TWC end of semester review

I recall during the first lesson of twc, prof asked us what we thought this course was about. I believe many of us actually thought twc would be about different case studies on technology and how that particular technology has changed the world. However, I believe most of us would have realized that this course is actually aimed to equip us with the concepts, analytical skills and mind-sets so that we can critically analyse, predict and understand how technology will/can/have affect the world in general. I am sure many of us have noticed that the set of words below are always present in every set of slides that prof puts up.

To help equip you with:

•          a conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation;

•          a solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.

The course has taught me a myriad of things, and I will be reviewing some of the more important concepts and skills I have grasped over the semester.

The hunger

Countries that are complacent and believe they already know all that there is to know will ultimately lose out and fail eventually. They are contented with what they already possess and are very resistant to change. This is the falling star mind-set, and many large civilizations have lost their competitive edge due to such complacency and lack of hunger for success. I recall prof mentioning how China was initially a very advanced kingdom but eventually got caught up and overtaken by other nations due to their resistance to change. It is important that we maintain a rising star mind-set, one that is open to new ideas and have the hunger to constantly improve ourselves. This mind-set is key to success as it will encourage greater innovation to improve ourselves, which will ultimately lead to great success.

Yali’s question

In the book Guns, Germs and steel, Yali asked this question
"why you white people build up so much cargo and takes it to New Guinea, but we black people has a little own cargo".
This question requires the understanding of why is there so much inequality between developed and less developed countries. Throughout the course of the semester, we have discussed many possible reasons for this inequality. Such could include the rising/falling star mind-sets as mentioned above, colonisation by the British or the geographical location of nations.

Going beyond Yali’s question

Prof mentioned that we should go beyond Yali’s question and ask ourselves how we could help solve this inequality. As such, throughout our course of study we did learn about how many different technologies could help close up this inequality gap. Such could include how ICT could provide access to the internet to these less developed societies to provide them the information needed to progress or how we should progress in a sustainable manner so as to not jeopardize the future for these less-developed nations.

Sustainability

In my opinion, I thought that the need to be sustainable in my progress is also one of the key lessons that TWC has taught me. Sustainable progress is progress that does not compromise the environment for future generations. This is imperative as at the rate the developed nations such as the United States or Singapore is consuming, the resources would be used up very quickly. We need to achieve a cyclical process of development is vital so that we can recycle and reuse the resources we use. Technologies such as the toilet that can generate electricity through the waste we produce or solar panels are all good examples of technology that can allow us to progress sustainably.

To conclude, this twc course has greatly broadened my perspectives and knowledge over the short course of 3 months. The specific case studies might not be relevant in years to come, but I believe the skills and concepts I have acquired will definitely be useful and relevant in my endeavours in life in the future. Thank you prof and classmates for everything and good luck for our final examinations!

TWC lesson 12

Brief Summary

The first presentation was about prosthetic. Talked about the history of prosthetic, possible economic, social issues of modern prosthetic, proposed solutions and possible improvements to the technology. The second was somewhat similar to the first with many additional fields like Bionic eye. Third presentation was about the different preservative methods of food, in-vitro meat and the future consideration of such a technology. Fourth was about sex and advertisement. A interesting and eye-catching presentation about the timeline of sexual education, the implications and the future consideration of it. The last presentation was about virtual reality. It talks about virtual world, how meetings can actually take place online in a virtual reality. Augmented reality and how it has already been incorporated into our lives. Ikea has been using it to allow people to know how the furniture could look in your house.

Interesting observations

The presentation was very interesting and the prospects of mind controlled prosthetics are very exciting.  The part of how war created demand for prosthetics was a very interesting part as well. It was exciting how prosthetics could create a permanent solution to paralysis and the impacts of such a technology is wide and far reaching.

Economic effects- The group mentioned that mind controlled prosthetics cost 8m dollars now. However I do not think that this is a problem as the initial cost of technology is always expensive. I believe that as more research and innovation occur, the cost will plummet and it would be made available to a larger proportion of the population. For example, 3D  printing technology actually helped lower the cost of mind-controlled prosthetics to 500USD dollar. As further development occurs in the 3D printing fields, it could be possible that the cost for prosthetics could decrease further in the future.

Social effects- However it does make sense that if the prosthetics were actually stronger than our original limbs, people might want to amputate their arms just to replace it with the prosthetics. This would thus create many social problems. However, such a technology would also mean that the older generation would have the ability to regain some of their abilities to carry on with their daily lives.

The second presentation was somewhat similar to the first. However, Cedric’s group talked about more fields such as the Bionic eye and the improved hearing aids. It is exciting how technology has provided solutions to diseases that were previously thought to be untreatable. As technology advances, what other diseases could be treated? Would there be a time where technology has advanced so much that immortality is no longer a myth?

The group also mentioned that space race can actually be a good thing for humanity. I do agree on that part, and that I believe that competition is one of the best sources of motivation. However, such competition is usually a race to complete a certain weapon and to protect national interest. If we are able to channel such competition into developing technology that helps humanity on the whole, I believe it could greatly benefit mankind.

One problem I have identified with In-vitro meat was that there could be a disparity between the rich and the poor.The rich will continue to eat normal meat while the poor will have to settle with meat that is made in labs. Golden rice was mentioned, however I have read an article about how golden rice is actually not very effective. The beta-carotene in golden rice can only be activated in the presence of fats, and the person that actually requires such rice normally would have a healthy diet that consists of fats. There might be hidden implications in such GMO food and extensive research and technological assessment should be carried out before allowing it to be commercialized.

Meat is a very inefficient form of food. Interesting point as a large amount of corn is used in the process of making the meat. Poor storage leads to almost 10% loss in the total yield. Poor storage leads to spoilage and pest like rats could damage the harvest.

Key takeaways

The world is rapidly changing and technology is rapidly being innovated. From the different presentations, it actually identifies many implications of the technology that is not known to me. It is important to try our best to identify such implications so that disasters such as the Monsanto or Ecaudor disaster does not repeat itself.

Rating

8/10 as it presented much different indepth analysis of technologies such as the mind-controlled prosthetics, virtual reality or the use of sexual advertisement. Greatly broadened my perspectives of the technologies discussed. 

TWC Lesson 11

Presentation week.

