technological
advancements although offering us a compelling notion of the truth and the good, it still occurs at a rapid pace
that morality cannot seem to keep up with, with no consideration given in achieving the good life.

LESSON 3: THE GOOD LIFE

Introduction

 In the ancient Greece long before the word “science” has been coined, the need to understand the
world and the reality was bound with the need to understand the self and good life.
 For Plato, the task of understanding the things in the world runs parallel with the job of truly getting into
what will make the soul flourish.
 In an attempt to understand reality and the external world, man must seek to understand himself, too.
  It was Aristotle who gave the definitive distinction between the theoretical and practical science
 Among the Theoretical disciplines, Aristotle include:
 Logic;  Physics; and
 Biology;  Metaphysics
 Among Practical ones, Aristotle counted:
 Ethics; and
 Politics
 Whereas,“truth” is the aim of theoretical science.
 The “good” is the end goal of practical ones.
 Every attempt to know is connected in some way in an attempt to find the “good” or as said in the
previous lesson, attainment of human flourishing.
 Rightly so, one must find the truth about what the good is before one can even try to locate that which
is good.
 We have seen how a misplaced or an erroneous idea of humanflourishing can turn tables for all of us;
 Make science work against us rather than for us;
 And, draw chasm between the search for truth and for the good.
 We endeavor to go back a little and answer these questions:
 What does it really mean to live a good life?
 What qualities as a good existence?

Aristotle and How All Aspire for a Good Life

ARISTOTLE
 First philosopher who approached the problem of reality from a “scientific” lens as we know now
 First thinker who dabbed into the complex problematization of the end goal of life: happiness which he
claims to be all and end all of everything that we do
 Every human being according to some end.
 Every action that emanates from a person is the function of the purpose (telos)that he has
 Human flourishing, a kind of contentment in knowing that one has maxed out his potentials in the
world; meet the crux of humanity

PLATO
 Accordingly, there are two aspects of reality namely world of formsandworld of matter
 He recognized that change is a process and a phenomenon that happens in the world and it is
constant
 Despite the reality of change, things remain and they retain their ultimate “whatness”

WORLD OF FROMS
 Wherein the entities are only copies of the ideal and the models, and forms are the only real entities

WORLD OF MATTER
 Things are changing and impermanent

Happiness as the Goal of a Good Life

JOHN STUART MILL (18TH CENTURY)

 Declared the greatest happiness principle, an action is right as far as it maximizes the attainment of
happiness for the greatest number of people.
 Individual happiness of each individual should be endorsed.
Consider pronouncements against mining:
  Does mining benefit then rather hurt the majority?
 Does it offer more benefits rather than disadvantages?
 Does mining result in more people getting happy rather than sad?
If the answers to that questions are affirmative then mining is ethical.
 Ethical meant to lead us to the good and happy life.
 History has given birth to different schools of thought, all of which aim for the good and happy life.

MATERIALISM
 First Materialist were the atomists in Ancient Greece.
 Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primary belief is that world is made up of and is
controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the world called atoms or seeds.

HEDONISM
 See the end goal life in acquiring pleasure.
 Pleasure has always been the priority of Hedonist.

STOICISM
 Another school of thought led by Epicurus, the stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness,
one must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic.
 The original term, "apatheia"precisely means to beindifferent.
 For the stoics, happiness can only be obtained by a careful practice of apathy.

THEISM
 Most people find the meaning of lives using God as a fulcrum in their existence.
 Philippines as a predominantly Catholic country, is witness how people base their life goals on beliefs
that hinged on some form of supernatural reality called heaven.
 The ultimate basis of their happiness is communion with God.

HUMANISM
 The freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to legitimate his on laws
 Free from the shackles of a God that monitors and control.
 For humanists:
 Man is literally the captain of his own ship.
 They see themselves not merely as stewards of the creation but as individuals who are in
control of themselves and the world outside them.
 Scientists eventually turned to technology in order to ease the difficulty of life.
 Scientists today are ready to confront more sophisticated attempts at altering the world for the benefit of
humanity.

