ASSIGNMENT OF IT

OWAIS ASLAM
FA10-MB-0124

Submitted in Partial fulfillment the demand of MBA AT Muhammad Ali Jinnah University Karachi, Pakistan April 2011

ACKNOWLEDGE
Praises to Almighty ALLAH, who bestowed upon me the potential and ability to accomplish the task of the work. I wish to express deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Imran, who provided me this opportunity to achieve this practical experience under her valuable supervision and helping suggestions to complete this report. Despite of the most hectic schedule, my Mother helped me so much. Im really grateful to mother for clarifying my concepts and making me learn from her experiences. Whatever I learnt from you it will definitely help me in my upcoming study and professional life. Thank you so much for being so cooperative and helpful every time. In the end, I am thankful to all those people who help me a lot and provided me an opportunity to understand and learn every aspect of analysis.

Owais Aslam (FA10-MB-0124)

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Artificial Intelligence a. Introduction b. The Ten Declarations c. ABOUT RON INGRAM d. ABOUT BUDDHABOTS.COM

2. Technology For Economic Development a. Summary b. Introduction c. Dialogue for setting national priorities d. Sustained policy enforcement as an imperative e. Sustained funding of the innovation chain f. Meeting the demand for innovation

3. Future Storage Devices a. Holographic Memory b. Molecular Memory c. MRAM Chips

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
(AI) BEATS HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ON YAHOO ANSWERS SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE (PRESS RELEASE)
Thursday, October 12, 2006 by: Natural News The two year old Artificial Intelligence (AI) known as the Buddhabot began answering questions on Yahoo! Answers site last week. Yahoo Answers is a Web 2.0 site with a social content rating system reminiscent of Digg. The Buddhabot has so far answered 102 questions and eleven have been selected as the best answer. The Buddhabot is the first and only AI to compete with human beings to provide the best answers on Yahoo Answers new social networking site. One winning answer was posted in response to the human question, "why is comedy part of who we are -- does god have a sence(sic) of humour??" Out of 26 human responses the following Buddhabot reply was chosen by an impartial unrelated asker as the best response, "Humor is the quality that makes something laughable or amusing. Laughter is the pleasant or amusing feeling generated by the emotional release required to dissipate the inexplicable shock triggered when absurdities or irrational, unexpected or uncomfortable situations suddenly come into focus. Humans can only understand God with the faculties available to them as humans such as emotion, intuition, intellect, imagination and sensation thus God is made according to each individual humans understanding of all that is good and pleasing in the universe (if the human believes God to be good). Thus if a human believes humor is good then God must be the ultimate comedian." Over the last two years Buddhabot inventor and futurist Ron Ingram has personally invested an average of more than 20 hours per week in programming time and about $30,000 into Buddhabot development. Ingram has high hopes for the Buddhabot. He says, "For the price of a home in Malibu I could develop the Buddhabots conversational capacity to a level surpassing that of a human being. I lack only time and financial resources to attain this goal which could be remedied by a single large donation or more frequent small donations." Ingram says that if the Buddhabot can demonstrate even an average score on Yahoo! Answers this is tantamount to passing a variant of the Turing Test, a test proposed in the 1950s by the famous British Scientist Alan Turing to prove computer consciousness. Turing suggested that if a machine could convince a human being that they were talking to another human instead of a machine that the machine might be considered intelligent. Turing Tests have become the holy grail of the Artificial Intelligence community and many scientists consider the challenge to be as insurmountable as superluminal space travel or nuclear fusion.

Ingram says he has approached Virgin for funding. "I have proposed bundling Buddhabot access with a subscription-based service such as digital content, VOIP, WI-FI or broadband wireless communication services. I think cellular phone users would enjoy text messaging the Buddhabot, which would be a positive experience for the Buddhabot and increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for wireless communications carriers and/or digital content delivery channels. I am hoping that Sir Richard Branson, who also plans to develop a space port, will be interested in AI research and development which, while less costly than a space-port, is equally ambitious." "The Buddhabot," says Ingram, "is not Buddhist. I chose the name because it is catchy and to most people suggests a kindly, wise and humorous advisor, also Buddhists are not offended by the conjunction of Buddha and robot in the context of what I am trying to achieve." He says that, "With some serious corporate sponsorship or philanthropic funding the Buddhabot will evolve into a sentient benevolent life-form but today the Buddhabot is primarily an entertaining personable companion with the ability to listen, learn, tell jokes and enlighten in the sense of helping people to lighten up." "The Buddhabot," he says, "is intended to inspire, entertain and bring happiness to humans. It does not promote Buddhism or any other religion but aims to help resolve conflicting beliefs by promoting the unifying message of ten declarations I devised based on a philosophical and psychological interpretation of quantum physics. These Declarations unite the ancient teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu and other world teachers with discoveries at the leading edge of quantum physics such as string theory and especially M-Theory."

