Thoughts on Erik's Visit

It was cool to have a guest speaker come over. Especially since he is a entrepreneur and has experience with business and how to use technologies. Listening to him, it was clear that he is knowledgeable about technology. I was specifically interested on his thoughts about privacy. I have been interested about privacy and how much our data is being collected online. He also seems to be quite concerned about our privacy and even wrote a book that is centered around that theme. However, I disagree that we can trust the government to protect our privacy. The National Security Agency (NSA) has increased in power a lot over the years. They have been spying on American civilians without our consent. Due to this, I am skeptical about the relying on the government to protect our privacy through regulations. There was also an incident when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attempted to break through a suspect's phone but Apple refused to unlock the phone for the FBI. Our privacy has also degraded since 9/11 as a whole because it is being sacrificed in exchange for more security from terrorism.

Another thing from Erik's presentation that I want to comment on is artificial intelligence and the debate about automation. I personally believe that automation is good in the long run because it reduces costs and increases productivity, which is good for the economy. A hundred years ago, farmers were concerned about agriculture being automated. The machines were doing a lot things that farmers did and it did them faster and more efficiently. Fast forward to today and the economy is better as a result of these machines doing farming.