LESSON 4: WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

In modern times, there are different technological advancements in all forms and sizes may it be inside the
home, workplaces, schools, or simply on the streets. It is now very accessible to almost anyone in the world
owns at least one technological devices. However, despite its usefulness and beneficial characteristics, there
are still some problems faced by the different technological advancements. Let us discuss to you those
disadvantages that these modern technologies may have given us.
Technology affects everyone! Whether positive or negative, we are all affected. It transformed our everyday
lives with a great reliance to the different technological advancement that is already available to the masses. It is
with great effort that people were able to achieve such great inventions, makes life so much easier and more
convenient than ever before. In general, technology keeps on progressing due to not only the changing times and
environment but also to the ever-progressing mind of mankind. Now, there are several technological devices will
be properly introduced such as:
Television sets, Mobile Phones, Computers and Humanity
• A product of different experiments by various people:
• Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (send images through wires with the aid of a rotating disk)
• Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton and Boris Rosing (created a new system of television by
using cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system)
• Mobile phones are anywhere and anytime:
• they use it for different purposes other than for communication
• The Ipos Media Atlas Philippines Nationwide Urban 2011-2012 showed that there are 30% of
the Philippine urban population nationwide said that mobile phone are necessities in life.
• April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper (made the world’s first mobile phone call)
• Computers and laptops
• Have also become part of the Filipino households.
• In 2010, 3.6 trillion was the estimated total value output of all manufacturing establishments.
• Charles Babbage (designed the Analytical Engine which was used as the basic framework of the
computers even until the present time)
• Lastly, each generation of the computers was used for a certain period of time and each gave
people a new and improve version of the previous one.

Roles Played by These Technological Advancements

Technology has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, changing how we work, how we learn and how we shop. It’s
inevitable that our devices begin to reflect our civic aspirations, our desires to connect with others and to
contribute to the world around us. Their roles played by these technologies/devices in our lives such as:
1. Television
• It is mainly used as a platform for advertisements and information dissemination.
• remains to be the most used avenue by different advertising companies all over the world
• serves as a recreational activity and good stress reliever to most families
• also a good platform for different propagandas and advocacies
• It is a good way to bond with one's family member.

2. Mobile Phones
• primarily used for communications (texting and calling)
• used for internet surfing, and selfie’s (taking pictures)
• offers different applications such as: music player, calendar, radio, television and other photo editor
• it is a all-in-one device that most of the people used
• portable and very convenient because it can fit in any space

3. Personal Computer and Laptops

• can be used to surf the internet and communicate
• people prefer PC's or laptops in doing their jobs because it has a wide keyboard, wide screens
• hase separate keyboards
• availability of a mouse or touchpad made these two technological devices easier to maneuver

