И.С. Гудилина, Л.Б. Саратовская, Л.Ф. Спиридонова - English Reader in Computer Science (1114139), страница 15

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California Institute of Technology and Bell Laboratories have developed a neural-net computer that can solve what is known as the "travelling salesman problem," or determine the shortest route between a number of cities, much faster than a conventional computer. That's because in order for a traditional computer to solve the problem, it would make a list of the cities and the distances between them, then compare all the possible combinations. With ten cities, the number of possible combinations is 181,440; for 30 cities, there are one trillion billion possible combinations. With such a large number of possibilities, even a large mainframe gets bogged, down and takes about a full hour to come up with a solution. Using a network of 100 processors arranged in a grid. Bell Labs and Tech's machine's columns of processors each selected one city, arriving at a final solution through communication between the processors. All this was achieved in a matter of . 1 second.

At London's Imperial College, Igor Aleksander's computer, Wisard, can recognize patterns of him from any perspective. Having been presented with a number of pictures of him in the past, Wisard has retained a kind of pieced-together image. The machine has "learned" what Aleksander looks like, even from angles it has never been exposed to, just as a baby can recognize familiar people, despite changes in their appearances. Conventional computers, on the other hand, cannot recognize images unless there is an exact match between the image and one stored in its memory or unless it has been programmed to recognize some of the image's distinguishing features, A number of researchers have worked with the neural-net's capacity to provide correct solutions based on incomplete information. Cal Tech's John J. Hopfield has put lists of words into his system's memory, then presented just parr of a word on one of the lists to prompt the computer to recall a full set. Even when Hopfield scrambles the clue by rearranging the letters in the wrong order, the system corrects his mistake and produces the right response. In a similar test, James A. Anderson at Brown University has stored data on a number of diseases and their treatments in his neural-net computer. When the system receives information on even an unfamiliar diagnosis, it can suggest the correct treatments.

One other difference between these new machines and conventional computers is that neural-net computers can come up with a good answer, while conventional computers only present perfect solutions. But experts agree that in situations where speed is critical, a good answer will do just fine.

NOTES:

1. fuzzy information — неясная, неопределенная информация

2. neural (adj.) — относящийся к нервной системе

3. inc. — (амер.) корпорация, акционерное общество

4. conventional computer — привычный традиционный компьютер

5. to get bogged down — увязять

6. a grid — решетка, сетка

7. parr — пары

8. to scramble the clue — путать информацию

I. Answer the following questions:

1. Can a conventional computer recognize a person? Can it solve the problems based on incomplete information?

2. What is the idea of neural-net computers based on?

3. Do the conventional computers work in the same way as human brain does or differently?

4. Can you give any examples of neural-net computers that are already in operation?

II. Give the main ideas of the text in logic order.

III. Discussion problem:

1. Will you comment on the information of the text "Thinking machines"?

Unit 5

Someone, Somewhere has you Taped

Privacy is a central topic in computer ethics. Some have even suggested that privacy is a notion that has been antiquated by technology and that it should be replaced by a new openness. Others think that computers must be harnessed to help restore as much privacy as possible to our society. Although the;/ may not like it, computer professionals are at the center of this controversy. Some are designers of the systems that facilitate information gathering and manipulation; others maintain and protect the information. As the saying goes, information is power, but power can be used and/or abused.

Computer technology creates wide ranging possibilities for tracking and monitoring of human behavior. Consider just two ways in which personal privacy may be affected by computer technology. First, because of the capacity of computers, massive amounts of information can be gathered by record keeping organizations such as banks, insurance companies, government agencies, educational institutions. The information gathered can be kept and used indefinitely, and shared with other organizations, rapidly and frequently. A second way in which computers have enhanced the possibilities for monitoring and tracking of individuals is by making possible new kinds of information. When activities are done using a computer, transactional information is created.

