Social Implication Topics

             The lack of computer reliability is present throughout Divergent. One example of a computing technology not being entirely reliable in the film is when the genetically engineered control serum used to enslave Dauntless members doesn't work on everyone. The technology behind the serum was meant to enslave every member of Dauntless so that they could take over Abnegation and the government as a part of Jeanine's cruel plot. However, the serum doesn't work on Triss or Four - the two Divergents. This unreliability plays an important factor in the film, as Triss and Four are able to stop some of the genocide. This unreliability relates to the real world, as sometimes we write programs that don’t necessarily work on all operating systems and computers may crash as a result. “68% of home internet users, have experienced at least one of these [computer malfunction] problems in the past year [1].” Being reliable means working across any given circumstances, and in the film, the control serum is not as reliable as Jeanine would have hoped it to be.

               Well-developed computing technologies have the ability to continue functioning properly after a malfunction or sustaining damages. In Divergent, Triss throws a knife through the hand of Jeanine and pierces the touchscreen computer system used to control the minds of Dauntless soldiers. Although the system is damaged, it continues to work as intended and Triss is ultimately able to force Jeanine to stop the mass genocide against Abnegation. Many computers nowadays have measures put in place to protect data against drive failures, operating system crashes, and a lot more. An example of this is “RAID or Redundant Array of Independent Disks”, where data can be stored at different RAID levels to protect a system's data in case of drive failure.

               An important component of computer reliability is computer simulation. In the aptitude and fear tests, Triss is put into a hallucination through a serum and her visions are monitored through brain sensors and displayed through a computer. These tests, therefore, represent computer simulations as mentioned in section 8.8. A computer simulation is used to portray both aspects of science and engineering in a way that cannot be done physically. The tests and Triss' visions are represented and monitored through a computer simulation.

 

References

1.  Fox, S. (2005, July 6). Computer Problems Vex Millions. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2005/07/06/computer-problems-vex-millions/

2. Chen, P. M., Lee, E. K., Gibson, G. A., Katz, R. H., & Patterson, D. A. (1994). RAID: high-performance, reliable secondary storage. ACM Computing Surveys, 26(2), 145–185. https://doi.org/10.1145/176979.176981