Ethical Dilemma Faced by These Technological Advancements

1. Devises make children lazy and unhealthy
- Most of the parents would argue that these devices make their children lazy and unhealthy. People who are
fixated on these advancements start and end their day by using such devices. People who are already overly
dependent on these technological devices have a great tendency to sit and chill all day long without doing
anything productive, thus making them unhealthy because they do not just skip meals sometimes but also lack
exercise or any bodily movements. Devices may also cause them to become reclusive, alienating themselves
from other people.
2. Moral Dilemma
- people, especially the children who are not capable yet of rationally deciding for themselves what is right or
wrong , are freely exposed to different things on television, mobile phones, laptops or computers.
Technological devices could harm the users only if it’s mishandled and over usage of such device can lead to
serious illnesses. Indeed technology can shorten the distance between people who are far apart by being them
close together but the said advancement also lengthens the gap between people who are already close to each
other. The word “responsibility” in the sense of being accountable for and accountable to is very appropriate to
the ethics of technology because it makes each and every person in the scientific technological development a
proxy with reference to one another . Each person must indicate the priorities, values, norms and principles that
constitute the grounds for one’s actions and define one’s contribution to the scientific-technological event.
We should bare on our minds that a coin always has its two sides. If there’s a positive impact the negative one
will never be separated from it. For the provided two dilemmas we have no one to put the blame with but onto
ourselves, both the user and the developer should always be responsible; for the user to handle he
advancements well and for the developers to always provide transparency regarding the negative impact of such.
Robotics and Humanity
• Robotics is an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of computer science and engineering.
Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design
intelligent machines that can help and assist humans in their day-to-day lives and keep everyone safe.
Robotics, design, construction, and use of machines (robots) to perform tasks done traditionally by
human beings. ... Robots are widely used in such industries as automobile manufacture to perform simple
repetitive tasks, and in industries where work must be performed in environments hazardous to humans.
Artificial Intelligence can provide humans a great relief from doing various repetitive tasks. The
technology can learn the work once and repeat it as many as desired by its human programmer.
Automation of different tasks reduces the workload from dull and repetitive tasks, that is why some
companies are deploying robots to perform repetitive, simple job tasks and allowing human laborers to
focus on tasks that require deeper thinking and strategizing. The new term for this collaboration, “cobot,”
allows each type of worker to focus on the tasks they do best.
Roles Played by Robotics
-Robots play different roles not only in the lives of the people but also in the society as whole.
-They were invented to make life more efficient and less stressful.
-They primarily used to ease the workload of mankind.
They are also robots which are made for pleasure:
-Robots perform activities to entertain people.
-They can usually found in amusement parks or exhibits.
Robots are very famous because of movies. A number of local and national movies were
inspired by robots. This goes show that people have developed a distinct fascination over robots.
Robots also have their own set of rules and characteristics that define what a good robot is.
These laws were formulated by Isaac Asimov back in the 1940s, when he was thinking of ethical
consequences of robots.
These are the following:
Law one:
-A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law two:
-A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with
the first law.
Law three:
-A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or
second law.
Ethical Dilemma/s Faced by Robotics
-One of the dilemmas faced by robots is safety. It is important to know who should be blamed and who
should be held if such thing happens.
-Another ethical dilemma faced by robots is the emotional component. It is not completely impossible
for robots to develop emotions.
-Other problems may arise when the machine develops the ability to think for itself.
-For the second dilemma, it is just right for the robots to be given their own set of rights should they
develop the ability to feel different kinds of emotions.
Partial autonomy
-Includes active human-robot interaction.
Full autonomy
-Excludes active human-robot interaction. In other words in full autonomy robots can perform activities
or actions even without a master telling it what should be done.

LESSON 5: SPECIFIC ISSUES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

“Information Age”

What is Information?

 According to Webster’s Encylopedic Unabridged Dictionary, information is “knowledge communicated

or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.”
 Facts provided or learned about something or someone.
 It is a very important tool of survival

Information Age

 Is defined as a period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century information became effortlessly
accessible through publications and through the management of information by computers and
computer networks.
 It is also called the “Digital Age” and the New Media Age”
 According to James R. Messenger “The Information Age is a true new age based upon the
interconnection of computers via telecommunications, with these information systems operating on both
a real-time and as-needed basis.
 Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward are convenience and user-friendliness
which, in turn, will create user dependence.

History “Timeline of the Information Age”

