The presentation on centralized medical databases started my thinking about this topic. Specifically how the group presented the fact that President Obama is requiring all hospitals to become 'computerized' by 2014, and pushing it forward with his administration planning on spending $19billion to modernize medical-record keeping. This would be helpful in many ways, and I fully support this modernization, agreeing with all the positives that the team presented on Wednesday. Also, this week in the DTH there were letter's to the editor about the University cutting back on paper supplies in order to cut back simple expenses in the budget. This letter talked about the ridiculous amount of paper that is printed from the ITS printers each day, much of it for class notes, etc.
The recent activity mentioned above started my thinking about the eventual "paperless world". What will this involved? Basic digitalization of nearly everything, inclduing every form of media and eventually money. Now, some of you may be thinking, "Most media are digitized already, and we use plastic cards very frequently", well yes this is very true, but think about if the hardcopy didn't exist. Hardcopy forms still exist and are printed all the time for mass communication, but eventually will there ever be a time where we use and read digital copies of everything? I think this will happen, sooner than later, and so does Bill Gates. An article (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article584108.ece) I found, has Gates quoting that the world is on the verge of this digital age. Though the article is somewhat dated (2005), this still does not change his nor my opinion about this topic.
There are several potential problems with complete digitization, including the ease of corruption by hackers and various other unethical problems we have touched on in lecture that could occur. But if you think about the positivies, and how our society thrives on the ease of gaining information then this really is feasible. It will start with healthcare, as they will eventually throw away (burn) all medical records, and then mass media will begin the stoppage of hard copies. Textbooks will become electronic and we'll all be taking notes on our tablet PCs. What do you think our society will be like when the digital age fully takes over? What are your views on absorbing current media only through the screen on your computer? Do you think a complete modernization into the "paperless world" is even feasible? Do the benefits outweigh the negatives of this ever happening? These are a few of the questions that come to mind as I conclude, so I leave it to you... what do you think about where our technology is taking us?
