In this lesson, we look into the possible technologies we might use in the future. The exponential growth in new technologies is expected to change the world significantly. John F. Kennedy mentions that “For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who chose to see the past and present will certainly miss the future”. Take an example on the development of clean energy. Much resources and researches are done in the past because people foresee the problem of limited natural resources, and clean energy regeneration can help meet the increasing demands of energy in the future.
Interesting Observations and Ideas
It is crucial to decide which technology to invest and build onto as it will act as a ‘tool’ to drive future issues. Similarly to having a good foresight and predict the necessary platforms to tackle rising problems, making a wrong choice could result in the waste of resources, time, and efforts, creating something that cannot help drive the future economy.
Nanotechnology is a good field of research as it is beneficial in many ways for the future. Nanotechnology deals with the restructuring of material properties at a microscopic level; resulting in different material properties and characteristics from the same component. The emergence of these materials can be used to develop structures that are much stronger and tougher, perhaps sustain complex or more power equipment that will be developed in the future. The use of such technology can be found in aircrafts, the light weight honey comb structure designed from the use of nanotechnology has help aircrafts to be tougher, enabling them to take suppressive turbulences and wind stress.
Another interesting issue apart from what is being mentioned earlier is having a strategic foresight. A similar concept to having a good foresight to spot and start researching on relevant technologies that can help drive the future, having a Strategic foresight will benefit companies to achieve their goals more effectively. Organizations are usually influenced by constraints, like financial and resources limitation, and from there make their way to attain to goals. However, that might not be the best approach. Organizations should back-cast and picture what they want to achieve and list down the aspects they should attain, prior to the goals. This method would enable them to achieve what organizations really want and put themselves in exact positions that they perceived as most desirable.
Strategic foresight commonly goes in tandem with a series of impact analysis analogies. SWOT analysis and risk assessment analysis will play a part in helping organization access their strength and weakness. From there, organizations are able to focus on their weakness and fuel in necessary actions to make their goals attainable. This greatly influences organization’s decision to exploit or research on a particular technology. For example, if organization A intents to develop a whole new generation of hand-phone, but scraped the idea as it is too costly upon their already limited funds, might do something else. Hence, the implementation of strategic foresight is one of the major influences that determine the technologies we will have in the future.
Key Take Away Points
We have to sketch out what we want to achieve in the future. If that is what we really want, and which such technologies could potentially help us lead better lives, we should start doing these researches now!
Issues for Further Discussion
Have we been heading to the right direction? One example could be the development of iphone. Is it really necessary? Could such technology, where everything is done on a touch screen basis, help us perform our task better in the future?
Personal Ratings for Session
I would rate 7 out of ten for this session. It is really interesting as it set us thinking on what technology should we go into that would benefit and help tackle future problems (limited resources, space constraints, global warming etc).
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
TWC Week 09
In this lesson, we discussed about the various emerging technologies available in society today. We also learnt the different drivers for the development of emerging and future technologies. One of the main drivers is the market demand of new products. People yield for better and smarter “machines” to facilitate their lives. Sometimes, the products offered are so sophisticated that people don’t realize that they need it till they experienced it. One example is the use of mobile phone. During the era where pagers are used as a form of communication, handphones are perceived as a device that is expensive and a additional weight to be carried around. Today, handphones are so widely used, it is like a part of an individual where he can be contacted at anytime, anywhere as long as he bring it with him!
In terms of the development and application of new emerging technologies. We are limited only by our imagination – and, all too often, the lack thereof. (Prof Shahi)
Interesting Observations and Ideas
One of the emerging technologies today is the creation of robotics. From just computerized figures used to amuse individuals in the past, have developed into a device that helped humans perform work at a much faster and effective pace. Robots eliminate human error and fatigue, which is therefore used in factories to perform repetitive work like packing and assembling of parts. In addition, robots are brought to a higher level of complexity. Attempts are made to duplicate human characteristics into robots. In Japan, scientists are creating human robots to respond and react exactly like real humans. It is really a breakthrough in the science field and we can see how far technology has brought us into.
The creations of human robots are not only for social and amusement purposes. According to Reading 1 :Beyond Robotics (RO). It describes the intention of creators to infuse a new element into robots; the ability to adapt and respond to changes. This is relatively challenging as human themselves find it difficult to adapt and respond to changes quickly even with such sophisticated brain power. What more for the robot? How can robots catch up with changes in the society? How would robots respond to society norms where it’s internal system is programmed in the first place? I find that it is not feasible and would be too complicated to design and build such a robot. If so, robots might be a potential threat to the culture of mankind.