Year Event
3000 BC Sumerian writing system used pictographs to represent words
2900 BC Beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
1300 BC Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing were used
500 BC Papyrus roll was used
220 BC Chinese small seal writing was developed
100 AD Book (parchment codex)
105 AD Woodblock printing and paper was invented by the Chinese
1455 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press using movable metal type
1755 Samuel Johnson’s dictionary standardized English spelling
1802  The Library of Congress was established
  Invention of the carbon arc lamp
1824 Research on persistence of vision published
1830s  First viable design for digital computer
 Augusta Lady Byron writes the world’s first computer program
1837 Invention of the telegraph in Great Britain and the United States
1861 Motion pictures were projected onto a screen
1876 Dewey Decimal system was introduced
1877 Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated high-speed photography
1899 First magnetic recordings were released
1902 Motion picture special effects were used
1906 Lee DeForest invented the electronic amplifying tube (triode)
1923 Television camera tube was invented by Zvorkyn
1926 First practical sound movie
1939 Regularly scheduled television broadcasting began in the US
1940s Beginnings of information science as a discipline
1945 Vannevar Bush foresaw the invention of hypertext
1946 ENIAC computer was developed
1948 Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E. Shannon
1957 Planar transistor was developed by Jean Hoerni
1958 First integrated circuit
1960s Library of Congress developed LC MARC (machine-readable code)
1969 UNIX operating system was developed, which could handle multitasking
1971 Intel introduced the first microprocessor chip
1972 Optical laserdisc was developed by Philips and MCA
1974 MCA and Philips agreed on a standard videodisc encoding format
1975 Altar Microcomputer Kit was released: first personal computer for the public
1977 RadioShack introduced the first complete personal computer
1984 Apple Macintosh computer was introduced
Mid 1980s Artificial intelligence was separated from information science
1987 Hypercard was developed by Bill Atkinson recipe box metaphor
1991 Four hundred fifty complete works of literature on one CD-RM was released
January 1997 RSA (encryption and network security software) Internet security code
cracked for a 48-bit number

Evolution of Man and Information

 Information got ahead of us. It started to grow at a rate we were unprepared to handle.
 Starting 1960 and 1970s because of the abundance of information, it was difficult to collect and
manage them.
 During 1980s, real against set in, Richard Wurman called it “Information Anxiety.” It is human cost of
information overload.
 In 1990s information became the currency in the business world.

“Truths of the Information Age” by Robert Harris

1. Information must compete

2. Newer is equated with truer
3. Selection is a viewpoint
4. The media sells what the culture buys
5. The early word gets the perm
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain
7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited
8. Ideas are seen as controversial
9. Undead information walks ever on
10. Media presence creates the story
 11. The medium selects the message
12. The whole truth is a pursuit

Computer

 Computer is the most important contributions of advances in the Information Age to society.
 It is an electronic device that stores and processes data.

Types of Computer

 It is associated with numerous terms and descriptions.

 The term "computer" can apply to any device that has a microprocessor.
 It is a device that receives input from the user.

1. Personal Computer (PC)

It is a single-user instrument and was first known as microcomputers. It is built on smaller scale thatln the
enormous systems operated by most businesses.

2. Desktop Computer
A PC that is not designed for portability. A workstation is simply a desktop computer that has a more powerful
processor, additional memory, and enhanced capabilities for performing special group of tasks.

3. Laptops
A portable computers that integrate the essential of a desktop computer in a battery-powered package. They
are commonly called notebooks.

4. Personal Digital Assistants (PSA)

A tightly integrated computers that usually have no keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user input.

5. Server
A computer that has been improved to provide network service to other computers.

6. Mainframes
A huge computer systems that can fill an entire room. The term "mainframe" has been replaced by enterprise
server.

7. Wearable Computers
It involves materials that are usually integrated into cell phones, watches, and other small objects or places.

The World Wide Web (Internet)

Claude E Shannon

 American Mathematician
 "Father of Information Theory".
 He worked at Bell laboratories and at age 32.
 He published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a sequence of ones
and zeroes.

Internet

 A worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data transmission among innumerable
computers.
 It was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense.
 It was used mainly by scientists to communicate with other scientist.
 Remained under government control until 1984 (Rouse, 2014).
One early problem faced by internet users was speed.

Sergey Brin and Larry page

 Directors of a Standford research project.

 Built a search engine that listed results to reflect page popularity.
 They determine that the most popular result would frequently be the most usable.
 The researchers launched their company in 1998.

Google - is now the world's most popular search engine, accepting more than 200 million queries daily.

Electronic mail or Email - was suitable way to send a message to fellow workers, business partners, or
friends.

"Surfing the net” became pastime in and of itself.

Companies built on digitized information have become valuable and powerful in a relatively short period of
time.

Current information Age has spawned its owned breed of wealthy influential brokers, from Microsoft Bill Gates
to Apple's Steve Jobs to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Cyberbullying - is an issue that poses alarm that worldwide.

