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The Digital Divide

 The Digital Divide has been a concern of policy-makers and observers of American society since the late 1990s. Many today view the issue as being in general solved; the vast majority of people today have a smartphone, access to a computer, and the internet.  Indeed, great strides have been made to bridge the gap and connect all Americans with the information and opportunity available online.  Factors like the availability of Wi-Fi in many public places, the widespread adoption of technology sharing programs by school districts across the country, and the real price deflation of many tech products have made the internet and worldwide connection more realistic to all Americans than ever before.  For much of the previous ten years, the perception mentioned above that the digital divide was practically a solved problem was broadly correct, in my opinion at least.  Americans certainly had disparate levels of understanding of how to best use the internet, but almost ...
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 Sourcing: The WIRED article concerns the development of a new style of smoke detector, which doesn't need to be hard-wired, and which can be connected to home-coordination systems like Alexa.  The system sells itself on being able to link the potentially life-saving intervention of detecting smoke to systems that could take action even when users are incapacitated.  I chose this article because I think it is emblematic of the pro-IOT reviewer space. The article by The Conversation is quite critical.  Instead of highlighting the efficient changes IOT tech can make in many people's lives, it points out the important concerns that many IOT and general tech-skeptics have with the industry.  These concerns need to be addressed before the society-wide efficiency increases promised by many technologists can occur. Farrell, N. (2026, February 18).  Ring and Kidde’s Newest Smoke Detector Is Here, and It’s Battery Powered (2026) . WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/...
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Artificial Intelligence

  Artificial Intelligence is the frontier technology of our era.  For that reason alone, I think most people today are more interested in it than they are in the average technology.  The first large language model I used was, like most people, ChatGPT 3.  I was at a friend's house in late 2022, working on a group project for our science class.  We didn't use it for the project, it was too primitive if human-like output was your goal, I was amazed, however amazed by it.  I was amazed by its speed and its ability to express ideas in a way totally unlike the results of a Google query.  AI developed much more quickly than I expected, prompts which once output a single poorly composed paragraph, with model updates, emitted well organized and well compiled responses.  The thing which struck me the most about AI in 2023 and 2024 was its ability to answer questions of mine that were too specific for a general search engine to answer.  I was never sur...
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The History of Personal Computers

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  The KENBAK-1, the world's first PC.  It was brought to market in 1971 Kenbak-1 personal computer - Kenbak-1 - Wikipedia The Apple II, 1977.  The Apple II was a highly popular early PC, recording more than $50 million in sales by 1980. Apple IIc with monitor - Apple II - Wikipedia The Osborne 1, the first laptop computer, 1981. Osborne 1 open - History of laptops - Wikipedia The iMac G3, 1998.  A revolutionary product for its affordability and user-friendly software. IMac G3 Bondi Blue, three-quarters view - iMac G3 - Wikipedia The last iMac Pro, 2021.   imac pro - Search Images Summary: Personal computers have become much more powerful while becoming much more affordable over the years.  Meanwhile, they have become a much larger part of our global economy, impacting almost every sector in some way.  They have also become central to many people's social lives by allowing instant communication over tremendous distances.  PCs have transformed ...
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About Me

About Me My name is Jack Bergmann, I am from Santa Rosa in the Bay Area, and I'm a junior here at Chico State.   My major is History, which is a topic I've been interested in my whole life.  In this class I hope to learn more about how different modes and styles of communication affect disparate recipients of my message. I'm looking forward to the semester, thanks very much! --Jack
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