Key Take Away Points
Emerging Technologies have helped human to achieve more goals. In addition, new and alternative ways are being created to solve the many issues in society. But, we have to understand where it leads us to. Taking the example from the robotics, if It is true that robots are created and have become more superior then human beings, then I think the emerging technology of it is a disaster.
Issues for Further Discussion
Should we cap the technological advancement in Robotics? Will the introduction of Robotics make humans lazy and over reliant on technology? Will Robots over take jobs, resulting in high unemployment rate?
Personal Ratings for Session
I rate this session 8 out of 10. It discusses the drivers of emerging technologies and how these technologies play a part in our lives
In terms of the development and application of new emerging technologies. We are limited only by our imagination – and, all too often, the lack thereof. (Prof Shahi)
Interesting Observations and Ideas
One of the emerging technologies today is the creation of robotics. From just computerized figures used to amuse individuals in the past, have developed into a device that helped humans perform work at a much faster and effective pace. Robots eliminate human error and fatigue, which is therefore used in factories to perform repetitive work like packing and assembling of parts. In addition, robots are brought to a higher level of complexity. Attempts are made to duplicate human characteristics into robots. In Japan, scientists are creating human robots to respond and react exactly like real humans. It is really a breakthrough in the science field and we can see how far technology has brought us into.
The creations of human robots are not only for social and amusement purposes. According to Reading 1 :Beyond Robotics (RO). It describes the intention of creators to infuse a new element into robots; the ability to adapt and respond to changes. This is relatively challenging as human themselves find it difficult to adapt and respond to changes quickly even with such sophisticated brain power. What more for the robot? How can robots catch up with changes in the society? How would robots respond to society norms where it’s internal system is programmed in the first place? I find that it is not feasible and would be too complicated to design and build such a robot. If so, robots might be a potential threat to the culture of mankind.
Key Take Away Points
Emerging Technologies have helped human to achieve more goals. In addition, new and alternative ways are being created to solve the many issues in society. But, we have to understand where it leads us to. Taking the example from the robotics, if It is true that robots are created and have become more superior then human beings, then I think the emerging technology of it is a disaster.
Issues for Further Discussion
Should we cap the technological advancement in Robotics? Will the introduction of Robotics make humans lazy and over reliant on technology? Will Robots over take jobs, resulting in high unemployment rate?
Personal Ratings for Session
I rate this session 8 out of 10. It discusses the drivers of emerging technologies and how these technologies play a part in our lives
Saturday, October 15, 2011
TWC Week 08
I remembered in primary school I learned that fossil fuels oil are our main soures of energy. I also remembered it being under the column of "non-renewable resources". The first question that popped up in my young mind (12 year old?) was, "How're we going to have enough energy of the future?" To be honest, I have the most vivid and active imagination. The thought of running out of energy set chains of images in my mind on 101 ways human beings can be wiped out. That was then.
Today, we have various forms of methods to produce renewable energy. I cannot stop puzzling over why the European union is always most active in environmentally friendly matters while Asian countries and America remain passive and continue to place emphasis in traditional methods of wealth generation. The key to it is perhaps monetary incentives. I think that people have the tendency to be more "green" when there is actually an obvious benefit to them. Moreover, it is human's nature to not care about something until the problem comes face-to-face with them, It really is a matter of mob instinct. When large amount of people are actually taking initiative, others tend to follow. No one is willing to follow suit unless others are actually doing it. It may never ever matter that a tiny fry like me urge the governments in Asia to take initiative and start developing research on renewable energy, but they should! Look around South east Asia and the potential untapped energy. Mainly, most of Asean countries are tropical, sunny countries. Think about the amount of solar energy! For once we can actually derive something useful outof the hateful, blaring sun(biased opinion here).
I still maintain that what is stopping Singapore from tapping on renewable energy is the government. Society is like a fountain and the authorities are at the head of the fountain. Once the head of the fountain is polluted, so is the rest of the fountain. Taxation on energy is one of the many core revnenues of government. I am not so sure our government is ready to encourage everyone of us installing solar panels on our roofs(especially HDBs) until there is a sure way to tax it.
Today, we have various forms of methods to produce renewable energy. I cannot stop puzzling over why the European union is always most active in environmentally friendly matters while Asian countries and America remain passive and continue to place emphasis in traditional methods of wealth generation. The key to it is perhaps monetary incentives. I think that people have the tendency to be more "green" when there is actually an obvious benefit to them. Moreover, it is human's nature to not care about something until the problem comes face-to-face with them, It really is a matter of mob instinct. When large amount of people are actually taking initiative, others tend to follow. No one is willing to follow suit unless others are actually doing it. It may never ever matter that a tiny fry like me urge the governments in Asia to take initiative and start developing research on renewable energy, but they should! Look around South east Asia and the potential untapped energy. Mainly, most of Asean countries are tropical, sunny countries. Think about the amount of solar energy! For once we can actually derive something useful outof the hateful, blaring sun(biased opinion here).
