Week 6: Panoptic Panics

Introduction

It is very easy to think that Panopticon is just a modern thing.  Its practice can be dated back to the late 17^th century how a particular tower serves as a medium through which a watcher can secretly spy people and they in turn can watch some of the spies. (Michel, Foucault. 1977:207) whereas, the proliferation of new media especially in western countries had also brought the questions of surveillance and privacy as individuals  engage with the digital world on a daily basis. (Lecture12/11/2013).Additionally, some concepts which will help for more understanding of this topic were mentioned in class and they include:

·         Everyware

·         Cyber Warfare

The concept, Everyware deals extensively on  how computerization had mainly cease to be restricted to PCs alone but it had greatly being shaped in the socio-cultural society. (Adam, Greenfield. 2006:11).

Cyber Warfare on the other hand talks about the consequences that come when modern technology is used in the negative way as in the case of the Israelis against the Syrians with the aid of digital jets. In addition, the world and most especially the developed nations that are very exposed to these sets of modern facilities will keep facing hacking on social networks, space wars and the likes. (Richard, A. C. 2010).

In another vein, some critical philosophers who contributed largely for a  broader view on this subject matter were also mentioned in class. The two among others are:

·         Flew, T. (2008:430) describes the adoption of high tech to the extent that society can hardly function without it  and,

·         Singer, P.W. (2009:60) highlighted that fact that drones are fast taking the place of human beings in space battles is simply because of their flexible nature and the help of physical science.

Having said these, the critical question now is: are there reasons for technology to still be embraced by the human race on in future?, answering this question in the technological point of view, the prospects of modern media in the future are very high in the sense that proofs had already shown  from the president of the United State how he is embarking on the multiplication of fighting equipments for defense  in the case of any and/or anticipated war that might come up as a result of the  long accumulated government and political policies clashes and other related issues. Lecture (12/11/2013), (Bickernton, Ian J. 2008) and (Mulrine, Anna 2012) but on the contrary, another researcher asked if ‘humans respond through some forms of artificial manipulation in information management or, can the actions of an individual be as a result of some external control? .This question alone had cleared the air the machines no matter what they can do, will never be compare to human beings. (Hubert L. Dreyfus 1992:285).

More so, the online voting during election is one big factor that will help technology be obtainable in the future because society is already filled with lots of activities and any chance to reduce some will always be a welcome development. This new system of casting votes had not only prevented people from standing on long queues but also reduce accident rate due to the display of  cars on the road on such days especially in African countries, however, it was claimed that digital data collation is not error-free when it comes to result summation. In fact, it is risky. (Peter, G.1995:93).

In another instance, if human existence is surrounded by interaction, communication and information sharing, then it will be very correct to say that social networking will always see better days. More new ways to enhance communication will keep emerging. Although, this point was also opposed by the hacker concept which entails the illegal attacks on the accounts of users of social networks (Simpson, M.T 2011:324-235). Likewise (Hight, Craig.2012) pointed out one striking disadvantage of the digital age to say, any information deleted Implies that it might not be remembered again.

Economically, hypermedia is again  brilliant in helping Small-medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) particularly  online to advertise and sell products without huge capital or shops, yet as people, corporation etc depend ever more on cyber space, concerns about the safety and privacy of information therefore  remains worrisome. (William, Stallings 2009:42). Nevertheless, there is now war against the threat to privacy of individuals by the civil activists. (Simpson, Garfinkel. 1995:117)

To put this differently, the easy accessibility of academic materials via the web is a landmark that everybody will want to recognize. This had bridged the gap between the rich and poor and a boost to researchers as knowledge is at its peak but Hubert, D. (1992:288) again reiterated again saying, ‘the contents of an electronic device can be accessed only if a user knows how to log in and  how to surf the net.

Finally, the benefits of internet technology in personal self-realization, actualization, development and advancement cannot be over-emphasized meanwhile in the days of (Foucault, M. 1977:104), digital machinery were used as a tool to punish people.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that the whole essence of new media is to replace the former style of information sharing in newspaper with digital files, dynamites with drones and electromagnets with radars.(Flew, Tarry.2008:2). Based on this, it is recommended that reasonable energy be tilted towards applying new media applications positively rather than otherwise so as to eliminate to a large extent; if not all the factors causing panoptic panics globally. An understanding of the multi-faceted nature of the multimedia and the differences in personal histories as regards the knowledge and usage of both hard and software will also sure be a big remedy to panoptic panics in the society at large.(Andy, Finney et al 1999:8), (Hier Sean.P.(2012).

Possible Literature Avenues: Books and Journal in and outside UoB Library.

Possible Multimedia:

      A military drone
Phone

ATM

Bibliography:

Bickerton, I.J. & Hagan, K.J. (2008) 'The us and the unintended consequences of war', History Today, 58 (1), pp.14-21.
Dreyfus, H.L. & Dreyfus, H.L. (1992) What computers still can't do : A critique of artificial reason / Hubert L.Dreyfus. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c1992.
England, E. & Finney, A. (1999) Managing multimedia: Project management for interactive media. Harlow: Addison-Wesley; 2nd ed.
Flew, T.New media: An introduction. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press; 3rd ed.
Foucault, M. (1991) Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. London :Penguin Books.
Garfinkel, S. (1995) PGP: Pretty good privacy / simson Garfunkel. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, c1995.
Greenfield, A.Everyware:The dawning age of ubiquitous computing. Berkeley, CA :New Riders.
Hire, S.P., Lett, D., Walby, K. & Smith, A. (2011) 'Beyond folk devil resistance: Linking moral panic and moral regulation', Criminology & Criminal Justice: an International Journal, 11 (3), pp.259.
Hight, C. (2012) Mayer-schonberger, viktor, delete: The virtue of forgetting in the digital age.(book review).
Mulrine, A. (2013) Uncertainty over how US military intervention in Syria would end.(USA).
Neumann. (1995) Computer-related risks / peter G. Neumann. New York, N.Y. :ACM Press ; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, c1995.
Simpson, M.T. (2006) Hands on ethical hacking and network defense /. United Kingdom: Thomson Course Technology.

Stallings, W.Business data communications /. Upper Saddle River, N.J. :Pearson/Prentice Hall; 6th ed. Website of the War between Israelis and Syrians:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASamn1Bv8b4