Developement Of Computers :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is no noun with the ability to represent modern life other than computer. Whether the effect is negative or positive, computers control nearly every aspect of our everyday life. Computers have evolved from bearing the role of strictly computing to having the ability of completing unthinkable tasks. Supermarket scanners calculate our grocery bill while keeping store inventory; computerized telephone switching centers play traffic cop to millions of calls and keep lines of communication untangled; and ATM’s let us conduct banking transactions form virtually anywhere in the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Around five thousand years ago in Asia , a simple machine called the Abacus , bearing a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack such as ones found in a pool hall may be considered the first computer. Merchants used the Abacus to record their barter transactions. Its popularity began to fall when the use of paper and pencil spread particularly throughout Europe, its importance diminished.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Computers were looked at as a way to simplify large workloads into discreet tasks. The United States census of 1880 took seven years to tally. The fear of later censuses taking an even more absurd amount of time to count, the bureau turned to technology. An American inventor also applied the concept to computing. He fed cards storing data into a machine compiling the results instinctively. Punched holes in the cards would represent letters and number, a single hole depicted a number, while a combination of two holes portrayed a letter. This allowed the census results in six weeks. Not only did the machine remarkably decrease the amount of time the census took, but also the cards used represented stored memory of the census and reduced computational errors. It found its way into the business world founding Tabulating Machine Company in 1896, which later became International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. After this point in history the evolution of the computer is began to become an increased desired area of interest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first major interest began with the onset of World War II. A German engineer developed a computer to design airplanes and missiles. The British were also in the race of enhancing computer technology. They completed a secret code-breaking computer used to decode German messages. The existence of the machine was not uncovered until decades after the war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first all-electronic calculator was design by a Harvard engineer in 1944 who was working with IBM. The calculator was about the size of one half a football field and consisted of 500 miles of writing. It was called the Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator.

Genetic Engineering in Food Production Essay

Genetic Engineering in Food Production: Is it Safe, Wise, and Moral? Over the past couple of decades, the genetic engineering has been found and is regarded as the improvement of advanced technology in the field of biology. Ever since the first gene was cloned in 1973, genetic engineers have been pursuing at break-neck speed the unlimited possibilities promised by biotechnology . Their excitement, which has generated billions of investment dollars for the industry, is understandable. Bioengineering allows scientists to identify specific gene sequences responsible for particular characteristics and then to transfer the genes — and the specific trait — into entirely different species. One of the more current and controversial issue in the field of biotechnology is the use of bioengineering in food production. Scientists are experimenting with many different plants, but the genetic engineering of the tomato, dubbed Flavr Savr has been the most highly publicized project by far. The new tomato is supposed to boast more red and be tastier due to its longer staying time on the vine, thereby giving it more time to accumulate sweetness; yet, it will not rot or spoil because of its new genetic makeup. (Davidson 1993). With this advanced technology scientists argue that it could offer the greatest hope in the aid to stop hunger in Third World countries. This new technology could be used to make bulk levels of food production more efficient and less costly. However, despite all of its advantages in creating better crops, many people are very skeptical about its safe and possible long-term health effects. Moreover, the social issue lies deep in the realm of ethical and moral concerns. Do people really want to eat meat that is leaner and tastier but contains genes from humans? Or, would individuals (like vegetarians) be able to eat certain vegetables that may contain genes from animals? Personally, I would not support the use of genetic engineering in food production based on moral and ethical reasons: I do not think that scientists should be able to use their knowledge and social prestige in society to be able to play the role of God in creating new or better living things even if their justification is for the purpose of serving mankind. Although we still have much to learn about genes, recently developed techniques have already given rise to a new technology of molecular genetics. Genetic engineering, also known as gene splicing/manipulation and recombinant DNA technology is a set of techniques for reconstructing, or deliberately manipulating, the genetic material of an organism. Operating at the molecular level, this process involves the addition, deletion, or reorganization of pieces of an organism’s DNA (known as genes) in order to alter that organism’s protein production (Arms et al. 1994). The use and applications of genetic engineering range from medical and pharmaceutical to industrial crops and food products. Its applications, today or in the future, include†¦creating improved strains of crops and farm animals (Arms et al. 1994). All of these applications rely on the ability to transplant genes into a cell’s makeup, or genome. The new gene may come from another organism, of the same species, or it may contain DNA produced in the laboratory. One example, the new Flavr Savr tomato, developed by Calgene, a biotechnology company