Midterm 1 Flashcards
What is technology?
Using Physics laws to make devices
What are some examples of technology discussed in class?
Toaster - Electricity travels through coiled wires, generating heat
Neon lights - Electricity travels through gas, creating lights
Car - Gasoline and ignition cause motion
What is the engineering design process?
1) Identify problem
2) Define requirements device needs to meet, keep in mind money time and labor needed for your solution.
3) Come up with several candidate solutions
4) Pick best one
5) implement the device
6) Evaluate device
What are the important areas of technology?
Communication Manufacturing Transportation Construction Biotechnology
What is the purpose of data analysis, what are the types of data?
Data analysis is to prove a hypothesis.
Lab data - Obtained in lab, controlled conditions
Field data - observe the phenomenon naturally
What are the types of faulty data
Overgeneralization - Conclusions from one or two examples
Inferences - the end result does not justify the main idea
Circular Reasoning - Going in circles, not proving anything
Contradictions - A position that contradicts the main premise
Oversimplification - A single thing is assumed to have caused the problem
Assumption - A belief that something is true
False Correlation - Comparing unrelated things
Opinions - Personal views
What are ethics?
The study of moral values, (right vs wrong)
How societies ought to act in a given situation
What is the purpose of moral values or laws?
To control society and individuals
What are the origins of moral values?
1) Societies and man
2) Values created by religion
3) Values are universal
What are the types of ethics?
Meta Ethics (Beyond) Deals with abstract problems, i.e. why is there evil in the world?
Normative perspective ethics - Provide moral codes for people to follow, i.e. IEEE Code of ethics
Applied Ethics - Using ethics in dealing with every day problems
ex) Euthenasia (mercy killing), cloning, gun control, abortion.
a) medical ethics
b) business ethics
c) environmental ethics
d) social ethics
What is the origin of religion?
Used to explain natural phenomenon and create moral support psychologically
What is the definition of religion?
A set of beliefs and rituals practiced by a group of people concerning a supreme being (god)
What are the holy books?
- Bible (Christian)
- Torah (Jewish)
- Kuran (Islam)
- Vedas (Hindu)
What are the priest heads?
- Imam (Islam)
- Rabbi (Jewish)
- Priest (Christian)
- Lama (Hindu)
What is religious knowledge?
Comes from the holy books, is static and always the same, can’t be questioned
What are the origins of science?
Dissatisfaction with religious explanation of phenomenon.
Definition of science
A system of way of acquiring knowledge through experimentation
What are the steps of the scientific process?
1) A question arises
2) Form a hypothesis (educated guess)
3) Experiment to test hypothesis
4) Analyze the data and draw conclusions
5) Communications
What are the types of science?
Physical - Explains physical phenomenon
Social - Explains human behavior
Who causes the split between science and religion?
Galileo
What was Pascal’s point of view on science and religion?
He thought they should be mixed, and that believing in god was the natural thing to do, since if god exists you get eternal life, and if he doesn’t you lose nothings.
What did Karl Marx think about religion?
It was the opiate of the masses. Religion was invented by the upper classes to make people feel better about their exploitation and poor conditions.
What did Einstein think about science and religion?
Science without religion is not moral, and religion without science is irrational.
What is AI?
The ability of a computer to solve problems and reach conclusion through processes like a person
What are the types of AI?
Commercial AI - It exists now. Using the computer to do limited and focused tasks, such as playing games, speech recognition etc. etc.
Theoretical AI - Does not exist 100%.
