Education Science and Technology and Life

  The barriers which stand in the way of acquiring science and technology literacy are not so much the result of dominated and oriented hardware and software (these barriers to understanding may be overcome), but rather the result of monopolistic trends observed in connection with software, something which may lead to standardization, conformism and even manipulation in guiding users through the maze of information on the web. Search engines, so-called "related sites", below-the-surface sales psychology strategies, non-transparent holding companies, all of which are interwoven and interconnected with each another, attempt to steer users. Another example is the technology of encryption. The latter makes safe data transfer possible for private users, for instance when shopping on Internet with their credit cards. The few States has passed restrictive legislation in this area, banning the export of particularly safe encryption systems and thus favoring some companies in their ...