based in Davis, California, was subjected to years of scrutiny before the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) agreed that it was safe to eat. They found, copied, and rebuilt a gene that lets these tomatoes stay on the vine without softening and spoiling. That means that the fruit can develop more of the sugars and acids that make a home-grown tomato taste so sweet and rich. Conventional tomatoes sold in the stores are often hard and flavorless because they are picked while green and firm enough to transport, then ‘ripened’ by spraying with ethylene (Wood 1995). This turns the tomato red but does nothing to develop a riper flavor. Ethylene, a colorless, odorless gas that once kicks in, so do all the problems of perishability (Wood 1995). Since tomatoes have a softening gene, it produces RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) to help manufacture a protein that causes rotting. To stop the tomatoes going soft too soon, the researchers devised a way to block production of the enzyme polygalacturonase, which breaks down cell walls and eventually causes the fruit to rot (Miller 1994). The Calgene scientists inserted a mirror image of the softening gene that produces a reverse copy of the RNA. This reverse RNA blocks the action of the regular RNA and helps to preserve the fruit. All in all, Calgene seems to have produced a good but hardly outstanding tomato using antisense technology, given all the propaganda and advertisements. A couple of the reasons for why the tomato failed were because: (a) the manipulation of the ripening gene had unintended consequences (soft skin, weird taste, compositional changes); and (b) the high price — they tried selling it at first for$2. 99 a pound (as expensive as organic tomatoes), then later dropped the price to $2. 49, then $1. 99, then . 99. Furthermore, the general public does not seem persuaded or have caught up with this trend yet. For one, people are greatly concerned about the safety of the product since the FDA does not insist that genetically engineered foods carry a special label, even though the FDA assured consumers that they can be confident in knowing that foods produced by genetic engineering are as safe as food in our grocery stores today, stated FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, MD (Miller 1994). However, critics have cited a case in which at least 31 people died and 1500 contracted a fatal blood disease after ingesting a genetically engineered batch of L-trytophan, a dietary supplement (Davidson 1993). Without proper labeling it will be impossible for consumers to exercise their right to choose what kind of foods they eat. Another issue among consumers and environmental activist groups is that of moral and ethical concerns. Many people feel that scientists might have gone too far in terms of experimentation. We have now come to the end of the familiar pathway of leaving everything to the creation of Mother Nature. With the rise of advanced technology in genetics, scientists now possess the ability to manipulate genes, and redirect the course of evolution. They can reassemble old genes and devise new ones. They can plan, and with computer simulation, anticipate the future forms and paths of life. Hence, the old ways of evolution will be dwarfed by the role of purposeful human intelligence. However, just as nature stumbled upon life billions of years ago and began the process of evolution, so too would the new creators of life find that living organisms all have a destiny of their own. To evaluate the validity of the benefits of this technology, we need to answer three simple questions: Is it safe, is it wise, is it moral? Sinsheimer 1987). To answer the first question about whether it is safe, if the technological developments are kept open to public knowledge and scrutiny, I think in the short term it could be. This way the general public can monitor the hazards of any new product introduced into the biosphere, and can probably cope with any immediate problems or consequences. In answering the second question of whether it is wise, I would say that it is not. Through decades of research, scientists have learned of the different pathogens that prey on humans, animals, and major crops. But I believe that their knowledge is still very limited in trying to understand what led to these organisms’ existence and modes of adaptation. Thus scientists cannot really predict whether all their new discoveries and creations might somehow lead to a new and unexpected group of harmful species since potential organisms that could be converted by one or more mutations be transformed from harmless bugs to serious risks. Finally, to answer the question of the advantages of genetic engineering in terms of morality and ethics, I can only say that the more we create, the more problems we will have in the long run in trying to solve them. Life has evolved on this planet into a delicately balanced and fragile network of selfsustaining interactions and equilibrium. If we try to change or replace the creatures and vegetation of this earth with human-designed forms to conform to human will, I believe we will forget our origins and inadvertently collapse the ecological system in which we were found. Moreover, do we really want to assume the full responsibility for the structure and make-up of our world? I think that we seriously need to intervene between the scientists and engineers to consider a solution that will help slow down all of these experiments so that we could step back and look at what we are doing. If not, I think that these practicing scientists and researchers should be more broadly educated in our humanistic values and traditions. They need to understand the implications of what they are doing in order to be able to balance the concerns of the natural environment and that of society’s humanistic needs; to bear in mind that technology exists only to serve and not create. Human beings, are of course, sprung from the same DNA and built of the same molecules as all other livings things. But if we begin to regard ourselves as just another group of subjects to test our experiments on by altering or tampering with the foods we eat, just like another crop to be engineered or another breed to be perfected, we will surely lose our awe of humanity and undermine all sense of human dignity.