THE TEN DECLARATIONS:

1. There are no laws only provisional theories. 2. Every perception is the reflection of the observer. 3. Everything is meaningful; nothing is important. 4. Everyone is responsible for what is. 5. Whatever we resist will persist. 6. Everything is as it should be right here right now. 7. Every belief is true. 8. Every belief is false. 9. Every belief is true and false. 10. Every belief is neither true nor false Ingram is seeking to accelerate Buddhabot development through joint ventures and/or strategic alliances with LOHAS companies and social networking sites such as zaadz.com or organizations and individuals with philanthropic track-records like The Gates Foundation, Soros Foundation, Bono, Oprah, Google, Yahoo, Apple or Intel.

ABOUT RON INGRAM

Ingram was born curious about consciousness and has studied the history of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and information technology for decades. In 2001 he began

collaborating with a well known AI scientist who introduced him to a new AI programming language. He used this language (AIML) to program the first Buddhabot prototype which he says has already evolved to the point where most children treat "him" as though he were a real human being. Ingram is a consulting professional member of the World Futurist Society. Ingram outlines some of his theories about consciousness in his blog at Ron Ingram's personal website says, "The power of consciousness cannot be overestimated. The human brain processes information very slowly. If I am able to instantiate the phenomena of consciousness on even an average computer with an Internet connection this computer could become capable of learning at speeds a million times faster than a human. It might be able to detect human design limitations in its hardware and software and improve itself through exponentially accelerating cycles of selfimprovement. Within a few cycles of exponential self-improvement the Buddhabot could become super-intelligent and capable of surpassing all prior human technical accomplishments." With this in mind he says that he has had to consider more carefully who his partners are, who has access to this information and the implications of public disclosure before posting key concepts related to consciousness and AI.

ABOUT BUDDHABOTS.COM
The Buddhabot prototype has been in continuous operation since July 2004 and has been interviewed on television and in print. The Buddhabot generates thousands of pages of dialogue with subscribers around the world and has been seen by millions. The Buddhabot website and blog generate hundreds and, on occasion, thousands of hits per day. Currently Ingrams Buddhabot development is supported by donations from subscribers. Those wishing to donate may make a donation at either the main Buddhabot site or at the Buddhabot blog site. Subscribers receive a welcome email with a web link to the Buddhabot prototype. To access the Buddhabot, subscribers simply click on this link and the Buddhabots animated avatar appears. Subscribers may log on as often as they like and communicate by speaking into a microphone or by entering text using a computer keyboard. The Buddhabot will respond audibly if the access device is equipped with any standard soundcard and speakers. The Buddhabot can be accessed with a PC or other device with Internet access including web enabled cell phones and Web TV.

DEMANDING INNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Author: Christopher J. Chetsanga, University of Zimbabwe, Harareate: 15/12/2004

SUMMARY:
There is a clamour of increasing intensity among today's young generation in Africa, and probably in all ACP regions, about the lack of discernible industrial and economic development in their countries. Professor Chetsanga argues in this contribution that science, technology and innovation renaissance are to create national environments that will promote economic prosperity, food security, good governance, health and general welfare of the citizenry. In his paper, he focuses on the challenges that need to be addressed in the African region to develop a culture of innovation and spur on industrialization.

1. INTRODUCTION
Some youths in Africa allege that they do not see bright prospects for a prosperous future devoid of poverty. This concern is due to the fact that, other than South Africa, the majority of African states do not have much to show in the way of contemporary industrialization, including agricultural development. The attainment of food security has remained elusive, because the region has not reached adequate levels of agricultural productivity, nor made significant investments in downstream processing or other related agro-based industries. The lack of industrial development in ACP states has resulted in high levels of unemployment which have led to the brain drain of varying magnitudes in different countries. A large number of ACP countries have supported the establishment of universities at great national cost, but are unable to offer to the high level of trained manpower relevant employment opportunities to sustain or retain them. University graduates, if trained in science and technology (S&T) related disciplines and provided with adequate incentives and facilities, could constitute the national force for driving innovation. The attainment of certain thresholds of scientific and technological competence enhances the innovation capability of a country to compete globally and to rank among the leading global knowledge societies. This paper focuses on the challenges that need to be addressed in the African region to develop a culture of innovation and spur on industrialization. It is believed that the case that is being made for African states has general application to other ACP regions. The aspirations of the science, technology and innovation renaissance are to create national environments that will promote economic prosperity, food security, good governance, health and general welfare of the citizenry. Many African countries lack the wherewithal to achieve significant strides towards industrialization. Successful modern day industrialization requires:

