For this final blog post, you must research at least two scholarly and/or credible resources in addition to your course text. You are also encouraged to review the instructor feedback and the work you completed in the Week 3 Building a Blog: Develop assignment.
To complete your Information Technology Blog, you will write a final blog post to further explore your chosen tech topic.
In your final blog post,
- Discuss how your selected tech topic connects to the fundamentals of information technology covered in this course.
- Explain how your chosen tech topic relates to the concepts of information technology and computer science, including the history of computers and the means by which computers operate.
- Evaluate how your chosen tech topic relies on the major hardware components and functions of a modern computer system.
- Explain how your chosen tech topic uses programming languages and program execution methods.
- Analyze the role that application software plays in regards to your chosen tech topic.
- Describe how your chosen tech topic relates to the basic concepts of database and database management.
- Illustrate how the basic concepts of network architecture, management, and security influence your chosen tech topic.
Support your statements with evidence from your sources.
My selected tech topic: Automation
How it connects to the fundamentals of information technology covered in this course:
Humanity, when pressed to do so, often likes to define itself by the use of tools. For as long as we have been people, we have turned to the development of new and better technologies to ensure our survival, and to make that continued survival easier. The domestication of work-animals allowed for the earliest forms of automation, setting horses and cows in the roles of pulling, rather than shouldering the literal burden ourselves. Each new advance in technology seems to progress towards the goals of reducing the amount of human labor and skill required to produce the same or a larger amount of goods/resources/services. To this end, information technology is no exception. The earliest forms of IT automated the human labor of calculating mathematical equations. The earliest forms of networking automated the human labor of carrying a message over long distances. Now, we even have technology like 3D printers that can automate the literal manufacturing of physical goods.
How automation relates to the concepts of information technology and computer science, including the history of computers and the means by which computers operate:
Information technology and computer science (as far as I understand) refer to the process of converting, observing, recording, and interacting with the "real" world in ways that can be processed and understood by computers. This is crucial to the concept of automation, as computers are capable of completing many labor-intensive tasks far more quickly than humans. As IT and CS progress and develop, they also improve upon the ways in which computers (and the machines attached to them) can in turn affect the "real" world, although they are limited to the capabilities of these output devices for such tasks.
How automation relies on the major hardware components and functions of a modern computer system:
The instructions and data-storage required for higher-level automation relies upon high-tech components found in computers. The security and archival of data relies upon storage of huge amounts of information, like what hard drives are capable of. The instructions to execute a program can often be quite extensive, and require sufficient space in which to load them, like what RAM is used for. And the order of operations and definitions of each automated command must be processed through fundamentally-universal binary, machine language, and assembly language, which would be impossible without the CPU.
How automation uses programming languages and program execution methods:
Automation (at this point in time) is engineered by humans, seeking to enhance or replace the human labor currently required for tasks and functions. They use programming languages to tell computers what to do, in a way that the computers will understand. As for "program execution methods," I was unable to find any sources (scholarly, credible, or otherwise) which gave any definition for the term. Even the textbook never mentioned this phrase. 
I queried several of my coding friends, who all independently agreed that the phrase does not actually refer to anything concrete, and the only possible suggestions they could guess at were topics which this course did not cover.
Analyze the role that application software plays in regards to automation:
Right now, most applications are used to automate one specific function, or a limited selection of functions. "Most Most of the research dollars and corporate investments are spent on so-called ‘narrow AI,’ which remains focused on the use of software and statistics to study or accomplish specific problem-solving or reasoning tasks (Ernst, 2020)." They provide an outward-facing user interface for the individuals who make up their target demographic, linked to programming that provides the functionality of each app. As machine learning and artificial intelligence advances, I hope to see better integration, connectivity, and use of multiple applications- each one functioning as a piece of a larger whole which is capable of using them with fluid, adaptable recognition and decision-making, so that each one reaches its full potential. From what I understand, this concept is what would ordinarily be referred to as "General AI," and is still rather beyond our current capabilities.
How automation relates to the basic concepts of database and database management:
Thanks to the changes made to the "Documenting A Day" assignment, I'm not entirely certain whether or not this particular question is still supposed to be included in this assignment. But in order for automation to be effective in completing most tasks, especially those involving more than one person, an organization system is needed to store and access multitudes of entries of set-oriented information. Databases provide that organization system. "Since the development of the relational data model in
1970, relational database management systems (RDBMS)
have experienced explosive growth, currently dominating
the marketplace. In the relational model, data are maintained in tables. Each row of a table stores one occurrence
of an entity, while each column maintains a separate
attribute of that entity. To facilitate rapid search, tables
can be indexed with respect to either a particular attribute
or a linear combination of attributes (Antony, 1997)."
How the basic concepts of network architecture, management, and security influence automation:
AI is not yet advanced enough to be able to recognize and correct input errors or inaccuracies in the data used to complete a task, barring certain exceptions such as Spellcheck/Autocorrect for text entry. As such, any corruption of or interference with data could result in failed or harmful automation. The security of information networks is crucial to prevent malicious parties from intentionally interfering with data. The management and structural architecture of information networks is what keeps the data stable, to prevent loss, corruption, and degredation. They also influence the speed and scope at which the automation can occur, by enabling faster transmission of data across wider distances.
References
R. T. Antony, "Database support to data fusion automation," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 39-53, Jan. 1997, doi: 10.1109/5.554207.
Ernst, D. (2020). Competing in Artificial Intelligence Chips: China’s Challenge amid Technology War (p. V, Rep.). Centre for International Governance Innovation. doi:10.2307/resrep24302.2
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