Group 1: Futuristic buildings.

http://twcfuturists.wix.com/home

The first group’s presentation about futuristic buildings tackled quite a number of pressing issues our planet is currently facing. It has also taught me the history of buildings and the current interesting technologies used in buildings. It was really interesting as they brought a model along to show us how their design of the futuristic building would look like. In my opinion, their model would be able to tackle a number of problems.

Rising sea levels

Global warming has caused quite a number of problems for our environment. The increased global temperature has caused huge icebergs to melt in the poles, and that is raising our seawater levels. As such, a floating/waterproof home does sound like a very feasible technology for low-lying countries that will be affected. Furthermore, evidences has shown that the increased global temperature has also caused stronger and more frequent typhoons and hurricanes to be formed. Such could cause extreme flooding and devastation to areas affected. A recent example would be hurricane haiyan that devastated Philippines.  As such, a floating house could help them reduce the damage incurred as it would be able to float amidst all the flooding and increase survival rates for those affected.

Lack of land

There has been a lack of land for residential purposes in many developed nations and cities recently. Singapore has been experiencing a lack of land for many years now as seen from our high prices for property. The fact that our HDBs are being built higher can also be seen as evidence of our land shortage. As such, living in/on the sea would greatly ease the land crunch on such developing countries as they would be able to allocate housing on the sea. Such would lead to more people being able to afford housing as the increased supply of housing would drive prices of housing down.

However, the important issue here is the price of such buildings. Would they be a novelty only available to the rich? From the presentation, it seems like the technology needed to build such a structure is pricey and is very likely unavailable to the less well-off. Underwater turbines and solar panels are all expensive structures. It is important that we do not get complacent when we complete such technology and continue to strive for and innovate ideas to drive the cost down. For example, with the extensive research done on plastic recently, could we possibly build the structure out of the cheaper plastics instead?

Group 2: Clean energy

http://thisishoyee.wix.com/cleanenergy

My group was the second to present and our topic was clean energy. Due to our negative approach to presenting, we exceeded the timing pretty badly. As such, this has actually taught me that when presenting an idea to an audience, we should always try to capture their attention and allow them to participate. We should have only presented on the ideas that were interesting instead of reading word to word from our website. Throughout my research of clean energy, I have come across many interesting applications and types of hydroelectricity. Through all the research, it seems like the world already possess the technology necessary to be sustainable, but many political and social issues are preventing that from taking place.

Group 3: Nanotechnology

http://twc2013groupone.wix.com/smallisthenewbig

Nanotechnology is one of the upcoming technologies that will revolutionize the way we do things. It is exciting to know the wide variety of ways nanotechnology could be applied to. Such include

Healthcare

The group talked about how nanotechnology could be used to kill cancer cells without harming the normal cells. Such is a huge improvement from our current chemotherapy methods were all the cells within the vicinity are damaged and destroyed. Such could make cancer treatments much more tolerable as the heavy side effects such as vomiting from the chemotherapy could be avoided. Furthermore, nanorobots that can specifically target cancer cells seem like a much more efficient way of curing cancer as compared to chemotherapy where some portions of the cancerous cells may not be destroyed.

Hydrophobic nano particles

I have seen many videos that shows how such hydrophobic particles work. It really seem like magic to me the first time I saw it, on how mud water or water can just slide off cotton materials as if the surface was waxed. If anyone is interested, here's the video.

The first thing that came to my mind was how it could be applied to army equipment. Imagine spraying such a coating on my boots, field camp would be so much more bearable with dry feet! Such technology could also be used for windscreens for cars during a storm to increase visibility, or sprayed on to glasses so that they do not fog up or get wet in humid environments.

However, as prof always says, technology is easy but people are hard. There are many possible consequences of such technology and I believe we should properly assess and forecast Nanotechnology so as to be prepared and prevent any negative impacts it could bring. As I stated in one of the post below, movies often showcase the possible implications of future technologies. In movies such as GI Joe: The rise of the Cobra(2009) or The Day the earth stood still(2008), it all shows how nanotechnology has been converted into weapons capable of mass destruction. Although such movies are based on fictions, I believe such concerns does stand true. If some scientist managed to convert nanotechnology into workable weapons, the consequences would be dire.   

To conclude, the presentations gave me great insights into different technologies and has helped me broaden my knowledge base. I would give this lesson a 9/10!

TWC Individual report

Hi guys! this is my individual report regarding Therapeutic Cloning- The next breakthrough in human healthcare.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw1zYx50DOwaRlVqaUhtZXRmNm8/edit?usp=sharing

TWC Lesson 10

Brief Summary

The lesson started out with a brief summary of what we went through in our past lessons. Afterwards we watched a very interesting video of a man showing the 20 upcoming technologies. We were then brought through the various methods of technology assessment and forecasting.

Interesting observations

By using gaming as a method of foresight by stimulating the scenarios to derive the possible implications of the technology. In my opinion, I believe gaming really does has a lot of potential which are not utilized fully. I have read and posted an article to the Facebook page regarding how gaming helped solve the biological configurations of the AID virus recently, and it was a really good example of how gaming can be utilized to solve real live problems. I believe gaming works well for problem solving as it adds a level of fun to the problem solving, and this provides great motivation for users to want to solve and work on the problem.  I have personally known many friends that could stay on their computers for almost 16 hours a day, only stopping to eat. If we could somehow retain the fun aspects in gaming and integrate the problem into the game itself, I believe it would be a great problem solving tool. Furthermore, the gamers population normally doesn’t get paid to play the game, hence the labor cost could be considered almost negligible. If we could somehow integrate upcoming technology that needs to be assessed into a game, we would probably be able 

to come up with the implications that follow that technology.  

There is also a need for nations to prioritize and carefully choose what sorts of industry/research it should venture into. One aspect of technology assessment is of whether the technology is worth venturing upon, and countries should invest greatly into such technology assessment efforts as they would determine the direction of where the country is heading. There is a global shift towards cleaner sources of energy like solar and nuclear, and people are moving away from the usage of fossil fuels as energy. In this case I believe countries like Nigeria should move away from their reliance on the trade of petroleum and diversify their economies. I have learnt in a Leadership&Team building course that the ruler of Dubai recognized that solely relying on the sale of fossil fuels would not benefit his city in the long run, and he came up with a series of plans like the opening of free trade zones to attract major companies into his city. These were due to good foresight and the good technology assessment of petroleum as a declining industry.