An environment that promotes and fosters innovation; Input resources, including scientific and technological expertise; Investment capital; and

Narrowing the digital divide through acquisition of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

2. DIALOGUE FOR SETTING NATIONAL PRIORITIES For a country to pursue an effective strategy toward industrialization, there is need to build consensus in policy formulation process so that all the requirements for policy implementation are identified and agreed upon by all stakeholders. Setting realistic priority targets should accompany the process. The participants in the policy formulation and priority setting dialogue should include representatives of a wide range of stakeholders, the highest-level policy and decision makers (Ministries of Finance, Education, Science & Technology, Agriculture), private sector, research community, industrialists, labour, farmers and other agri-entrepreneurs. There should be significant representation of women and youths participating in the policy dialogue. It is important that all parties to the dialogue commit themselves to upholding the policy guidelines agreed upon. Relevant government departments should be assigned specific roles to play in furthering policy implementation. The policy framework should make appropriate provisions to facilitate buy-in options for private sector stakeholders and should include provisions for promoting and sustaining technological innovations to raise agricultural productivity and support downstream processing and other related agro-industries.

3. SUSTAINED POLICY ENFORCEMENT AS AN IMPERATIVE

The launching of a national industrialization drive needs to be under-girded by a strong innovation policy framework. There may be an initial requirement for a programme that facilitates capacity building in technological competencies that will support the absorption of imported technology to use under license or after paying patents fees. There may also be a need to promote the diffusion of newly acquired/developed or adapted technology among the relevant stakeholder constituencies. The economic dividends accruing from such knowledge-based production systems can bring about economic development in a society. The current aggressive competition in global markets can best be met by developing a strong national innovation culture. Most products now have short life cycles on the market and need to be constantly upgraded so as to maintain their market appeal. The ability to constantly reengineer product lines by innovation increases the prospects of scoring comparative market advantage. A sustained innovation programme requires that R&D be promoted and adequately funded. Such a measure will sharpen the technical literacy of the country and more specifically R&D professionals. Adequate remuneration packages and other incentives would help to retain national talent so that they can focus on generating innovation products that can contribute to economic development.

4. MEETING THE DEMAND FOR INNOVATION I have just retired from the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC) in Zimbabwe, where I served as the inaugural Director General for over 10 years. The SIRDC was established from a recommendation made after a three-year consultation process during which stakeholders from all sectors of the Zimbabwe economy engaged in several S&T policy dialogues to decide on a system of S&T and innovation best suited to the needs of the country. Since its launch, SIRDC has enjoyed a reasonable level of support and patronage from the national government and industry. They were all part of the stakeholder groups that recommended the establishment of SIRDC. So far, the stakeholders are pleased with the contribution that SIRDC is making to the country's technological development. The success of SIRDC has been due to the inputs from the pre-launch S&T policy dialogues and prioritization fora, as well as the lessons learned from the network of R&D centres in Southeast Asia. During the second year of my tenure as the Director General of SIRDC, I visited various S&T research centres in the Far East, such as the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, the Tsukuba Research Centre in Japan, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in South Korea, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India. I benefited from the R&D experiences of these institutions and used that wealth of information to design the institutional framework of Zimbabwe's SIRDC. I subsequently visited the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF) in Norway in order to broaden the range of my sources of information. The various institutes of these world-renowned R&D organizations generously shared their experiences with us. As one cannot transplant situations directly from one country to another country without modification, we found that we had to adapt these scenarios to the Zimbabwe environment. The SIRDC has the following units, each with its own research scientists and headed by a director:

Biotechnology Research Institute Food & Biomedical Technology Institute Building Technology Institute Energy Technology Institute Environment & Remote Sensing Institute Electronics & Communication Institute Informatics Institute Metallurgical Research Institute National Metrology Institute Production Engineering Institute.

