Author: ehannell

Event: “The Techonomic Cold War With China”

DESCRIPTION I attended an event hosted by Intelligence Squared. It was a debate on the topic “The Techonomic Cold War With China”, and it addressed questions about which country will host the future technology stronghold.

INFO 601-02, Assignment 3. By: Erik Hannell

Technology is one of the most important elements of our modern society. Major technological developments have generated e.g. better healthcare, a cleaner environment, and more lucrative businesses, which in most cases have led to an improved world. The country with the most accelerating and advanced technological environment holds a great advantage, in regards to societal, as well as economic measures. There is a rather unanimous agreement of that the current technological mecca is located in the US, more specifically in the well-known area of Silicon Valley. However, there are split opinions on how much longer Silicon Valley will maintain its glorified status. Some are arguing that the future technology stronghold could possibly be situated in China.

WHAT HAPPENED? On February the 25th, 2019, Intelligence Squared hosted a debate on the topic “The Techonomic Cold War With China”, which addressed the split opinions about the future technological mecca mentioned above. Five experts within technology, economics, and politics presented their opinions for three questions, succeeded by an argumentative discussion. The participants were; Ian Bremmer (founder & president, Eurasia Group), Michèle Flournoy (co-founder and managing partner at WestExec and former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy), Yasheng Huang (professor at M.I.T Sloan and author), Parag Khanna (founder & managing partner, FutureMap) and Susan Thornton (senior fellow, Yale University, and former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs). The questions were; will the next Silicon Valley be located in China? Is the belt and road initiative a trillion-dollar blunder? Will the U.S. and China both lose the trade war?

All participants gave profound arguments and contributed to interesting discussions. They were all united about the fact that China is superior in one specific matter; they possess a lot of data. Furthermore, all debaters agreed upon Bremmer’s (2019) statement that “data is one of the most valuable assets in today’s society”. Another strong argument in favor of China was when Huang (2019) pointed out that China is a heavy investor in artificial intelligence, which is expected to in many ways revolutionize our society. Considering the significant investments in artificial intelligence, as well as the vast possession of data, China should be regarded by the USA as a severe threat in the competition for hosting the future technology capital of the world. However, as the debate unfolded, Thornton (2019) argued that China’s heavily restrictive policies prevent them from surpassing the US. She implied that, as long as China operates in a closed ecosystem, they will have a difficult time catching up with Silicon Valley. In addition to the disadvantage of having a lot of restrictions, Yasheng (2019) meant that China’s nature of being an authoritarian state is also a counterproductive factor in the race for becoming the new technology stronghold.

REFLECTION Data makes the foundation of the DIKW-pyramid (Ma, 2012). It is the main source of what becomes information. Hence, considering China’s vast possession of data, they have strong opportunities to generate wisdom. For wisdom is generated from knowledge, which is generated from information, which is generated from data.

The statement that Thornton (2019) made in regards to China’s difficulty of surpassing the US because of their restrictive policies made me think of how Lessig (1999) points out the advantages of open code, i.e. allowing everyone to participate in the development of running code by maintaining a transparent system. Applying the theory of open code to Chinese governing would, in other words, be beneficial and increase their opportunity of becoming hosts of the future technology stronghold. Restricting the work of scientists and researchers, in the frame for what is legal and morally acceptable, is never going to be a success factor for generating growth and positive development.

Adjunct to the restriction discussion above, McChesney (2013) states that media problems in authoritarian states are solved by making the media present news in favor of the dictator. Media is probably the most efficient tool for affecting the opinions of large amounts of people. Although not directly connected to technology, the authoritarian governing generates an indirect impact as it reduces interest from talented individuals and forefront technology companies to work and perform research in China. Democracy is essential for any thriving society in today’s world. This supports Yasheng’s (2019) statement of China’s harmful authoritarian governing. To add to this reflection, an authoritarian way of operating the media generates a situation where people receive biased news and information. Hence, residents and citizens of China could be defined as information outsiders (Chatham, 1996). Clearly, adding up to the contradictory arguments for a possible future Chinese “Silicon Valley”.

Conclusively, attending this event and reflecting upon it, made me realize the importance of open code and democracy in a society, not only in regard to its obvious benefits, such as equality but also in terms of competition as to who will become the next technological power.

REFERENCES

Chatham, E. (1996). The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47 (3): 193-206

Intelligence Squared. 2019, February 26. Techonomic Cold War with China. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/unresolved-techonomic-cold-war-china

Lessig, L. (1999). Open code and open societies: values of internet governance. Chicago Kent Law-Review 74, 101-116.