There was something interesting that I have often observe, that the type of movies screened in those times actually kind of shows what the near future contains for us. For example, the recent movies such as Resident Evil, The Island or even Jurassic Park showcases some of the issues that may arise due to cloning. Movies like Alien vs Predator and The Avengers has actually showcased mankind’s curiosity about outer space, of the recent hype into venturing into outer space.  Although most of the scenarios are plain science fiction, 

there are many aspects of the movies that actually seem pretty plausible.

Key takeaways.

Technology assessment and forecasting is a vital process for any organization. It is vital as it helps predict what sort of issues could arise from the implementation of the said technology, and whether the technology would benefit mankind as a whole. In my opinion, I believe that technological forecasting would be of greater important than technological assessment as there are less sunk cost when you identify the issue early, hence the idea can be scrapped more easily. As compared to if millions have already been spent on a project and a major issue is found, organizations will be more reluctant to scrap the project but might instead try to cover up for the issue.

Issues for discussion

I realized there were not really any in-depth discussion of some key technology assessment and forecasting methods. I understood what the topic was about but didn’t really understand how they actually carried out the forecasting and assessment. Perhaps we could have discussed upon one prominent case study of a particular forecasting/assessment case.

Personal Rating

I give this class a 7/10. The information given was relevant but perhaps some specific cases could help clarify some doubts. 

TWC Lesson 9

Brief summary

This week’s lesson was about new and emerging technologies and world change. This was a very interesting lesson that talks about the different drivers for emerging and new technologies and the interesting technologies like nanotechnology and artificial intelligence system.

Interesting observations

There was a discussion on facial recognition abilities of augmented reality devices in class. I found that to be quite a creepy thought, and to think that such technology has already been researched and implemented in some websites like Facebook. It’s a scary thought because strangers could easily find out a myriad of information about you just with one look at you. There is no question that we have revealed way too much personal information on the internet, at least on my part. If someone really wanted to, I believe they could find out many things about me just by looking at my facebook pictures and activities. If such a technology was widely implemented, would that not cause a situation where privacy is easily breached? There are many pros and cons to this augmented reality technology and I believe that an adequate amount of effort should be placed into balancing the benefits of the technology with the social issues it could bring.

Another interesting observation I made was on the future of plastic electronic technology. The video that was showed was really insightful and provided a lot of possibilities plastic electronics could entice. It is hard to imagine a contact lense that could display images directly into your sight and the fact that such a technology could be made available in the near future is an exciting thought. The idea that prof brought up where the newspapers could be made obsolete with a permanent plastic one was a great idea in my opinion. Everyday, tonnes and tonnes of paper are wasted to print the newspapers which are only used once. It is such a waste of resources! If we could have one universal plastic newspaper for every household in which individuals can go online to pay for the newspaper, it would greatly reduce the wastage of paper.

The purpose that artificial intelligence are being used in japan is a scary thought though. I have seen documentaries where Japanese guys are marrying this “online wifes” through some specialized hotel where a virtual marriage would be held. If the artificial intelligence system could now be incorporated into humanoids, the consequences might be quite dire for the Japanese society. Japanese teenagers might be opting to marry a humanoid other half and the fertility rates might plunge. Furthermore, I can foresee a lot of social and ethical issues arising. Would these humanoid dolls be considered human? What are the penalties if they were to do something wrong? It is a very tangled issue and I believe that governments in question should really proceed with caution and care when dealing with the issue.

One of the presenters also brought up the idea of nuclear fission as a possible method of obtaining energy. The technology does indeed sound very promising, as its raw materials are hydrogen which can be found all over the atmosphere. However, the question is whether the cost of perfecting this technology will be worth the effort. In my opinion, it sounds more feasible to invest in coming up with new and better methods of harnessing the sun as a source of energy. The sun provides so much energy to earth, and if a country like Germany could successfully make use of solar energy, I don’t see why the rest of the world couldn’t. The solution to our energy crisis is right there infront of us, why are governments around the world not putting in 100% to perfect the techniques for capturing solar energy? Such is some of the questions that really puzzle me at times.

Key takeaways

Technologies are rapidly evolving and renewing itself in current times. It is imperative that despite all the benefits and convenience such new technologies can bring, we do not overlook any possible social, economic, environmental or ethical issues that might entail. It is important that we, as the consumers, are able to see the big picture of any emerging technologies and not just be blinded by the immediate benefits that the technology can provide.

Personal rating

7/10. I felt that some of the topics were not discussed in depth. However, I blame the lack of time as emerging technologies is a really broad and wide topic that a short discussion of 3 hours would not be enough to cover.  

TWC lesson 8

Summary

Energy and world change. Past present future.

The next industrial revolution will be when we shift our current fossil fuel based, energy intensive economy to an environmentally sound and sustainable clean and green approach. We were shown a video on new ideas and old ideas, and that if we follow the same direction that we have been following in the past our environment will not sustain. We need to follow new directions for a totally different new economy.

Drivers of change for energy consumption.

•  Rising energy consumption and need for economic development. Developed countries have did very well with fossil fuels, however China and other developing countries cannot follow such fossil fuel consumption patterns. These developed countries have jeopardized the environment greatly in the process. Furthermore, there is not enough fossil fuels for everyone to consume at the same rate as an average Singapore or U.S. citizen. We will have to find new ways to allow such developing countries to achieve such growth without compromising the environment. 

•  There is a need for sustainability. With the rising cost of fossil fuel, there is a need for new and more sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. Years ago when fossil fuels weren’t discovered in Brazil yet, they used agriculture to make alcohol as another source of energy. Now, they are able to produce the cheapest alcohol in the world out of sugar cane.

•   New technologies and approaches. Europe has enforced fluorescent light bulbs and banned the conventional light bulbs as fluorescent bulbs are more energy efficient.

• Cost is another driver. Fossil fuel takes millions of years to make. Its externalities can actually be the most expensive fuel we are burning. The extra cost is not taken into account and we are burning such fossil fuels instead of using them to make useful products like plastics and stuff.

We then moved on to the different considerations in energy and world change. The more notable one is energy security and energy as a source of income. The diagram shown to us next shows us that most of the energy come from the sun with exception to geothermal and nuclear energy. Next, we are shown diagrams that show us the percentage of different types of energy we are consuming. We were then shown two separate tables that contain shocking facts. The first one tells us that the sun actually provides more than 7000 times the energy we consume yearly, and that the sun actually provides more energy to us in an hour than mankind can use in a year. The second one tells us how much energy one kilometre square of land can generate. It was shocking how much more wind and solar energy can be generated as compared to Biomass methods. It gets one thinking why people are still investing in planting sugarcanes or palm trees for energy when you can get so much more from solar or wind energy. We were then shown 2 videos, one on how Europe aims to achieve 20% renewable energy by 2020 and another on solar power plants in Africa.

Interesting keypoints and observations.

The diagram that shows how much solar energy provides to earth was mind blogging. The sun provides more energy in one hour than the human kind currently use in a year. Such statistics really makes me wonder why countries are not pooling resources to develop an efficient and cheap way of obtaining solar energy. Sunlight is free, and the sun would not burn out for another few billion of years. If we could somehow efficiently tap into this source of energy, wouldn’t that greatly help improve our sustainability? We using solar energy to develop, and the usage of such solar energy does not deny future generations of equal opportunities to tap on this solar energy. Furthermore, solar energy is a clean source of energy and does not create pollution as compared to the burning of fossil fuels.

I believe there is a need for countries dependant on fossil fuels as their main source of income to diversify and move on into profiting from other industries. In the Middle East, countries like Nigeria and Oman are very dependent on the sale of fossil fuels as their main source of income. As prof mentioned, 98% of Nigeria’s economy is dependent on petroleum. There is a global movement of developed countries moving into cleaner and renewable sources of energy, like solar and wind energy. Alternatives for petroleum are being researched and it is possible that the world might become independent of fossil fuels in the future. Once that happen, such countries will lose their main source of income. Such would cause the divide between the rich and the poor to further widen.

On the presentation regarding Hempcrete, as beneficial as it sounds I believed there are still several downsides to this technology. The first and most important point is that it could mask the production of Marijuana. From the image below, it is frankly very hard to tell the differences between Hemp and Marijuana just by looking at it. Drug dealers could easily grow Marijuana among Hemp plantations and not be detected. Such could increase drug problems in the country. Furthermore, since hempcrete last for thousands of years as compared to normal concrete, wouldn’t that mean that hempcrete is extremely non-biodegradable? Such could add on to pollution problems. There is a need for careful considerations of the pros and cons of this technology before fully implementing it.

The top image shows Hemp plants while the bottom image show Marijuana plants.

Key takeaways

In order for us to achieve sustainable development, a transit from reliance on fossil fuels as energy sources to more renewable and cleaner sources of energy is needed. Solar energy from the sun, is readily available in many regions of the world and would be the ideal choice as the next main energy supplier. Other technologies such as wind, biomass and geothermal energy should also be invested in for a greater variety of sources for energy. If Germany, a country that does not get a lot of sunlight, could fare so well in utilising solar energy, it shows that solar energy will be viable in most parts of the world.

Issues for further discussion

Nuclear energy was brought up during this class. Nuclear energy is considered a clean form of energy, but I have actually read an article about the how the extraction of uranium is actually a very polluting process. It would be informative if everyone could discuss and be more informed on some of the unseen sides of the energy sources we regard to be clean and renewable.

Rating

I would give this class a 8/10. As always, it was mind-blowing and facts such as how much energy the sun provides in a year versus how much we use was very informative. The different perspectives of issues and the different technology presented by my fellow classmates helped me build a good knowledge of the current state of energy in the world.

TWC topical review.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm currently unable to show my topical paper on the blog. Please take a look at the link below instead. I will try to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Therapeutic cloning- The next next breakthrough for human healthcare

http://www.scribd.com/doc/176826931/Therapeutic-Cloning-The-next-breakthrough-for-human-healthcare

TWC lesson 7

Summary

Today’s lesson started with a recap of what is technology and how the vast majority of organisms are made out of the same building blocks. Breakthroughs in Biotechnology is usually incorporated in the Biomedical field first, then BioAgriculture and lastly Biotechnology field. The biotechnology is classified under red, blue, green and white areas. We are going through the blue, green and white areas this lesson.

We are becoming increasingly urbanized. Urban population is going to continue to increase as more people shift towards urban environments. When people shift from rural to urban environments, your consumption pattern changes. Your demands as well as your consumptions will increase. There are many benefits but there are also flipsides. Examples are overcrowding and an increased exposure to diseases. With this trend, more and more people are leaving their farms and moving into cities. Interestingly, food productivity has increased almost 10 times despite the fact that there are less people working in the fields.

The next part of the lesson moved into discussing about key biobusiness opportunity areas for the white, blue and green BioTechnology areas. Some interesting areas are organic food and GM food. The next slide brought us back to the valley summit diagram again. Currently many of the smaller scale farms are producing goods that are valley opportunities. One of the methods to answer the second part of Yali’s question is to come out with methods to lift such valley opportunities to summit opportunities. We then watched a video on Biotechnology regarding the application of enzymes in industrial products. Prof then talked about an interesting topic on food security. And that everyone has the right to adequate food and to be free from 

hunger.

Some of our food development is moving into the wrong direction. Many food that are developed out there are not helping with the situation of lack of food. Money is spent on developing food like fast food to increase its appeal and taste. These funds are being wasted and not used on researching for more productive and nutritional food production methods.

Interesting key points and observation

For the issue about GM food labelling, I believe we should label it as it should be a right for people to choose what they want to consume. Genes of interest are being extracted from many different organisms and inserted into the cultivated plants and animals. Hence it creates some issues that if the GM food is not labelled, what if that particular GM food has genes which I am trying to avoid eating or that I am allergic to? For example, if a growth hormone gene from a pig is being extracted and inserted into potatoes, most people wouldn’t mind the difference but vegetarians and Muslims would definitely want to know. We should label GM food so that people can choose what they want and avoid what they do not want to consume.

It is interesting to note that farmlands are more productive if they are grown on a large scale with machineries. Traditional farming methods where many farmers work on different small plots of land are unproductive as their process is slow and their knowledge of BioArgiculture is minimal. As urbanisation occurs, more people shift towards urban areas and farmlands are sold to others. This allowed people to buy over large plots of land to carry out Mechanisation to greatly increase productivity. Mechanisation in farming could be the use of large scale irrigation systems to water plants or the use of Combine Harvesters to increase productivity in cultivating the fruits and vegetation. It is imperative for farmlands to employ such technology as our population is growing, yet our farmlands are shrinking. There is a need for productivity to increase in order to meet the needs of the growing population.

Regarding JingHui’s presentation, I believe that there are really many complications in solving world hunger. Although there is definitely no doubt that there is enough food for everyone in the world, complications like politics and personal interest. It’s a real pity that we have enough food to end world hunger, yet there is no means to distribute this food in a fair and proper manner. The production of larger amounts of food does not mean that world hunger can be solved. The more important factor is how we can allocate these excess food that we do not need to the people that need it more. Personally, I have seen huge amounts of food being wasted during my army days. Pots and pots of rice and food are thrown away in the food house in army bases. I have seen my men throw away untouched boxes of ration given to them just because they did not feel like eating it. The key to solving world hunger, in my opinion, is to come out with effective means to allocate food in a fair and proper manner.

Key takeaways

We are going to see 2Billion more people joining our population by 2050, a huge percentage of the lower income population is going to move up to the middle income levels by 2050 as well. Both of these trends would greatly increase the demand for food, energy and many other products. This would mean that we will have to increase our production of goods to cater to the new demands from these movements. The summit opportunities for the near future could be methods that solves these problems.

Issues for further discussion

I was wondering about how efficient/effective these BioTechnology really are. I’ve read some articles regarding the implications of farming sugar cane as a form of energy, and how these reduced arable farmland for agriculture. Some discussion about the limitations of the technology discussed would provide a broader perspective of the issue.

Rating

I would give this lesson a 9/10 as we had sufficient time to discuss issues in class. The issue of BioBusiness was sufficiently discussed and informative data was provided.

TWC lesson 6

Brief summary of the lesson

The lesson started off with an introduction to the biomedical and healthcare revolution. BioBusiness is the commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. Prof then talked about the individual sectors of biobusiness. And that despite beauty and sex trade being taken off the list, the market size of the business was still very huge. It is evident that this market will only continue to grow bigger as more people move up the income ladder, leading to an increase in demand for healthcare. The discussion then moved on to key BioBusiness opportunity areas and that BioInnovation has a huge potential in revolutionizing the BioBusiness landscape. The lesson then moved into global burden of disease. It was interesting to note that as a country develops, infectious diseases decrease while chronic diseases increases. Afterwards,we discussed about how important ICT was in the development of Biomedical science, in which Prof quoted the example of the genetic makeup of Insulin. That scientist nowadays can easily compare and share data through ICT technologies, and that can lead to easier sharing of knowledge which in time leads to greater innovation. It was interesting how ICT technologies can interact with healthcare technologies to form new technologies like telehealthcare. We are in the middle of two revolutions. Healthcare revolutions and biomedical science revolution.  Basically everything we talked about above are subsets of the two. These two are summits opportunities. The last part of the lesson talked about specific areas of innovations like prosthetics, nanomedicine and stemcells. 

Interesting observation and ideas

Firstly, Telemedicine is a field with a large amount of potential. It basically means that patients do not have to physically travel down to the clinic all the time and instead use social media like Skype to facilitate a consultation. If daily consults can take place through skype. It will make a big difference. Especially for old people who have mobility issues, they will not have to waste time travelling nor waste time queuing up for a consultation. They could just carry on with their lives at home and wait for a call from the doctor/nurse when they are ready. This could lead to massive savings on healthcare as unnecessary trips to the clinics are reduced. There’ll be less crowd at the hospitals and patients who really need the healthcare can get it in a shorter time frame. The benefits are numerous, and this could potentially revolutionize the way we consume healthcare.There were many areas which I found very interesting in this lesson as I took biology in JC and this lesson helped apply many areas of what I learnt into practical usage.

Another issue is on Obesity. Obesity has recently taken the world by storm, and is one major problem in the developed worlds these days. In my opinion, prevention is always better than cure. But are governments around the world doing enough in preventing obesity? When tobacco was proven to be carcinogenic, governments around the world took steps to curb down on the advertisements and did extensive campaigns to educate the public on the risk involved with smoking. Cigarettes were taken out of the television screen, any commercials of tobacco were banned, and taxes were heavily implemented on tobacco. My question is why these measures are not implemented in today’s society in regards to obesity. Obesity is a disease, it stems from a bad habit that is hard to kick and that it has heavy health risk associated with it. Shouldn’t the government be curbing fast food commercials, taxing food with bad nutritional content to reduce the demand for these unhealthy, obesity inducing food products? 

Finally, I would like to talk about stem cells and its potential in BioBusiness. My individual report would be on therapeutic cloning, which is simply creating stem cells in the lab and using those stem cells to treat disease. The potential of this industry is massive, and it will definitely be a huge part of BioBusiness one day. However, right now there are a lot of ethical and social concerns surrounding this science. Since therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning(which is the cloning of a whole human being) are very similar in the processes, there are many concerns that if therapeutic cloning was allowed to develop unrestricted, reproductive cloning will inevitably be mastered in the process. Due to these social and ethical issues there are no public funding for these research and a lot of restrictions are placed on their resources, leading to the slow growth and innovation in the field of therapeutic cloning. I feel that it’s a pity that such a technology with such potential is being held back by ethics and morality. 

Key takeaways

As prof said over and over again, we are living in exciting times! The BioBusiness is evolving rapidly to cope with the huge increase in demand from healthcare and we will be seeing some huge changes in the BioBusiness industry. Innovations like using robots to replace nurses and the evolution of Nutraceutical science are just some of the examples of how the future of healthcare might very possibly look like. In such fluctuating times we must learn to adapt and predict such changes in order to acheive a rising star position. 

Issues for further discussion

I thought the idea of nutraceutical science was a really interesting topic. Imagine eating an apple with properties that can lower blood pressure! Would be interesting if we could have a detailed discussion regarding the possible implications of this science.

Personal rating

I would give this lesson a 9/10 as the area of BioBusiness was particularly interesting to me. The ideas and concepts taught in this lesson really broadens my perspective and increases my general knowledge. Really looking forward to part 2 of BioBusiness next lesson!

TWC Lesson 5

Brief summary of the lesson

This lesson was about Information communication technology and world change. The past, present and future. We went on to have an in-depth discussion about the various areas of interest in ICT . The lesson then moved on to whether we have made use of the potential of ICT to change the world into a better place. Some notable examples like alleviating poverty and dealing with the digital divide are some of the examples of how ICT might change the world. We were then informed that we are currently experiencing the start of a knowledge revolution, and that our productivity has the potential to increase a further 20x if the trends of previous revolutions follow. Potential risk/dangers associated with ICT were then discussed. Lastly, we went through the required readings which were related to ICT.

Interesting observation and ideas

Firstly, I agree with prof that gaming has great potential in changing the world. I believe educational gaming has an added advantage of fun over conventional educational programs. The "fun" factor promotes interest in the subject and can lead to a greater length of interaction with the program. Imagine a game that is able to accurately educate people on how to do CPR. This game could be easily spread all over the world through the internet and educate millions on the know-hows of CPR with minimal resources required. Imagine how many lives could be saved just from that one software. SMU has also been using an educational game called "Human Invasion Project" that is an interactive role-playing game that teaches grammar. I believe that in the near future, gaming would constitute a considerable part in education around the world.

I found it interesting that in this age of time, we are both consumers and producers of ICT products. When we use a product, for example YouTube to source for information we require, we are consuming their service of providing the video to us and in turn they earn advertisement fees from us visiting their websites. However, the intriguing point is that as we consume their services, the system records down our video history and generates a basic genre of what we are interested in. After a few more visits, the videos recommended to us becomes videos that the system believe we are interested in. In other words, when we consume You tube’s services, we are actually producing the services that will be available to us during our next visit. It’s fascinating how this technology might develop over the next few years and I believe that such occurrences will occur more and more as we advance over to Web 3.0.

With such a huge array of information available on the mass media, we got to see the big picture with these information. We need to manage our knowledge and analyse data we come across on the mass media today. Data on its own is useless if you cannot make sense of it. Managing data is a crucial skill that we must develop this this time of knowledge revolution. There is an excess of information and we should try to effectively filter out the information we need. 

Lastly, I would like to talk about Daniel's question on whether we should make access to the internet a human right. What really amazed me in the discussion is how the access to the internet is made a human right in Finland. The internet started out as a privilege for the affluent in the initial stages of its production. Now, due to the enormous benefits it could have on an individual, Finland has made access to the internet a human right. I couldn't help but wonder what next could be made a human right? If healthcare progressed enough, could healthcare be made a human right next? It just amazes me how much humanity is progressing, to the extent where our basic human rights are actually increasing.

Key Takeaways

The world of Information and Communication technology is changing rapidly. With these changes, the information we are exposed to increases exponentially as well. We need to learn how to manage all this information we are exposed to, on differentiating the good ones from the bad and develop the ability to make sense out of all these knowledge to help us in our decision making.

With the advances in social networks and our progression towards Web 3.0, we are both knowingly and unknowingly giving out our personal information to these software and platforms. This gives rise to privacy and security concerns as so much about us can actually be discovered through these technologies. We should take extra care in how we deal and use such ICT technologies and not expose ourselves to unnecessary dangers that could be present. 

Lastly, I would like to share this photo I saw online. Not everything on the internet is credible. Take everything with a pinch of salt!

Issues for further discussion

I believe there are still much to discuss in how we can protect the internet. Our lives revolves around the internet, the life we know would collapse without the internet. So how can we really protect the internet?

Personal rating

I would give this class an 8/10 as the issues covered are very comprehensive and it gave me a good understanding of how ICT is changing the world.

TWC lesson 4

Brief overview/summary

Before the lesson started, prof mentioned that contrary to what we discussed on facebook the other day regarding who should be responsible for sustainability, we as the consumers should be more responsible in creating a sustainable environment as compared to the government and the businesses. We elected our governments, our purchase pattern and demand determines what businesses will be created. Basically, we are actually subconsciously choosing the type of government and businesses we want. Once again, I’m enlightened.

The lesson started out with the learning of different drivers of world change like environmental and competition factors. Drivers for world change are factors that can bring about a direct change to the world. Prof then went on to explain the differences between revolutionary and evolutionary change. Afterwards, we went through the required readings and discussed the Chasm graph.

The second part of the lesson was about change management and change leadership. The differences between a leader and a manager was then discussed. Prof talked about the 3 types of mind sets of companies, the dodo the eagle and the ostrich. Two videos was showed to us that illustrates power forms of leadership. The last part of the lesson talked about the two models of responding to changing realities. First one being the traditional freeze-unfreeze-freeze model and the second being the modern continuous monitoring and renewal model.

Interesting observation and ideas

It is interesting how environmental factors have shaped our societies. Due to the effects of global warming, society has started to think about sustainability. On how we can obtain energy without compromising our environment so that future generations will not be deprived of the resources we enjoy now.

Disruptive change is a new term to me as well. It represents change that causes a irreversible change on our future. I would think that the invention of using fossil fuels to obtain energy would be a disruptive change as it has greatly changed the way we live and do things. In my opinion, i believe upcoming technology such as nanotechnology, 3D printing, augmented reality or therapeutic cloning will be the upcoming disruptive change that we will experience.

The two videos regarding leadership that prof showed us was really insightful and provided an alternative look at leadership

I was particularly fascinated by the video where there was a lone guy dancing. It showed that leadership is sometimes over-glorified. It was the courage of the first follower to join him that made him a leader. Without the first follower the lone guy would still be a nut dancing alone. However, when the mob formed everyone was cheering for the leader of the dance, but there was no particular honouring of the first follower. This could probably suggest that followers play an important part in a leader-follower relationship as well. And that a good leader cannot function without good followers.

The second video was about a kid who stood out to try to push a fallen tree out of the way, and that inspired others to join in to remove the fallen tree. I interpreted this as that anyone can be a leader. The courage to step forward when no one dares and lead the way might possibly be the only thing separating a follower from a leader. 