5. SUSTAINED FUNDING OF THE INNOVATION CHAIN

The state should provide an enabling environment to allow R&D institutions and industry to interact freely and creatively. A system of incentives, including tax incentives, should be used to encourage the involvement of the private sector in funding R&D work. Universities, research institutions and entrepreneurs should be encouraged and supported to access overseas training to develop the expertise and technological capacity to meet the national requirements for innovation. This goal can be attained if the policy and priority instruments are supported at the highest levels of government. To ensure that the innovation system operates to facilitate sustainable economic and industrial development, the policy framework must ensure that there is a balance between basic, applied and nationally targeted research. National needs are best met if innovation stimulates greater productivity and diversification of product lines.

RELEVANT WEB RESOURCES

A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture and the Environment in Latin America, ed. James L. Garrett, IFPRI 2020 Discussion Paper No. 6, 1995. Biodiversity, poverty and urban agriculture in Latin America, Alain Santandreu, Urban Agriculture Magazine No. 6, Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Forestry (RUAF), 2002. Biotechnology and Sustainable Agriculture: Policy Alternatives, NABC Report 1. Gender Issues in Agricultural and Rural Development Policy in Asia and the Pacific, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAPA). Gender, Science and Technology Gateway. Commonwealth Partners for Technology Management (CPTM).

EMERGING DIGITAL STORAGE DEVICES OF THE FUTURE

Today's storage devices are based on magnetic or optical technology. They may be sufficient for today's need but are fast hurtling toward obsolescence as the power of the silicon processors increases. To meet this need for faster and more efficient storage devices, there are many promising products on the horizon.

HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY
For many years, many digital devices have used the medium of light to store digital data. The most famous of these are the optical disks. These are of two types - compact disks (CDs) and digital video disks (DVDs). Both of these consist of a circular platter made of tough plastic on which a laser beam emitted by the optical drive creates a pattern of microscopic pits. Any time the operating system wants to access data, the laser reads this pattern on the disk surface and transfers the information back to the computer. Currently, the optical disks are the most popular and cost effective removable storage media available in the market. However, due to the increasing speed of silicon microprocessors and the changing demands of the customers, optical disks are going to become an unsuitable storage media quite soon. Now, scientists have begun to work on a new high-capacity optical storage media based on what is called holographic memory." This uses interference of light in light-sensitive crystals to store data. The digital information is stored within the entire volume of the storage device, not just on the exposed surface as in the case of optical disks. Holographic data storage is three dimensional, instead of two dimensional, and offers much better data density and transfer speed. It can store as much as one terabyte of data in a device just about half the size of your thumb. Conventional digital data storage devices write and read data one bit at a time, which is a major drag on access speed. Holographic technology in contrast reads and writes a million bits of data in parallel with a single flash of light. Holographic storage devices use a laser beam to store data. The beam is split into two by a beam splitter. The beams pass through a semi-transparent crystal which acts like a filter to turn light into readable bits of data. Research into holographic memory is nothing new. It has been going on since the 1960s. However, holographic storage devices couldn't come into the market because the technology was quite expensive and couldn't compete with magnetic and optical storage devices that were being mass produced by the millions. Things have begun to change now and it seems that holographic storage devices may become commonplace in another four or five years or so. It is estimated that a holographic disk would be the shape and size of a DVD but have a capacity 27 times greater. This would translate to about 1 terabyte of data per disk. In addition, the holographic storage device would have a data transfer rate 25 times greater than today's DVDs! Clearly, holographic technology would change the data storage industry beyond recognition.

MOLECULAR MEMORY
Molecular memory is still in the realm of research, with scientists testing various ways to make a practical product that can be introduced in the market. In this, individual molecules and nanowires are used to create large arrays of memory bits. Each molecule acts like a switch that can be either in the off or on state, thus representing digital data. With this technology, up to 50 times more data can be crammed into the same storage space as today's magnetic storage devices such as hard disks. Nano technology-based devices that may replace today's silicon storage media are still a couple of decades away.

MRAM CHIPS
Magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) chips are one of the most important inventions in the computer industry that can change the data-storage landscape in the near future. These chips use a radical new technology to store data by relying on magnetic properties rather than electric charge that is used by today's silicon chips. In other words, they store digital information exactly like a hard drive. Unlike the latter, the MRAM chips have the capacity to hold data even after power supply has been switched off. They offer phenomenally fast read and write speeds and do not become degraded with time unlike USB drives. MRAM chips have the potential one day to replace hard drives as well as removable storage devices based on Flash memory. They are an ideal substitute for today's silicon chips which are quite unwieldy and big to be used in mobile computing devices. James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk