ITGS Notes: Productivity

Scientific Visualization:
-uses shape, location in space, color, brightness, and motion to help us visualize data
-helps researchers see relationships that might have been obscure or even impossible to grasp without computer aided visualization tools.
Computer Modeling uses computers to create abstract models of objects, organism, organizations, and processes
Ex: games, models, flight simulators, business simulations
Computer Simulations:
-widely used
there are many reasons such as safety, economy, projection, visualization, replication
Risk of Computer Simulations:
-GIGO revisited
-the accuracy of a simulation depends on how closely its mathematical model corresponds to the system being simulated
-some models suffer from faulty assumptions
some models contain hidden assumptions that may not even be obvious to their creators
-some models go astray simply because of clerical or human errors
-still garbage in garbage out is a basic rule of simulation   
Making Reality Fit the Machine
-some simulations are so complex that researchers need to simplify models and streamline calculations it get them to run on the best hardware available.
Sometimes this simplification is reality is deliberate more often its conscious
-either way information can be lost and the the loss may compromise the integrity of the simulation and call the results into question.
The illusion of infallibility
-a computer simulation whether generated by a PC spreadsheet or churned out by a super computer can be an invaluable decision making aid
-the risk is that the people who make decisions with computers will turn over too much of their decision making power to the computer
-risks can be magnified because people take computers seriously.
-Future users interfaces will be based on agents rather than on told
-agents are software programs designed to be managed rather than manipulated
-an intelligent software agent can ask questions as well as respond to commands, pay attention to its users work patters, serve as a guide and a coach, take on its owner's goals, use reasoning to fabricate goals of its own
-tomorrow's agents will be better able to compete with human assistants
0future agents may possess a degree of sensitivity
-a well trained software agent in the future might accomplish these tasks: Remind you that it is time to get the tires rotated on your car and make an appointment for the rotation and distribute notes to the other members of your study group or work group and tell you which members opened those notes
-keep you posted on new articles on subjects that interest you and know enough about those subjects to be selective without being rigid
-manage your appointments and keep track of your communications
-teach you new applications and answer reference questions
-defend your system and your home from viruses, intruders, and other security breaches
-help protect your privacy on and off the Net