1. Y490 Politics of the Internet
August 30, 2011

2. What is Technology? Tools Knowledge connected with the use of tools
Ways of organizing human activity: e.g. Ford’s invention of mass production techniques
Ways of creating and embedding new knowledge in products/processes

3. Tools Some tools are more general than others:
e.g. computers vs. hammers
General tools require “programming” to do a specific job.

4. Craft technologies
We generally refer to a craft or craftsmanship when a technology is used to produce something (a product) but the product is not uniform or standardized.
Until the invention of mass production technology (which required special machines and metrology), all production was craft production.

5. Skills and Mass Production
When all production was craft production, individual workers had to possess special production skills.
When mass production was invented, workers with relatively lower skill levels could be used to make things.
Highly skilled workers were still needed to make and program general purpose machines.

6. Ways of Organizing Human Activity (examples)
Factories
Multinational Corporations
Guilds
Wal-mart (a modern form of retail merchandising)
Unions

7. Embedded Knowledge
Many modern technologies are embedded in specific products
For example, the Windows operating system is embedded in PCs
Software is a now a common way of embedding technological knowledge in tools, processes, and end products.

8. Science and Technology
Many modern technologies, unlike older technologies, are not the result of trial and error discovery methods but rather of more systematic methods that generally fall under the rubric of science.
Many areas of science are not connected with technology per se, but most are.
There is a lag between scientific discovery and the discovery of related technologies.

9. Patents and Copyrights
Patents and copyrights and other forms of intellectual property protection were invented in order to create a monetary incentive for innovation of new technologies.
In exchange for inventing a new product or process, the owner of a patent is given a temporary monopoly.

10. Science and Technology Policy in the United States
Vannevar Bush legacy
Basic vs. Applied Research
National Science Foundation
Big science vs. little science
Grand projects
NASA and the Space Program
Cancer Research
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

11. Vannevar Bush 1890-1974 Early computer scientist
Helped to establish the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1939), the National Defense Research Council (1940), and the National Science Foundation (1950)

12. The Vannevar Bush Legacy
Avoid funding applied research and focus primarily on basic research
Leave applied research to private industry as much as possible
Funding of university research should be based on competition; grant proposals should be “peer reviewed”

13. Basic vs. Applied Research
Type of Research
Definition
Examples
Basic
Driven by the curiosity of scientists
How did the universe begin?
Applied
Designed to solve particular problems
How can we improve the yields of specific crops like corn or wheat?

14. National Science Foundation
Founded in 1950
Annual budget this year ~$6 billion
Accounts for about 20 percent of all US basic research conducted by universities
Funding priorities based on views of the scientific community
Source:

15. Big Science vs. Little Science
In recent years, there has been some tendency to shift funding away from big science (mostly physics) toward little science (mostly biology and chemistry)
Some big basic science projects like the Superconducting Supercollider were cancelled
Other big science crash programs like NASA have seen stable or declining budgets

16. NASA and the Space Program
Congress created it in 1958
2007 budget ~$17 billion
Kennedy idea of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade
Recent scaling back of manned space flights

17. Privatization of Space Research
Private contractors have always been important players in the space program
Recently, starting with the Reagan Administration, there has been an effort to privatize parts of space research
Private spaceflight companies have expanded recently to service possible future markets for space tourism

18. Space Ship One
2004 winner of the Ansari X Prize to stimulate investment: designed by
Vern Rutan and sponsored by Richard Branson

19. Cancer Research Richard Nixon declares “war on cancer” in 1971
National Cancer Act passes the same year with Nixon’s support
Most funding of cancer research was channeled through the National Institutes of Health

20. NIH Budgets,

21. Defense R&D Spending
Most Department of Defense spending is devoted to military-use technologies, e.g. nuclear weapons and missiles
Some military technologies are “dual-use” technologies (both military and civilian applications)
Efforts to improve dual-use technology programs in Defense ended in 1994 with the Republican victories in Congressional elections

22. Overview of US Government R&D Funding in 2000

23. Government Funding of R&D in Information Technology

24. Government vs. Industry Funding of R&D in the United States

25. DARPA Successes Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
Global Positioning System
The Internet (ARPANET)
Smart bombs
DLP technology (funded Texas Instruments research)

26. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Began as ARPA in 1958 as DOD response to Sputnik, initially focused on space race
Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) created and initially headed by J.C.R. Licklider in early 1960s
Licklider funded computing research that led to time-sharing and interactive computing
Robert Kahn at Bolt Beranek Newman (BBN) wins DARPA contract in 1969 to create a packet-switched network

27. Other Key Decision Points
First IMP-based network with 4 nodes in 1971 (backbone for ARPANET)
Incorporation of TCP/IP protocols in the Berkeley UNIX kernel (late 1970s)
ARPANET becomes NSFNET in 1988
NSF and state governments and universities build out the network
NSFNET becomes the Internet when access extended to commercial businesses and the general public via private Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

28. What is the Internet? A network of networks Underlying technologies:
Digital data
Packet switching
TCP/IP family of protocols
Potentially global in scope

29. What is Cyberspace? Origins in science fiction
Lessig: cyberspace is more than the Internet, “a richer experience”
Virtual space vs. actual space
Massively multiple online games (MMOGs)
Social networking sites
Sense of community