Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our April featured reviewer, Soon Ae Chun.
Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?
A) Technology has advanced rapidly, creating global super-connectivity and thus the sharing of information among computers, devices, sensors, and humans. This connectivity has generated a huge amount of data of all sorts of formats and types, moving society into the Information Age. However, in my mind, the most impactful change in the last ten years is the democratization of computing due to smartphones, where information “processing” has become everybody’s business, beyond information technology (IT) and technical computing communities.
The byproducts of computing, such as data, machine learning models, and artificial intelligence (AI) machines, are readily available to users, empowering them to be more aware of societal issues. For example, the data policies, personal data collection, and usage/storage behaviors of IT companies have become a big issue for both individuals and governments. The issues raised by systemic biases embedded in AI and machine learning models include inequality and exclusion, which many computing fields have traditionally considered “somebody else’s problem.” They are no longer separate fields of study. This trend of rethinking the computing field’s priorities and convergence with other social issues will continue in the coming years, as it is key to becoming a more user-sensitive, information-centered, and intelligence-focused society.
Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?
A) I would have liked farming in the countryside: a simple life of predictable outputs and regularities, close to nature, and working with a close-knit community.
Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?
A) As mentioned above, the “future” of computing will need to consider some qualitative dimensions: morality, ethics, fairness, inclusiveness, and so on. The fact that IT companies take the lion’s share of profits regardless of these dimensions will not (and should not) be acceptable or sustainable. As computer scientists, we should be aware of the pervasive impact of IT on every aspect of society. Furthermore, we are responsible for our artifacts and products, as well as the processes involved in making them.
I am looking into the impact of technology on governments, governance, and citizens, with the hope that a transformed future society facilitated by computing can be designed better if we consider and overcome various challenges posed by non-algorithmic aspects we did not deeply incorporate. Standing at the threshold of the next stage in the Information Age, there is still much to do: redefining what we mean by democracy in this hyper-intelligent society, and what the socioeconomic policies in this technology-driven society should be, and clarifying many other concepts such as collaborative governance, transparent and fair governments, and citizen participation.
Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?
A) I like ordinary people, as each individual lives their life with unique experiences, challenges, and achievements. Every human being seems to go through life’s unique path, but most people’s records are not preserved like those of well-known historical figures due to their “ordinary” status. I admire the crowds who make small impacts via their personal lives in each era. Without them, heroic figures would not exist. For example, without patients willing to go through clinical studies, medical scientists may not discover culminating results, and without small voices from crowds, we may not have towering political leaders.
Q) What is your favorite type of music?
A) I like all sorts of music: classical, rock, indie music, and K-pop. They all convey human emotions, impressions, and life lessons in different formats and in different eras. Music is a language understood by everyone, touching upon all aspects of humanity.
Click here to read one of Soon’s highlighted reviews.
