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Explores new and emerging issues and controversies and presents students with many arguments and viewpoints.
Enables students to apply arguments to actual cases and understand controversies in a concrete context.
Highlights and describes examples, cases, and issues.
Engages students in lively class discussion or individual presentations.
Encourages students to consider solutions from varied sources.
Helps students understand how organizations and governments adapt to and attempt to control computer technology.
Encourages students to maintain perspective and to appreciate the benefits of computing.
Alerts students to the special types of problems relevant to being a responsible professional in the computer science field.
A Gift of Fire covers the challenges and implications of computer technologyand the responsibilities of professionals who design and use computer systems. Topics include privacy (data-collection and surveillance technologies and issues), freedom of speech, computer failures, intellectual property, hacking, critics of technology, and more.
Updated with new material throughout, this text continues to provide a comprehensive look at new issues. Intended for students preparing for careers in computer science and students in other fields interested in issues that arise from computer technology, this book can be used in both introductory and advanced classes about computing or technology.
Recurring ThemesControversies and alternative points of view such as privacy versus law enforcement, freedom of speech versus restricting content on the Internet, intellectual property protection versus access to information, and banning tools and technologies that have beneficial and harmful impacts.
Perspectives: Comparing risks and problems of computer technology with other technologies, non-computerized alternatives, and benefits of computers.
Solutions to computer-related problem from technology, the market, management, education, and law.
Instructional ToolsHundreds of exercises, many based on real cases, many, suitable for class discussion or student presentations.
Instructor's Manual at http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/giftfire.
1. Unwrapping the Gift.
2. Privacy and Personal Information.
3. Encryption and Interception of Communications.
4. Can We Trust the Computer?
5. Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace.
6. Intellectual Property.
7. Computer Crime.
8. Computers and Work.
9. Broader Issues on the Impact and Control of Computers.
10. Professional Ethics and Responsibilities.
Epilogue.
Appendix A: The Software Engineering Code and the ACM Code.