Introduction

Abstract

All successful technologies change our lives. Up until the last fifteen years, cars had changed things more than computers had. Mainframe computers by then had changed administration and management, production in corporations, and scientific research, but they had a minimal effect on everyday life. It was really only with the advent of the World Wide Web and the incorporation of computer chips in many common appliances that the lives of most people were changed by computer technology. One of the most important features of information technology (IT) today is its ubiquity. This ubiquity is a result of what James Moor calls the logical malleability of computers. Computers can be programmed to do a large variety of different things; route information packets on the Internet, simulate hurricanes, make music, and instruct robots. They can be adapted to many different devices and put to many different uses. They allow us to work online, shop online, relax by playing computer games interactively with people from all over the world, get our news, study for our degrees, and find most of the information that we require.