When individuals use automated bank teller machines, records are created when certain software is operating, keystrokes on a computer keyboard are recorded; the content and destination of electronic mail can be tracked, and so on. With the assistance of newer technologies, much more of this transactional information is likely to be created. For example, television advertisers may be able to monitor television watchers with scanning devices that record who is sitting in a room facing the television, and new highway systems may allow drivers to pass through toll booths without stopping as a beam reading a bar code on the automobile will automatically charge the toll to a credit card, creating a record of individual travel patterns. All of this information (transactional and otherwise) can be brought together to create a detailed portrait of a persons' life, a portrait the individual may never see, though it is used by others to make decisions about the individual.

This picture of computer technology suggests that computer technology poses a serious threat to personal privacy.

The contents of a file kept about you could stop you getting a job, a home, and a loan. They could be unfair or just plain inaccurate. But you'll never know, until something goes wrong in your life —you get turned down for a job, a mortgage, you are refused a credit card, and can't understand why — and only then, if you're lucky. Technology has made it possible to collect, store and retrieve almost limitless amounts of personal information about every aspect of our lives.

If you were ever in trouble at college or school; ever at the wrong end of a sacking (even if you knew it was an unfair one) or dealings with the police; ever failed to pay off a hire purchase agreement (even if it was because the goods were faulty); or have ever seen a psychiatrist — all this information is likely to be on record somewhere. On record, and, in our increasingly technological times, more accessible than ever to third parties who may use it as evidence against you.

But I've got nothing to hide ...

The fact that you've got nothing to hide doesn't mean you've got nothing to worry about, because the information on record about you could quite simply be wrong. As it was about Jan Martin, a young woman filmmaker turned down for a job after wrong information on a police computer was disclosed to a would-be employer. She and her hus­band had been travelling innocently in Holland shortly after the time of a Baader-Meinhoff terrorist incident, when someone wrongly identified him as a member of the gang and reported their car, registered in her name. When her 'terrorist links' were disclosed to her prospective employers, they understandably shied away. It was only because her father was a former senior policeman that he was able to discover the reason.

Whose file is it anyway?

Apart from the files of credit reference agencies, you have no legal right to see files kept about you. Even when you have strong reason to believe a file contains wrong information, you have no right to check it.

Employers, often hiring private detectives, seem to find it extraordinarily easy to discover almost all they need to know about you. Helena Kennedy explains, ‘Policemen who leave the force often become private detectives but still have friends who can get them information.’ The Observer newspaper recently showed how easy it is, given a suitable story and a smattering of jargon, to obtain information by bluff from police computers. Computer freaks, whose is breaking into official systems, don’t even need to use the phone.

Computers do not after the fundamental issues. But they do multiply the risks. The allow more data to be collected on more aspects of our lives, and increase both its rapid retrievability and likelihood of its unauthorised transfer from one agency which might have legitimate interest in it, to another which does not. Modern computer capabilities also raise the issue of what is known in jargon as ‘total data likage’ – the ability, by pressing a few buttons and waiting as little as a minute, to collate all the information about us held on all the major government and business computers into an instant dossier in any of our lives.

NOTES.

1. privacy (n.) – секретность, конфиденциальность

2. to antiquate (v.) – отменять как устаревший

3. to harness (v.) – зд. обуздать

4. to abuse (v.) – злоупотреблять

5. to affect (v.) – воздействовать

6. to enhance (v.) – увеличивать, усиливать

7. teller-machines – банкоматы

8. toll both – посты для сбора пошлины

9. a beam reading – считыватель

10. a bar code – номерной знак

11. to charge the toll – зд. снять оплату с кредитной карты

12. to get turned down for a job – отказывать в работе

13. a mortgage – ипотека

14. to retrieve – восстанавливать

15. psychiatrist – психиатр

16. a would-be employer – будущий работодатель

17. to shy away – избегать, уклоняться

18. smattering – поверхностный, небольшая группа, кучка

19. freak (n.) – причуда, каприз; зд. хакер

20. retrievability (n.) – поиск информации

I. Answer the following questions

1. Do you agree with the author that privacy is a central topic in computer ethics?

2. Why are computer professionals at the center of “controversary” now?

3. Will you give examples of the ways in which personal privacy ma be affected by computer technology?

II. Give the main idea of the text in logic irder/

III. Discussion problem:

1. What the situation with computer privacy in our country?

IV. Read the article “Danger” in Russian language from weekly “The Capital” and comment on its main information. Do you also think that computer technology may create wide possibilities to abuse?

