Session Twelve

Another week of presentations.

PRESENTATION FIVE

The first presentation of the week and fifth of the series was about music. A very interesting topic chosen by the group. The website was done up really well.

PRESENTATION SIX

This website was on vaccines. I feel it is another interesting topic to be chosen. The site was simple and to the point.

PRESENTATION SEVEN

This group presented on food and technology. They were informative and had very detailed example to share. Website was very simple and to the point once again.

PRESENTATION EIGHT

Last presentation of the week and series. This was about tracking crime. Very interesting information shared.

It is very obvious each week that each group put in a lot of effort and research to create their websites. Again a round of applause for this weeks group. I rate this session as 10/10 again.

Session Eleven

PRESENTATION ONE

The first presentation was about e-commerce. The website was extremely interesting as they followed the theme of a blog shop. However, the layout of the blog shop may make it a little difficult for visitors to know which section is under which tab. Also due to limitations of wix the pages were loading really slowly.

PRESENTATION TWO

This was my group’s presentation. We are already working on improving the website.

PRESENTATION THREE

This group presented on kinetic technology. They had a very attractive website and the presenters were prepared. Unfortunately only one of their videos could work but they still managed to put their point across.

PRESENTATION FOUR

The last presentation of Session Eleven was on GM food. Their video was funny. The website also was well done. The section on having a blog shop where GM food could be bought was interesting.

The groups put in a lot of hard work on the website and I would like to congratulate each of them. I give the session a 10/10.

Session Ten

Today’s lesson consisted of some revision of the past few weeks. Our main focus was on technology assessment and forecasting. We are moving ahead very fast and we have to keep up with the changes. More than just keep up, we should be ahead of the changes so that we will not be caught with a surprise. That is where forecasting comes in. If we are bale to forecast the future with some accuracy, we will to some extent have the power to make that change instead.

Forecasting, I feel, is especially an advantage to business as it helps them stay ahead of competition. But with the way we have been using earth’s resources we have to be very careful about the decisions we make. To be able to do this we need to consider every aspect of that change and the consequences or benefits that will come with it. As mentioned by prof in class once, and I am starting to agree with this, is that not all technologies or innovations we think of will definitely work. There is a time to everything and we need to consider that fact as well. Is everyone ready for such a change now or in the future?

A technique to forecast future and to evaluate it was discussed. Would it work if we set a particular goal for the future and slowly work backwards till where we are today? This would allow us to not only forecast the change but also predict the issues that might come along the way so we can be prepared for it. Thus, when we finally start on the plan we would have a more sound and tight project in hand. This method has its pros and cons. The biggest problem may be the fact that what if we predicted or guessed a very important part of the whole process wrongly, everything planned may go down the drain. But that is where research and careful consideration comes in. If we can try to cover as much issues as possible the chances of anything going wrong will decrease each time.

As I mentioned before, forecasting can be very handy for businesses. But how far each business can go in predicting or reducing risks for that prediction may be affected by their size. R&D costs money and how air-tight their plans are depends on how much they can spend.

I enjoyed the class a lot as it was a very nice way to tie everything up. I give this class a 9/10.

Session Nine

Today’s session was on Emerging and Future Technologies. The class was all about thinking of the most impossible of technologies and possibilities. Our present must have been the future for many. And would they have been able to imagine such a world, filled with technologies that would have been surreal for them. Innovations one may have dreamt of and others laughed at him. I have realized that to make our future different and filled with more technologies; it is really up to us to do something about it.  

Many new innovations were discussed in class but two stood out for me. First was the use of plastic as a high tech innovation. Many electrical parts were being made of plastics. We discussed the idea of having technology embedded in our spectacles and even contact lens, where we can have a screen like that of a robot. We can have maps, information about restaurants etc. by just looking at the road or restaurant.

This brings me to the second innovation which was augmented reality. A very interesting idea, which is already starting to be used in many applications for phones. But of course there is no technology without a bad side to it. We still have to wait a while longer to hear the complaints coming in.