Key takeaways

The rising/falling star model has stood true throughout centuries. The rising star attitude has proven time and time again that if you're hungry for success and willing to adapt and change to different needs, you will stand a higher chance to succeed. The key here is to always adopt the rising star mentality in life.

DoDo,Ostrich,Eagle. It is important to identify which one of the attitudes you/your organization is adopting and strive towards changing into the Eagle's mentality.

Issues for further discussion

Regarding the Wikicells(A food packing method that eliminates the need for plastic by making the layer edible), does this technology really eliminates the need for plastics? Most fast food companies in Singapore are already using paper or biodegradable material to wrap their burgers. Also, it gives rise to the hygienic issue when the external layer of the food is eaten.

Personal rating

I would give the lesson an 8/10 as our time were used efficiently and discussions where on track, leading to informative exchange of information among the class.

Individual paper brief outline

Executive summary

This paper hopes to explore the potential of organ cloning and how it could greatly extend the longevity of the human race. The paper will analyse the potential applications to medicine, ethical/social concerns and the setbacks pertaining to organ cloning.

Why I chose this topic

Man have always strived to delay death and diseases that is caused by failures or malfunction of certain organs or tissues is a major setback for this quest of immortality. People with diseases like kidney failure have to go through an organ transplant, and there are two major problems faced by these people.

• The small supply of organs available to the patients
• The possible rejection of the organ by your body upon receiving it, as your genetic materials differs from the genetic materials of the donated organ

Organ cloning opens up whole new possibilities as it solves both the issues above. Firstly, the organs can be cloned in a laboratory, hence solving the issue of availability. Secondly, the organs are cloned using your own genes, hence greatly reducing the possibilities of a rejection by your body. Above are the reasons I chose this topic as they could, in my opinion, greatly lengthen humanities lifespan and is the next breakthrough in medical science.

Background

• Introduction of organ cloning and therapeutic cloning
• Potentials of this science.

Historical prospective

• Highlight the milestones/timeline of organ cloning
• Successes/Achievements in the past 

Current situation

• How close are we to mastering this technology?
• The reasons behind the limited funding of organ cloning research.
• Ethical issues and social issues on the subject

Future considerations

• Evaluating the ethical and social issues on the subject so that we can better understand the problems, and come out with a solution in solving such issues
• Weighing the inevitable social/ethical issues discussed above against the benefits of organ cloning.
• Would there be abuse of such a technology? (e.g. reproductive cloning)

Conclusion

To be drawn.

TWC lesson 3

Brief overview/summary

This lesson touched a lot on sustainability and how we can acheive that. I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of reading material we had to do before class, but it makes sense as sustainability is such a big issue nowadays and background knowledge pertaining to the area is definitely vital. The first article touched upon how Europe was the leader in sustainable technology and that it is actually profitable for their country. The advantages of backwardness was also an interesting topic regarding how countries that are lagging behind are actually advancing at a rapid rate due to the absence of need for risk and R&D cost.
The second part of the lesson touched upon technology and innovation management. We were taught about the transition of products from the innovation process to the market and the difficulties it will face. The two differences of the drives of innovation was particularly interesting

Interesting observation and ideas

The cyclical process of development seems to be the key to sustainability in the future. With countries in Europe enforcing laws and policies to curb down such linear processes, our future looks promising as development might very possibly be done without destroying our environment. However, cyclical processes of development is often expensive and the technologies are mostly out of reach to developing countries.
 Hence, this will give rise to a lot of complications in transforming this idea to a world wide scale. Developing countries nowadays are pressured to cut down on high polluting production methods and move on to less polluting, more cyclical types of production. Furthermore 20-30 years ago, the developed countries today once made full use of linear methods of development without any regards to the environment. Most of the climate problems and pollutions are caused by developed countries today like America, with their coal factories and what not from the industrial revolution. To worsen the issue, these pollutions are mainly causing major climate problems in such developing countries(evidence). So not only is developing countries suffering from the detriments of the developed county's pollution, the developed countries are pressuring them to spend millions more to bring their economies into a greener state. If i was in the shoes of these developing countries, I would definitely feel that there is a lot of injustice present. I'm not saying this whole sustainable future is bad, it is without a doubt imperative for our future. However, I believe there is much more the developed countries should be doing. In my opinion, these countries should clean up their own mess(the pollution) and aid these countries transit into a more sustainable economy for a better future of our planet.


Key Takeaways

I would agree with Prof that we should not just try to answer Yale's question, but to move further into understanding how we can solve this inequality question. There is only one earth for all 6 Billion of us and sustainable development is the only way for us to ensure that everyone has a basic standard of living. It does not make sense how USA( 5% of gloval population) is using up 30% of the earth's resources. Everyone has equal rights to live and although total equity for everyone (e.g. the venus project from jolene's presentation) is definitely not feasible(Due to the various factors we discussed in class, lack of motivation etc etc), we should at least strive to give everyone some basic form of living conditions.


Issues for further discussion

Should European countries make their sustainable technology free for developing countries? There's an obvious benefit of the world becoming more sustainable, despite profitability issues.


Personal rating

I would rate this class 9/10 as the discussions are comprehensive and our time in this lesson is managed very well.

TWC lesson 2

Lesson 2

The lesson started out with a discussion of what is innovation. And whether innovation is a subset of creation or is it the other way round. Prof then showed us a video about the progression of human history in 7 minutes. It was interesting to note that during the last few seconds of the video, there were much more events occurring. Coincidentally, technology has also been rapidly developing over the last couple of years as evident from the list of revolutionary development list from last lesson. Could the two trends be related in some ways? This is one of the questions I would like to further discuss in class as I believe that these two trends did not occur together by chance.

Part 2A

The lesson moved on to the different types of global dominance in the world. I found it interesting that a country enjoying industrial dominance over a product, for example China’s dominance over manufacturing, does not necessary mean that they are enjoying great monetary benefits from the dominance. Although most of the manufacturing of, say sports apparels are in china, most of these companies are owned by foreigners from all over the world. Thus the full profits from the sales of these products actually flow towards the shareholders and owners of the company rather than the residents of china.