Пятнадцатого декабря 1997 г. при прокладке кабеля локальной компьютерной сети в помещении газеты «Комсомольская правда» в кабинете главного редактора в изоляционном коробе был найден деревянный брусок длиной около 13 см. Под его крышкой находились два аккумулятора и электронная плата, а сам он оказался ни чем иным, как радиоуправляемым подслушивающим устройством с радиусом действия около 500 м.

Случай в известной газете – один из многочисленных примеров экономического шпионажа. Закон 1997 г. «О частной детективной и охранной деятельности РФ» запрещает испольщзование аппаратуры так называемого «негласного получения информации» любым организациям кроме государственных следственных органов. Однако, утратив монопольное право на владение секретами, государство на практике лишилось и монополии на шпионаж.

В 1992 г. на очередной конференции по безопасности предпринимательства и личности проводилась выставка технических средств: более 80% представленных экспонатов были средствами шпионажа.

Спектр информации, имеющей практическую ценность для шпионов, довольно широк – от финансового состояния и технических секретов до морального климата в «стане врага». НЕ менее широк и выбор технических средств, позволяющих осуществлять съем информации практически с любых носителей.

Традиционно уязвимыми являются телефонные и компьютерные сети. Вариантов внедрения подслушивающих устройств здесь множество. Например, специалистам хорошо известно так называемое «длинное ухо», которое по звонку из города включает микрофон и позволяет слушать все, что происходит в комнате (телефон при этом не подает никаких признаков жизни). Перехвату и расшифровке поддаются также сообщения пейджинговых станций и даже цифровые протоколы сотовой связи.

В одном из районов на севере Москвы существует фирма, официально занимающаяся компьютерным консалтингом. Однако «… если вы имеете на руках нужные рекомендации, то здесь можно купить двойник пейджера или сотового телефона. А домашний компьютер хозяина позволяет читать все сообщения пейджинговых компаний за три месяца.

Путем перехвата побочного излучения картинку рабочего монитора можно считать с расстояния 100-150 метров. В компьютер можно проникнуть через сеть, а все разговоры подслушать с помощью старого доброго жучка.

Если компьютерные преступления требуют от злоумышленника высочайшей квалификации, то установить жучок в состоянии любой, например, уборщица, вытирающая пыль в вашем офисе. Подобной «работе» человека можно обучить за полчаса. простейшие средства такого рода могут быть замаскированы в пачке сигарет или в куске обычного картона и способны функционировать в течение несокльких суток.

Больше других подвержены попыткам шпионажа компании, которые занимают серьезную нишу на рынке, прежде всего рынке продуктов питания, нефти и газа.

(В. Волков, Приложение к газете «Капитал» 22-28 апреля 1998 г.)

Unit 6

The Internet

Rapidly Evolving Globally Networked Telecommunications

The system of computers and connections known as the Internet is forming а new kind of community or sets of communities – electronic communities. Questions of individual accountability and social control. as well as matters of etiquette that arise in all societies аre taking shape in а new way, in the electronic medium. А new way of living together is evolving. What will in Internet be like in five years? Who will and won't have access? How much freedom will we trade for security? How will commercial interests and citizens opposed to commercialization coexist? What will electronic communications mean to our worlds of work and play? Will the Internet begin to change who we are or who we are to each other?

Speculating about the Internet is now а popular pastime. But some researchers in computer ethics think that тоге serious thought, and perhaps action, should be applied to shaping the society of network users. Commercial, governmental, and recreational groups are already, changing what the Internet used to be, often making unilateral statements or actions. Instead of asking, "What will happen to the Internet?" we should perhaps ask,
'What should happen tо the Internet?" Questions of should are exactly the questions the ethics addresses.

Computer Security and the Internet.

Computer networks will always be vulnerable to attack. As long as companies use the Internet – for transferring files, sending е-mails, downloading programs and so оn – there will always be the chance that some malicious outsider will find а way to wreak havoc with their computer systems.

Характеристики

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