For a site like Amazon, such an algorithm must allow
backup without first stopping the operation of the primary database, for the site must be up at all times!
Algorithms to provide such service reliably and efficiently are very challenging to perfect.
It should not be hard to convince you that computers have dramatically changed the way in which human
beings live their lives. Technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web put a vast amount of information
at our fingertips. Instant messenger systems, electronic mail, and cell phones have revolutionized the
way in which human beings communicate. Computer surveillance systems are being used by police forces to
make the world a safer place to live.
While all of these technologies are primarily being used for the betterment of human kind, it is also possible
to use these technologies to inflict harm, obtain unauthorized access to information, or to spy on people.
Coupled with the ability to develop these technologies is a need to address the social and ethical uses of the
technology. It is just as important, perhaps sometimes even more important, to ask questions about the potential
impact of a technology on society, as it is to build the technology.
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