What is disruptive technology?
Innovative or evolved technology that changes how society behaves, thinks, interacts, or how industries operate.
What is an example of an older disruptive technology?
Plastic—it replaced wood, glass, and metal due to its low weight and transportability.
How have streaming platforms disrupted society?
They changed how people consume entertainment and how entertainers earn revenue.
What characterizes a disruptive technology?
It significantly alters existing systems, business models, or behaviors.
What is blockchain?
A large, distributed database that records transactions directly between parties without intermediaries.
What makes blockchain disruptive?
It creates secure, transparent, traceable transactions without a central authority.
What are the four key characteristics of blockchain?
1) Open record
2) Chain of transactions
3) Decentralized system
4) Consensus mechanism
Why is blockchain resilient?
All participants have identical copies of data; if part of the system fails, it continues functioning.
What industries use blockchain?
Banking, government, supply chain, healthcare, insurance, transportation.
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
Computer systems imitating human cognitive functions like learning and problem‑solving.
What is machine learning (ML)?
A subset of AI where computers detect patterns in data and apply them to new tasks.
Why is AI considered disruptive?
It can automate tasks, analyze massive data, and enhance decision‑making in nearly every industry.
Give an example of AI disrupting sports.
Electronic Line Calling in tennis uses AI, geometry, and cameras to determine line calls more accurately than humans.
What happened during the pandemic with line umpires?
AI line-calling replaced many umpires to reduce human contact.
What is “the cloud”?
Global servers in data centers that store and process files so they can be accessed from any device.
Why is the cloud disruptive?
It eliminated the need for local storage, increased accessibility, and transformed how businesses manage data.
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
Physical objects connected to the internet via embedded identifiers that let them communicate.
What are three benefits of the cloud?
No duplicate document downloads
Access from any internet-connected device
Files travel with you anywhere
What qualifies as a “thing” in IoT?
Anything connected—e.g., a person with a heart monitor or a car with sensors.
What is RFID?
A tag-based identification system using antennas for automatic object identification.
What is an EPC?
Electronic Product Code—next-generation barcode relying on RFID.
What is edge computing?
Processing data closer to where it’s generated to reduce bandwidth and cloud dependence.
What does “word” mean in computer science?
A data unit consisting of a string of bits (typically 16, 32, or 64 bits).
Why is cybersecurity increasingly important?
Growing disruptive technologies increase vulnerability to cyberattacks and privacy risks.