I still maintain that what is stopping Singapore from tapping on renewable energy is the government. Society is like a fountain and the authorities are at the head of the fountain. Once the head of the fountain is polluted, so is the rest of the fountain. Taxation on energy is one of the many core revnenues of government. I am not so sure our government is ready to encourage everyone of us installing solar panels on our roofs(especially HDBs) until there is a sure way to tax it.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
TWC Week 07
Today prof started with the quote “When we are able to grow the resources which we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability” – Gurinder. This session focuses on biotech corps and its numerous benefits such as feeding ore people using less land and leaving behind lesser carbon footprint. This is in tandem with the concept of a shift away from a linear modal of food production to one that is cyclical.
Interesting observations and ideas
Never have it occurred to me that there will be such a need to ensure the security and stability of food as it is something which I use to wrongly perceive as to be inexhaustible. In fact, in this current times of environmental degradation and overpopulation, more emphasis have to be placed on ensuring that the process of creating food is sustainable enough for the environment to feed the growing demands of the population.
The current level of pervasiveness of genetically modified food particularly takes me aback. It is shown in class that GM food is everywhere. Why do I say so? Take MacDonald for example, all the food on that tray, the fries, the chili, the burger, the nuggets and even the drinks possess some degree of genetic modifications in their make up. This makes it especially difficult for those who are against eating Genetically Modified food as it is practically everywhere. The labeling of the food is not a viable solution and is also one that is not being implemented at the present. This is an example of one negative aspect of GM food which needs to be addressed before it blows out of proportion.
Key Takeaways:
Today we talked about rural overcrowding. We are becoming increasingly urbanized and the last century has seen huge amounts of people shifting to llive in urban environments. This creates more pressure on the urban environment as now there are more competition for jobs, and more competition for space. The management of rural overcrowding is especially important as it serves as a hurdle towards the MDG of alleviating poverty in developing countries.
In one of the readings: Ending World Hunger. The Promise of Biotechnology and the Threat of Antiscience Zealotry
The Authour Norman E. Borlaug who is a nobel prize laureate for peace in 1970, strong believes that the biotechnology is the only way to move towards a future of sustainability in terms of food supplies. He believes that biotechnology is currently making headways in many commercial farmers and that it will be the next driving force in the agricultural industry.
However I have some opinions about this rosy scenario. For one, making transgenic corps increase the vulnerability of the corps due to the polarity of their genetic make up. They are more susceptible to a single plague wiping out the entire batch of transgenic corps or maybe even by bio-terrorists who can make use of special bio agents to target these plants.
Secondly, he has also failed to take into considerations the ethical concerns, which might invariably lead, to a backlash or maybe to the scenario of agricultural bio terrorism. The benefits reaped form Transgenic corps tends to also skew towards those who farmers who are educated or wealthy enough to adopt such a practice in their business models. The traditional farmers who do not have the capabilities will end up in a state, which is worse of then what they are in now.
Issues for further discussion
I would like prof to talk more about the comparison of the degree of modification which nature’s has done in the case of nature plague’s to the degree of modification of man initiated process such as genetic engineering. It would have really been interesting to hear prof break down the whole comparison, especially so when prof is someone who has extensive knowledge on medical sciences.
Personal ratings
I would rate today’s lesson 8 out of 10. Some of the points covered in lesson were really relevant and interesting, especially the one when prof mentioned that genetic engineering is noting compared to the plagues in which nature has created as well as the farmer and the farmist!
Interesting observations and ideas
Never have it occurred to me that there will be such a need to ensure the security and stability of food as it is something which I use to wrongly perceive as to be inexhaustible. In fact, in this current times of environmental degradation and overpopulation, more emphasis have to be placed on ensuring that the process of creating food is sustainable enough for the environment to feed the growing demands of the population.
The current level of pervasiveness of genetically modified food particularly takes me aback. It is shown in class that GM food is everywhere. Why do I say so? Take MacDonald for example, all the food on that tray, the fries, the chili, the burger, the nuggets and even the drinks possess some degree of genetic modifications in their make up. This makes it especially difficult for those who are against eating Genetically Modified food as it is practically everywhere. The labeling of the food is not a viable solution and is also one that is not being implemented at the present. This is an example of one negative aspect of GM food which needs to be addressed before it blows out of proportion.
