Explosion of Bits

1. Explosion of Bits Everything is digitized – can store every communication generated by humans Government and other institutions of society are deciding how to use all this digitized information. Once stored – easy to duplicate instantly Privacy no longer guaranteed (private and public video cameras, photos, etc.) How easily do you give up privacy? ITEC 102

2. Computing Math Bits 0/1, T/F, on/off 8 bits in a byte Kilobytes (103 ), megabytes (106 ), gigabytes (109 ) Binary (base 2), octal (base 8), and hexadecimal (base 16) Converting between the bases. Binary to octal – group by 3. Binary to hex – group by 4 Converting from binary, octal, and hex to decimal - expand Megabyte: 1 minute of 128 kb/s of MP3 compressed music 6 seconds of uncompressed CD audio 500 page/ 2000 chars/page book ITEC 102

3. Boolean Truth Tables NOT operation – proposition value is inverted AND operation – All proposition values must be true for a true expression OR operation – At least one proposition value must be T for a T expression _ P | Q | P | P ^ Q | P V Q F F T F F F T T F T T F F F T T T F T T ITEC 102

4. The Koans of Bits It’s all just bits - at the lowest level (pictures, words, etc.) Perfection is normal – error detection and correction There is want in the midst of plenty – if it cannot be found quickly it is as though it does not exist. Processing is power – Moore’s law (IC density doubles every 2 years) More of the same can be a whole new thing – exponential growth gets big fast. Nothing goes away – once stored can be stored forever. Bits move faster than thought – hard to manage dispersion of information. Information Technology is neither good nor bad – its’ how it is used that must be considered ethically. ITEC 102