Application of Computers in Science and Research

Bioinformatics

 The application of information technology to store, organize, and analyze vast amount of data is
available in the form of sequences and structures of proteins.
 The building blocks of organisms and nucleic acids.
 The information carrier.

The development of a consolidated formal database known as SWISS-PROT protein sequences database,
was initiated in 1986.

It now has about 70,000 protein sequences from more than 5,000 model organisms, a small fraction of all
organisms.

Computer and Software tool

 Are widely used for generating these databases and to identify the function of proteins, model the
structure of proteins.
 Determine the coding useful regions of nucleic acid sequences; find suitable drug compounds from a
large pool.
 Optimized the drug development process by predicting possible targets.

Some of the software tools which are handy and analysis include:

1. BLAST - used for comparing sequences.

2. ANNOTATOR - an interactive genome analysis tool.
3. GeneFinder - tool to identify coding regions and splice sites.

 The sequence generated by the human genome research, initiated in 1998, has now been stored as a
primary information source for future application in medicine.
 The available data is huge that if compiled in books.
  The data would run into 200 volumes of 1,000 pages each and reading.
 Require 26 years working around the clock.
 Population about five billion human with two individuals differing three billion bases.
 The genomic sequence difference database would have about 15,000,000 billion entries.

Bioinformatic

 The key to rational drug discovery.

 It reduces the numbers of trials in the screening of drug of compounds and in identifying potential drug
targets for a particular desease using high-power computing workstations and software like insight.

Parmacogenomics - Potential targets for drug development are hyphothesized from the genome
sequences.

In plant biotechnology, bioinformatics is found to be useful and the areas of identifying disease resistance
genes and designing plants with high nutrition value.

How to Check the Reliability of Web Sources?

The Internet contains a vast collection of highly valuable information but it may also contain unreliable,
biased information that mislead people. The following guidelines can help us check the reliability of web
sources that we gather. It is noteworthy to consider and apply the following guidelines to avoid misinformation.

1. Who is the author of the article/site?

How to find out?
 Does the author provide his or her credentials?
 What type of expertise does he or she have on the subject he or she writing about? Does he or
she indicate what his or her education is?
 What type of experience does he or she have? Should you trust his or her knowledge of the
subject?

Try searching on the Internet for information about the author.

 What kinds of websites are associated with the author’s name? he or she affiliated with any
educational institution?
 Do commercial sites come up? Do the websites associated with the author give you any clues to
particular biases the author might have?

2. Who published the site?

How to find out?
 Look at the domain name of the website that will tell you who is hosting the site.
 Search the domain name at http://www.whois.sc/.
 Do not ignore the suffix on the domain name (the three part that comes after the “.”)
.mil = military
.gov = government
.org = nonprofit
3. What is the main purpose of the site? Why did the author write it and why did the publisher post
it?
 To sell a product?
 As a personal hobby?
 As public service?
 To further scholarship on a topic?
 To provide general information on a topic?
 To persuade you of a particular point of view.
4. Who is the intended audience?
 Scholars or the general public?
 Which age group is it written for?
 Is it aimed at people from a particular geographic area?
  Is it aimed at members of a particular profession or with specific training?

5. What is the quality of information provided on the websites?

 Timeliness.
 Does the author cite sources?
 What type of other sited does the website link to? Are they reputable sited?
 What types of sites link to the website you are evaluating? Is the website being cited by others?

Examples of Useful and Reliable Web Source

1.AFA e-Newsletter 13.Internet Archive for CARLI digitized resources
2.American Memory 14.Internet Public Library
3.Bartleby.com Great Books Online 15.ipl2
4.Chronicling America 16.Librarians’ Internet Index
5.Cyber Bullying 17.Making of America
6.Drug information sites 18.Maps
7.Global Gateway 19.NationMaster
8.Google Books 20.Nursing sites
9.Googlescholar.com 21.Project Gutenberg
10.History Sites with primary documents 22.Shmoop
11.Illinois Digital Archives 23.StateMaster
12.Internet Archive 24.Virtual Reference