The Creation of Bluetooth

Bluetooth was created by Dr. Jaap Haartsen in 1994. He was a Dutch Engineer at Ericsson Communications in Sweden. It was called Bluetooth after the Viking King Harald "Blaatand" Gormsson because he had a "blue tooth". He is known for uniting Denmark and Norway in the 10th century. This fact is almost as interesting as the technology itself. Bluetooth was originally created for computers as a form of short-range communication as an alternative to wires for data transfers. In 1998 a group of companies called the Bluetooth Special Interest Group or SIG was formed to help advance the technology. Over 33,000 companies are members of the SIG and help quickly develop new versions of Bluetooth which is why the technology is rapidly evolving. Bluetooth has had a massive impact on society and technology as a whole. It has transformed how we consume music, how we drive, and even how some people live each day with advancements in the medical field. 

Firstly Bluetooth impacts the way almost everyone listens to music whether through Bluetooth speakers, headphones, or a hands-free car connection. Not only does Bluetooth make listening to music easier than ever but it also improves the audio quality drastically over wired connection. Wireless headphones allow so much more freedom than wired headphones because they are easier to use while working out, jogging, playing basketball, or taking a nap without getting tangled in a cord. 

Bluetooth also impacts anyone with a car made in the last 10 years because they will have the ability to turn on navigation, and music or take phone calls if their phone is connected to their car via Bluetooth. This has made driving safer because people do not have to have one hand on the phone while driving. Altogether Bluetooth makes the modern driving experience smooth and easy.

Bluetooth has also affected how some people's homes function with Bluetooth home devices controlling security in homes while regulating temperature and turning off lights. This might seem like a less useful application of Bluetooth but the creation of smart homes has made it harder to break into someone's home even if they are not there. 

Lastly, Bluetooth has also impacted Health and Fitness with smartwatches that track cardio and medical devices that monitor glucose levels. This technology allows people with diabetes or who want to track their cardiovascular activity easy access to their phones thanks to Bluetooth. Bluetooth is also commonly used in hearing aids which my mother desperately needs. 

The many different applications of Bluetooth are why it is one of the most important developments in technology ever. It has made short-range between devices almost unlimited while making the lives of everyone in the Western world much easier. The only negative to Bluetooth technology is there are low levels of radiation emitted by headphones that could in theory cause health issues, but because Bluetooth headphones are more recent there is no evidence yet. As the SIG continues to develop new Bluetooth technology I look forward to seeing what other areas of life it might be utilized, but even if no more advancements are made Bluetooth is still one of the most important technologies we use every day in America. 

Living in the Age of AI

 One of the biggest concerns is that AI will overtake the jobs of many people because there are many jobs that are easy to automate. I think it is sad but many jobs will be overtaken by AI which will be able to do them more efficiently than humans. It's a scary thought for many that the education they are getting or the job they hold currently could be totally obsolete in 10-20 years due to AI. Along with the cashiers, and warehouse workers that are mentioned in the video many other jobs will be replaced soon according to Forbes. Jobs like data entry, customer service, analytics, and even graphic design could be replaced by AI among others. This is the AI concern that scares the most people especially the ones who hold these jobs or a currently in school for a similar field. 

In the video, McTaggart was talking to a Google Engineer who said he would be horrified if he knew how much Google knew about him. This is another huge concern with AI learning patterns is that it can help tech companies farm data about everyone and use it to their advantage. He was surprised to learn that Google's business model is based on finding out as much about you as possible, and I think it is not very surprising as every company wants as much information as possible because information is power. The cons with this invasion of privacy are the companies will naturally learn things you don't want them to know. The pros are that targeted ads can be useful if you want to buy something, but it is too creepy to really be worth them farming your information. 

If Facebook can claim that it can influence people to vote or even their mood on a given day what's to stop a foreign government from analyzing these patterns themselves. I think the ability of tech companies to predict whatever they want could just as easily be used for harm by a foreign government. In that way, the entire internet is a threat to national security if a foreign government gets access to records that are kept by Facebook or Google. 

Even if AI is simply trying to improve user experience it naturally learns information by spying on us. This blatant manipulation is a danger to privacy that Zuckerberg apologized to Congress for in the video, and yet Facebook has not stopped harvesting information. While companies might have reduced how much information they are farming because of the law that McTaggart got passed on privacy it will not stop them. This is why we must be wary of what we do on the internet because everything we do can and will be tracked. 

Privacy in the Digital Age

 I have been aware for a long time of the issues of privacy online and how we are never truly safe from government surveillance. While I did not find anything in the TED talks surprising I do think they are all important issues to address. I do nothing on the internet that could cause me harm in the future because I understand once something is out there you can never take it back. It's one thing to give information to a website like your email or phone number, but like the videos talk about there are much larger problems when companies take information you do not give them. 

Any one of these issues could affect anyone you know, but the one that certainly affects everyone is the fact that every message or call you send or receive can be tracked. In the video, the speaker says Apple phones are more secure than others because they are harder to tap, but that does not mean impossible. It means if the Chinese government or our own government wants to they will hear every conversation you ever have. Even with an iPhone, Siri is always listening (see attached article). The ability for your phone to passively listen to every conversation you have can supposedly be turned off, but I think if you mention multiple times in a week you need new shoes you will receive ads on every type of social media you use. Companies can say this is just targeted ads and that they aren't really eavesdropping on you, and the reason they can get away with it is because the government is also listening. 

The government should mandate all technology companies to ban listening technology without it being manually activated, but like I said earlier they cannot do that because they use the same technologies. What they can do is try harder to create a national type of security that prevents foreign governments from also spying on us. Each government around the world tries to spy on each other as briefly touched on in the video about government surveillance. This leads to other countries constantly keeping tabs on one another with all the information they can get their hands on. As citizens, we often are caught in the crossfire of this spying as foreign governments might harvest our information as it is more readily available than American secrets heavily encrypted with the best technology. 

One method of protection that can be used is a VPN or virtual private network as it can display a different IP address from your real location and even display you in another country. They also can cause a strain

on your connection and costs money for a subscription, which is why I as a broke college student no longer use one after my free trial. This kind of technology can protect you from hackers trying to steal your information and could in theory do the same for government surveillance. Ultimately the best way to protect yourself is to make sure you never do anything stupid on the internet and never give unnecessary information out for free.