Key Takeaways:
Today we talked about rural overcrowding. We are becoming increasingly urbanized and the last century has seen huge amounts of people shifting to llive in urban environments. This creates more pressure on the urban environment as now there are more competition for jobs, and more competition for space. The management of rural overcrowding is especially important as it serves as a hurdle towards the MDG of alleviating poverty in developing countries.
In one of the readings: Ending World Hunger. The Promise of Biotechnology and the Threat of Antiscience Zealotry
The Authour Norman E. Borlaug who is a nobel prize laureate for peace in 1970, strong believes that the biotechnology is the only way to move towards a future of sustainability in terms of food supplies. He believes that biotechnology is currently making headways in many commercial farmers and that it will be the next driving force in the agricultural industry.
However I have some opinions about this rosy scenario. For one, making transgenic corps increase the vulnerability of the corps due to the polarity of their genetic make up. They are more susceptible to a single plague wiping out the entire batch of transgenic corps or maybe even by bio-terrorists who can make use of special bio agents to target these plants.
Secondly, he has also failed to take into considerations the ethical concerns, which might invariably lead, to a backlash or maybe to the scenario of agricultural bio terrorism. The benefits reaped form Transgenic corps tends to also skew towards those who farmers who are educated or wealthy enough to adopt such a practice in their business models. The traditional farmers who do not have the capabilities will end up in a state, which is worse of then what they are in now.
Issues for further discussion
I would like prof to talk more about the comparison of the degree of modification which nature’s has done in the case of nature plague’s to the degree of modification of man initiated process such as genetic engineering. It would have really been interesting to hear prof break down the whole comparison, especially so when prof is someone who has extensive knowledge on medical sciences.
Personal ratings
I would rate today’s lesson 8 out of 10. Some of the points covered in lesson were really relevant and interesting, especially the one when prof mentioned that genetic engineering is noting compared to the plagues in which nature has created as well as the farmer and the farmist!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
TWC Week 06
Today's lesson is about BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences (Past, Present and Future). BioBusiness can be in terms of biomedical, agri-veterinary, environmental/Industrial that is commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. The revolution of BioBusiness had been contributing to the socio-economic and it is definitely important in reflecting the country's Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
If we look at a region/country basis: in the US, contribution towards Healthcare is by far the largest. And in South Asia, the factors are completely arranged in a way that is opposite that of the USA. But people everywhere are increasingly investing more on biotechnology. The same toolset that is being created in the biomedical sector, will help in environmental and agricultural industry, bringing high value products to come into the market. Sophisticated researches uses new diagnostic tools to analyze special illness, create medicines for cures, alternatives pertaining to health/beauty care and more preventive routes on diseases which will increase the life expectancy of individuals.
With respect to reading 1, we need to not only look into raising healthcare and medical standards to a higher level, we also need to help the developing countries to gain access to rural areas where in urban areas health care services is flourishing. We cannot neglect the developing nations because most of the diseases and problems in health are situated in these nations. Therefore such basic healthcare infrastructure is necessary to be reach out in order for the people to be at least in the healthy state.
One of the interesting take away is one of the presentation about "MHealth." I think M-Health could be one of the possible implementations in the future that could possibly attend to situation that needs immediate assistance. Outdoor activities can be one of the danger activity because any incident could take place for example, falling down from the bicycle and it requires immediate help. Hence MHealth would then come in handy because doctors could possible attend to the fracture patient and provide necessary action. So it could reduce the seriousness of the fracture.
For further discussion, How can Singapore play a part in reaching out to the rural countries for healthcare services? By educating Singaporeans? Sending Doctors? Or perhaps having internships in this rural countries?
Healthcare is just one part of the BioBusiness, hence i'm looking forward to the next session of Agriculture and the Environment revolution. I would rate the lesson 8/10 because Healthcare is one of the important plan in the in2015 for Singapore and one of the presentations had covered the essence of the plan. :)
If we look at a region/country basis: in the US, contribution towards Healthcare is by far the largest. And in South Asia, the factors are completely arranged in a way that is opposite that of the USA. But people everywhere are increasingly investing more on biotechnology. The same toolset that is being created in the biomedical sector, will help in environmental and agricultural industry, bringing high value products to come into the market. Sophisticated researches uses new diagnostic tools to analyze special illness, create medicines for cures, alternatives pertaining to health/beauty care and more preventive routes on diseases which will increase the life expectancy of individuals.
With respect to reading 1, we need to not only look into raising healthcare and medical standards to a higher level, we also need to help the developing countries to gain access to rural areas where in urban areas health care services is flourishing. We cannot neglect the developing nations because most of the diseases and problems in health are situated in these nations. Therefore such basic healthcare infrastructure is necessary to be reach out in order for the people to be at least in the healthy state.
