Review Guide for the Midterm
STS Summer 2001

These are not meant to cover everything, but they cover many of the main ideas.

  1. What is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?  Which came first?
  2. What is meant by "packet switching" and why is it important?
  3. What are some of the "killer aps" that made the home computer a mass phenomenon?
  4. What is a GUI?  How does it differ from a "command line interface"?
  5. What does it mean to consider the Earth as a living being?  What characteristics of a living being does it have?
  6. What are the key differences between the "deterministic" and the "chaotic" models of the Universe?
  7. What is meant by an "attractor"?  What are some examples?
  8. Why are computers important to the study of chaotic systems?
  9. What did Pythagoras mean by the "Divinity of Numbers"?
  10. What are some of the archetypal characteristics of the numbers zero, one, two, three and four.
  11. What modern ideas were anticipated by Charles Saunders Peirce?
  12. What was Peirce's model of mind?
  13. How does the Webmind software attempt to parallel the organization of the brain?
  14. What is meant by evolution and autopoiesis?  What does it mean to say that these are attractors of complex or chaotic systems?
  15. What is meant by "networking" (or "heterarchy") and "hierarchy" as principles of organization.  Why is each important?