WE HAVE SEEN NOTHING YET

Hermann Maurer

Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

hmaurer@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at

Abstract: I will first present some unusual arguments that will show that we are not in for small changes in the near

future, but for massive restructuring of how we live, think and learn. I will then explain in what way the

strong convergence of cell phones and PCs is likely to develop. I will show clips of prototypes of new

devices that overcome the small screen-size of cell phones and their small keyboards. I will then explain

how dramatically this will change society and education: we will have with us a permanent powerful

assistant. This brings both great benefits and great dangers. I will also address the issue whether large

amounts of information help us or rather brainwash us and influence our decision making in a negative way.

I will show at least one example that will surprise the audience. I will then argue that no matter how much

one is using modern information technology oneself, one does not react the same way when compared to

"digital natives", i.e. people (like our students in university) that have grown up in such new environments. I

will report on two surprising recent experiments that seem to prove this point conclusively. Finally, I will

show that the statement we always hear that the value of technology is ambivalent (like "a hammer can be

used to drive in a nail or to kill a person by hitting the head") is not even close to the truth. Rather, some

technologies are inherently good, others inherently bad, and many in between. I will present a number of

examples to verify this provocative idea and show how computers and networks are classified if one looks

at them that way.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Hermann Maurer is Professor Emeritus at Graz

University of Technology. He started his career at

the University of Calgary as Assistant and Associate

Professor, was appointed full professor at Karlsruhe

just before he turned 30, and has been now Professor

and Dean in Computer Science at Graz University of

Technology since 1978, with some interruptions,

like guest-professorships of more than a year at

Denver University, University of Auckland, and

shorter visits to Edith Cowan University in Perth,

SMU in Dallas, Waterloo, Brasilia and others. Chair

of the Informatics Section of Academia Europaea,

"The Academy of Europe" since April 2009, and

receiver of many national and international

distinctions, Professor Maurer is author of over 650

papers and 20 books, founder of a number of

companies, supervised some 60 Ph.D. and over 400

M.Sc. students and was leader of numerous

multimillion Euro projects. More about him than

you ever want to read under

http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/maurer.

Maurer H.

WE HAVE SEEN NOTHING YET.

In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design (BMSD 2011), page 9

ISBN: 978-989-8425-68-3