STS:  Internet and Society      October 8, 1999

Bring a printout of your WEB Diary to class for Andrew Toy today.

This class will be used for review and preparation for the midterm exam October 15.

For the first hour, I will give a lecture tying things together.  I realize that up until now the course has been discreet topics that have not fitted together.  There is a logic to how they all fit together, which I will explain at this time.

For the break, we will have some sample multiple choice questions to be discussed in the support groups.

The third hour will be questions and discussion covering the sample questions.

.

Review Guide for the Midterm.

The best guide for studying is the lecture outlines.

Most of the material in the lecture outlines is also covered in the assigned reading from the Webmind manuscript (which is an advantage of having a text written by your instructor, although it may be repetitive).  There will also be some questions on assigned readings not covered in the lecture outlines.

These are the key points to review for the midterm:

  1. Be clear on the different techniques for analyzing the future.  There will be questions such as:  Which technique involves statistical analysis of how things have changed over time?  a.  scenario writing.  b.  backcasting  c.  trend analysis  d.  visioning  e.  technological forecasting
  2. What were the main points of Vannevar Bush's Memex Machine?  How did it succeed as a technological forecast?  As a vision of the future?
  3. What does Fukuyama mean by the "great disruption"?  Why does he think it happened?  How does he think it will be repaired in the future?
  4. How does Fukuyama's approach fit in with generational analysis as developed by Strauss and Howe?
  5. What is the distinction between the "neural net" and "rule-based" approaches to artificial intelligence?
  6. What is the difference between evolutionary, recursive and neural net algorithms?
  7. What are the characteristics of the numerical archetypes from zero to four?
  8. How does the theory of chaos and complexity differ from determinist science?
  9. What is meant by the terms "attractor,"  "evolution" and "autopoiesis"
  10. What are Jung's key archetypes of the human collective unconscious?
  11. What archetypes do we expect to see emerge in Webmind?  How are these related to numerical archetypes?
Some review questions (from last semester) are available as examples of the kinds of questions that will be used.  You might also find it useful to review the first midterm and the second midterm from last semester, although the course is different this semester.  New sample questions will be handed out in class on October 8, and posted here after that.