Ma, L. (2012), Meanings of Information: The assumptions and research consequences of three foundational LIS theories. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63 (4): 716-723.

McChesney, R.W. (2013) Digital Disconnect: How capitalism is turning Internet against democracy. New York, New York: The New Press.

Link to event: https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/

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Airplane Entertainment System Observation

In this blog post, I will present my observation of the interaction between seven airplane passengers and the in-flight entertainment system of a Eurowings A340-300 aircraft. The observation was performed during a daytime flight from Dusseldorf to New York, on Sunday the 17th of March, 2019. In addition to the observation, I evaluated my own experience of interacting with the system.

Considering that online functions of phones and other devices are unavailable on most flights, the entertainment system becomes a passenger’s main source for information and entertainment. Like most modern in-flight entertainment systems, the Eurowings interface is touch screen based. The physical design shows no buttons or indications on how to turn the system on. Despite the lack of visual signifiers on how to wake the screen up, all passengers in my observation managed to start the system without any issues. Because of cultural conventions (Norman, 2013), people nowadays assume that screens without physical buttons will respond to touching, hence making this minimalist design work.

Most in-flight entertainment systems that I have come across as a passenger provide a rather user-friendly interface. Considering that most of these systems have similar standard content and functions, such as movies, food and beverage menu, and flight information, returning flyers will generally have a good idea of how to use the systems. The Eurowings entertainment system consists of a main menu with the following content; home, movies, audio, TV, games, shop, bistro, wi-fi, and “about us” (see picture below).

The positioning of the screen and the interface design appears to be inviting to users, as all passengers in my observation, including myself, started using it immediately following getting seated. Upon entering the system, four out of the seven passengers began to browse for movies, a function which was discovered without any apparent difficulties. Though once at cruising altitude, I observed how a passenger appeared to be struggling with ordering food. The menu was presented in a PDF format, instead of a built-in menu (see picture below).

The small proportions of the screen made it difficult to read the menu, which led to the passenger picking up a physical copy of the Eurowings magazine, which luckily also contained the menu. I would suggest implementing a function to browse the food and beverage menu directly in the entertainment system to enhance the user experience. Once the passenger had decided what to order, she tapped the call-crew symbol on the screen (see picture below).

A slight moment later, a flight attendant and arrived to take the order. The call-crew button was also used on another occasion, where I observed how a passenger had a question for one of the flight attendants. These two events show how the entertainment system act as a link between a digital source of information and a human information source, i.e. an intersection of digital and physical. The fact that you can retrieve human information in addition to the recorded information within the interface implies encountering Goonatilake’s neural cultural and exosmotic flow lines (Bates, 2006).

Features on the screen further allow controlling the surrounding environment of passengers. By tapping the light bulb button on the screen, a passenger can switch the personal reading light on or off. Once again, showing how the digital interacts with the physical through the system. However, I noticed how some of the passengers got up from their seat and stretched to adjust the airflow from the ventilation above them. I would suggest making airflow adjustment a digital function placed within the interface, in order to further improve user and passenger experience.

Following the observation, I reflected on the importance of in-flight entertainment systems. In today’s society, people are used to having access to information at practically all times. I performed a minor, informal, in-flight experiment involving myself and a fellow passenger, where I decided we could not use the entertainment system for one hour. Being a daytime flight, none of us felt the need to sleep, neither did we have any books available. The prohibited use of the entertainment system resulted in reading all available papers provided in the back of the seat in front of us, and following that, a slight feeling of distress. This, somewhat disturbing observation, show how dissatisfaction can be generated when not having access to information. Conclusively, the in-flight system does not only function as a source for keeping passengers entertained and informed, but it also pleases our demand for constant information accessibility.

Another finding upon my observation was that all three information principals in Buckland’s article (1999) were encountered as passengers interacted with the entertainment system. Information as process was encountered as the flight attendant was called through the system, consequently providing information to the passenger. Information as knowledge was encountered e.g. when a passenger received insight from the flight information provided by the system. Information as thing was encountered as the screen presented informative visuals and audio through headphones to the passenger.

References:

Bates, M. J. (2006). Fundamental forms of information. Journal of the American Society for Information and Technology. 57(8), 1033-1045. Available at https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/NatRep_info_11m_050514.html

Buckland, M. (1999). Information as Thing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science. June 1991, Vol. 42 Issue 5, p. 351-360.

Norman, D. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things. New York, New York: Basic Books.

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