Prof then showed us the model he made on to the rising star, falling star and dominant player model and the characteristics of each different player. Rising stars are usually open to new ideas and have the hunger to improve themselves whole falling stars are content with what they possess and shut themselves out, believing that they have learnt all there is to know. Dominant players are simply the body that has the greatest power within that particular industry and they can either have a rising star or falling star mind set. The key point differentiating rising and falling stars seems to be the amount of hunger for success they have.  It seems like organizations that do not have this hunger ultimately fail and lose out to their counterparts over time. This is one of the key takeaways for me to always be hungry for greater knowledge and bigger successes as history has proven time and time again that the absence of this “hunger” will probably lead to the presence of failure. 

The lesson then moved on to the graph of the percentage of world economy by region. I found that the trend of the graph is leading to a really good direction as the world economy seems much more balanced and equally distributed in 2050AD as compared to 1AD or 1500AD.

The article “The colonial holocaust and its legacy” was a really shocking read. Singapore was once colonized and possibly due to our strategic location for the British at that time, we benefited well from being colonized. Hence Singaporeans tend to have this mind-set that the British’s colonial conquest was probably beneficial to all the countries under her rule. It was hard for me to believe the damages colonization has one to most of the countries being colonized. It really broadened my layman perspectives and gave me a clearer and broader look at our world’s history.

Class 2B

The second part of the lesson moved on to technology and human development. Development is change in a positive direction, and it is one of the main factors that drives change. There are different types of development, and the main concern for most countries nowadays is sustainable development; developing the economy without compromising our environment. We were then introduced to the Human Development Index(HDI), which in my opinion does not fully represent the development of a country. In my opinion happiness is a really important factor in the development of a country. What is the point of fancy malls and high paying jobs if the person is not happy? Japan may be 10^th of the list according to the 2013 HDI report, however their depression and suicide levels remain in the top 10 of the list as well. The Gross Happiness Index was then introduced to us by prof, and to me it seemed like a much better measurement of the development of a country.

The individual presentations

I find that these presentations provides me with additional reading materials and provides differing insights to our course. Vanessa's understanding the rise of china provided an alternative answer to Yale's question as to why some have more while some have less. China could be rising faster than the rest due to their culture of being hard workers, hence giving the country an edge in terms of productivity. Another thought provoking presentation could be Sylvester's. For example, is the quality of a gene pool only determined by your IQ or physical appearance? What about qualities like temperance, humility or kindness? Einstein once said that we should not judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, hence I strongly believe that we shouldn't judge the quality of our current gene pool just by the levels of our intelligence. 

Overall I would give this lesson a 8/10. Although we sometimes digress from our main topic of discussion, I am learning new ideas from different perspectives most of the time. Its a shame that we couldn't discuss some issues further due to time constraint.

TWC Lesson 1

                                                                                                    

The lesson started out with icebreaker games as everyone introduced themselves and offered some of their opinions and knowledge about technology. It was really interesting as we had students from countries like India and China, and it greatly broadened our discussions to an international level. During the icebreakers, Prof Shahi asked the class,”how do you define technology?”.And after some discussion, I realized how shallow my perception of technology was. I found out that technology does not only apply to electronics and IT gadgets, but simple things like washing ones hands to get rid of germs can be considered a technology. Technology is vaguely described as the knowledge to do things, and using water as a tool to sanitise our hands is most definitely technology in my opinion.

Prof Shahi then showed us the video "shift happens". The video showed shocking statistics and facts that shows how rapidly our world is changing around us. China will so become the largest English speaking country, Nintendo(A gaming console company) has spent more than $140M on innovations for their games in 2002 while the US government spent less than half of that on research on education in the same year. 

The class then moved on the discuss about Guns Germs And Steel (Jared Diamond,2005).  The discussion namely talked about the possible reasons why some countries developed much slower than others, with the main example on New Guinea as compared to Europe. Yali asked "Why do White men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little". I believe what prof Shahi said was right. Societies that do not open up to new ideas and do not have the "hunger" to constantly improve themselves are most likely to fall behind to others in terms of technological advances. I wish we had more time to discuss the geographical effects of a country on her level of technology though. I thought it would've been an engaging topic to discuss, like the effects of being situated above an oil reserve and the impact it will have on the countries technology level. And topics like why Singapore is doing better than an oil producing country like Nigeria despite us having much less natural resources. I believe that will give us a bigger picture of how different factors interlink and stimulate the level of technology in a country.

The second last part of the lesson talked about the revolutionary development in human history.

•       First Use of Fire – about 100,000 years ago

•       From Hunter-Gatherers to Agriculture – about 11,000 years ago

•       The Rise of Urban Settlements – about 8,000 years ago

•       Writing – about 4,000 years ago

•       Gunpowder – about 1,000 years ago

•       Industrial Revolution – about 150 years ago

•       Agricultural Revolution – about 50 years ago

•       ICT Revolution – started about 30 years ago, still on-going

•       BioBusiness Revolution – about 10 years ago, still relatively nascent

•       GreenTech Revolution – about 3-5 years ago, rapid innovation

From the list, we can see that after the industrial revolution, revolutionary development started happening at a much shorter interval as compared to previous years. I believe it is due to the fact that as automated machinery's were created, people could travel,cook,clean,communicate and work much faster as compared to their predecessors. Hence, people had much more time to think of better ways to improve their lives. This could be one of the possible reasons to the trend displayed above.

Lastly, Prof Shahi talked about how ape has evolved to man, and man is degrading into the fat man. The question is whether the future of the human race will continue in this direction. Research by the Health, United states have shown that 35.9% of adults in America is obese from 2009-2010. Such an occurrence has huge implications on the economy of the country, as health care expenditure will greatly increase due to the negative health effects of being fat. However, I believe that this is only a phase in human history. Modern man and women still idolises the concept of a muscular and lean body, and gyms have sprung up all the world to cater to the demands of the obese. The obese wants to slim down, as evident from the increase in gym and weight loss clinics appearing. If there is no demand for weight loss clinics and gyms, supply of such facilities will not increase. Hence, I believe that man will get through this phase and we will not ultimately become a fat race.

Finally, I would give this class a 8/10 as it really has really broadened my concept of the word technology. The class discussions were really fruitful and the readings suggested to us really increases our knowledge pertaining to the subject.