Felicity Conditions Definition and Examples

In  pragmatics  (the study of how to do things with words)  and speech-act theory, the term felicity conditions refers to the conditions that must be in place and the criteria that must be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose. In other words, says Mark Liberman, an instructor at the  University of Pennsylvania, a sentence must not only be  grammatical  to be correctly performed, it must also be  felicitous, or well-suited for the purpose. English Language and Linguistics Online  (ELLO) gives the example of a marriage scene in a movie: Have you ever asked yourself  why the words I now pronounce you husband and wife do not create a legal marriage between two people when uttered in the context of a film set? Of course, the actors in the scene are not really legally married, even if they both say I do, before the thespian justice of the peace or clergyperson recites these words. The conditions are not in place and the criteria are not satisfied for this  speech act  to achieve its purpose—namely that the bride and groom enter into a marriage that is legally binding. And the person officiating has no legal authority to pronounce the two husband and wife. Thus, the speech act in the movie marriage scene is not felicitous. Types of Felicity Conditions There are several types of felicitous conditions, notes ELLO, including the following: Propositional content, which requires participants to understand language, not to  act  like actorsPreparatory, where the authority of the speaker and the circumstances of the speech act are appropriate to its being performed successfullySincerity, where the speech act is being performed seriously and sincerelyEssential, where the  speaker intends that an utterance be acted upon by the addressee For example, Patrick Colm Hogan in Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Literature describes felicity conditions with this example: Suppose I am in a play and deliver the line I promise to kill the evil Don Fernando. I have not, in fact, promised to kill anyone. ... The speech act  fails because, among other things, I must have a certain institutional authority for my words to have the appropriate  illocutionary force. ... [The] speech act [also] fails because the words are uttered in a  context  where they are not used by the speaker, but in effect quoted from a text. In this example, Hogans speech is infelicitous because he does not meet the propositional content condition: He  is actually acting. He also does not meet the preparatory condition because he certainly  does not have the authority to kill anyone. He doesnt meet the sincerity condition because he doesnt actually intend to kill anyone—as noted, he is only acting. And he doesnt meet the essential condition because hes not expecting that his words will be acted upon; in other words, he doesnt actually intend for someone else to kill Fernando. Other Examples and Observations Performatives  are  utterances  in which saying is doing, and they are only successful if certain  felicity conditions  are fulfilled, says author  Guy Cook in his book Discourse  (Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education). For a speech act to be felicitous, says Cook: The sender believes the action should be done.The receiver has the ability to do the action.The receiver has the obligation to do the action.The sender has the right to tell the receiver to do the action. If  any one  of these conditions is not fulfilled, the utterances  are not felicitous. The reason is that felicity conditions are conventions that speakers and addressees use as a code to produce and recognize actions, says psychology professor William Turnbull in Language in Action: Psychological Models of Conversation. In other words, says Turnbull, for felicity conditions to exist, the speaker must utter words that are heard by receivers. The receiver then should take some kind of action based on those words. If the speaker is unintelligible, lacks the authority or status to speak those words, or is insincere, then her utterances are infelicitous. If the listener doesnt act on those words, then the speech is infelicitous. Only if all of these conditions are met  are the utterances from the speaker considered felicitous. Sources Cook, Guy. Discourse (Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education). Paperback, 1st Edition edition, OUP Oxford, June 29, 1989. Hogan, Patrick Colm. Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Literature. Hardcover, 1st edition, University Press of Florida, September 30, 2001. Turnbull, William. Language in Action: Psychological Models of Conversation. International Series in Social Psychology, 1st Edition, Routledge, April 13, 2003.