One of the interesting take away is one of the presentation about "MHealth." I think M-Health could be one of the possible implementations in the future that could possibly attend to situation that needs immediate assistance. Outdoor activities can be one of the danger activity because any incident could take place for example, falling down from the bicycle and it requires immediate help. Hence MHealth would then come in handy because doctors could possible attend to the fracture patient and provide necessary action. So it could reduce the seriousness of the fracture.
For further discussion, How can Singapore play a part in reaching out to the rural countries for healthcare services? By educating Singaporeans? Sending Doctors? Or perhaps having internships in this rural countries?
Healthcare is just one part of the BioBusiness, hence i'm looking forward to the next session of Agriculture and the Environment revolution. I would rate the lesson 8/10 because Healthcare is one of the important plan in the in2015 for Singapore and one of the presentations had covered the essence of the plan. :)
Saturday, September 17, 2011
TWC Week 05
15 years ago, have we ever thought that we are able to interact someone who is on the screen? For me, i never thought of that. I was just simply happy about the super mario that was in my "gameboy." It's amazing that 15 years later which is today, technologies have make a change in gaming sector that simply impacts the younger generation.
How Milo interacted is just as real as a human. Sometimes we couldn't differentiate ourselves with them because "they" are just too real as a person and at the same time we are too engross in the environment. Even when Milo throws the goggles, the girl reaction was just so naturally that she catches the goggles and fitted it on her. The reaction simply changes our mindset that we are in fact playing with a computerized game. That's how the gaming industry have evolved throughout the years. From a gameboy to nintendoDS to now XBOX.
It brings to my attention that how ICT facilitates the knowledge revolution.The revolution of mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, interactive telecommunication, interactive systems affects the way we think, our ideas and principles. We apply what we have learnt and understand through the various research, mapped and translate into a "valuable" information which is the intangible assets, "knowledge."
One of the most interesting insights that i got was how internet changes and evolves. From a static and non interactive web to slightly more interaction web pages such as amazon and now web that seems to understand what you want or need which is GOOGLE! I think google is one of the interactive websites that increases our knowledge through the the use it's nature of search engine.
Second presentation was the in2015 which is a Singapore government plan that wishes to achieve in 2015. However it drives to my though that whether Singapore could achieve the plan of having information sharing through the use of EMRX with the GPs and the government hospitals. I felt that is it relatively hard to integrate all information at once from various GPs and hospitals because information could be repeated and worst scenario, wrong information, errors contain in the prescription. Hence I felt that is relatively important to examine the impact when comes to healthcare because it's a matter of life.
Overall, i rate the lesson 8/10 because of the content that covers how technologies changes over the years and the possible future aspects. However i felt that we could identify more on the implications and impacts of ICT because we could reflect on how ICT could possibly improve in technologies and KNOWLEDGE. :)
How Milo interacted is just as real as a human. Sometimes we couldn't differentiate ourselves with them because "they" are just too real as a person and at the same time we are too engross in the environment. Even when Milo throws the goggles, the girl reaction was just so naturally that she catches the goggles and fitted it on her. The reaction simply changes our mindset that we are in fact playing with a computerized game. That's how the gaming industry have evolved throughout the years. From a gameboy to nintendoDS to now XBOX.
It brings to my attention that how ICT facilitates the knowledge revolution.The revolution of mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, interactive telecommunication, interactive systems affects the way we think, our ideas and principles. We apply what we have learnt and understand through the various research, mapped and translate into a "valuable" information which is the intangible assets, "knowledge."
One of the most interesting insights that i got was how internet changes and evolves. From a static and non interactive web to slightly more interaction web pages such as amazon and now web that seems to understand what you want or need which is GOOGLE! I think google is one of the interactive websites that increases our knowledge through the the use it's nature of search engine.
Second presentation was the in2015 which is a Singapore government plan that wishes to achieve in 2015. However it drives to my though that whether Singapore could achieve the plan of having information sharing through the use of EMRX with the GPs and the government hospitals. I felt that is it relatively hard to integrate all information at once from various GPs and hospitals because information could be repeated and worst scenario, wrong information, errors contain in the prescription. Hence I felt that is relatively important to examine the impact when comes to healthcare because it's a matter of life.
Overall, i rate the lesson 8/10 because of the content that covers how technologies changes over the years and the possible future aspects. However i felt that we could identify more on the implications and impacts of ICT because we could reflect on how ICT could possibly improve in technologies and KNOWLEDGE. :)