Another point raised by prof was the difference between sales and marketing. Sales happened when you push the product to the consumer and marketing is when you pull the consumer to the product. A very good example would be the tremendously popular, iPhone. If iPhone was sold based only on it features people may not be interested. They may find them unnecessary. But because Apple was able to market its product so well that those who did not need iPhone were also buying it. And after using it they are addicted to the features also. Reminds me of what prof mentioned about how there are technologies which we didn’t realize we needed until we used them.

But there have been many technologies that have come, failed and left. We revisited the market-driven or technology-driven concept again. And if one is new to the field of entrepreneurship, he or she should definitely aim for market driven technologies.

Presentations for the day were very wide ranged and extremely interesting. We had presentations on trans-humanization, future of aviation technology, the augmentation of robots’ presence and use and augmented reality.

I rate this session a 10/10.

Session Eight

The week’s topic of discussion was Energy and World Change. This is something that has been in discussion for a very long time. We have heard about it since we were in primary school where we started with the basics of the three Rs. Reuse, reduce and recycle. But as time passes and we learn new information, we realize that the situation is becoming worse. Despite being preached about saving our planet and resources for so long, nothing seems to have been done to improve things much.

We have been depending so much on fossil fuels and living in the imaginary world of “there will always be fossil fuels” that we have created a real world where there are depleting resources and rising costs. It may be too use the “reduce” strategy to save our planet. We now need to back that strategy up with other opportunities and alternatives.  

This reminds me of what prof said, “When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”. It applies in this situation in the sense that, if we are able to create other forms of resources we can actually be able to sustain ourselves. And one such method that really surprised me was that of solar panels. Prof showed us videos of a few countries implementing this method and governments supporting them.

 I feel that governments have a very important part to play in helping us move towards sustainability. And it is not just the effort of one government that can make a difference but the combined efforts of the different governments that will make a noticeable impact. This is a not a problem of one or two countries but a problem that the world is facing. Another reason for governments to work as a team.

Apart from the government, it also is every individual’s duty to put in their own labor to achieve that goal. The farmer who actually invested his own money to put up the solar panels is a great example for all of us. What about us Singaporeans? We can do a lot but we face limitations. Space, money and mentality are the biggest barriers. But that is where the challenge lies and we can try to come up with ways to overcome them.

Now to the presentations. They were all very interesting. Avijit’s article was an eye opener. There is a lot for the governments to think about before they can take steps and measures. There are many pros and cons to consider. But this should not deter them from the goal of attaining a green environment.

I give this week’s lesson a 9/10 as it opened my eyes even further regarding these issues.

TWC Topical Review Draft

Session Seven

This week we were concentrating on Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. And it was today I found out that there are four colors to the different biotechnology sectors. I understood why green was assigned to agriculture biotechnology and blue to aquatic biotechnology. But I am wondering why industrial biotechnology was assigned white and human biotechnology red.

We went through very interesting concepts such as farmers vs. farmists, discussed organic and GM foods and the ever dominant issue of food security. What the prof said made a lot of sense, “When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”. I was shocked to find out that Singapore’s method of sustainability was to produce just to the minimum to save. But what producers might not be realizing is that they are still producing finite resources. So the little they do manage to save will run out soon. And that is not sustainability because to be sustainable you need to be able to be able to do things etc. for a long time. Thus back to prof’s point, if we are able to grow the resources that we need, we would then really be on the road to sustainability.

All the presentations today were about GM food (vegetables and meat). One presentation I found really interesting was that of Michelle’s. She did a presentation on the growth of cows through GM. Gideon mentioned that he ate at a restaurant in Japan. They had a picture of the cow, the cow had a name and even the parents were mentioned. That is related to Michelle’s discussion question about how much information is shown to the consumers. Prof mentioned how the government decides what kind of food is to be brought in the market for the country thus limiting consumer’s choices. This leads to the more specific version of the usual general question we always ask: Is it the government’s job to decide what we are eating? Will they do a good job?

I give this an 8/10 because I learnt a lot on agriculture. But the last two points are lost because of the lack of in depth discussion on Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. That was something we could have discussed more.

Session Six

This week we discussed BioBusiness. It is huge. It covers over 25% of global GDP and 40% of the world’s labour force. Many of us may immediately assume that biobusiness is about selling cures for diseases after some chemical experiments. But it is much more than that. It covers many areas that we didn’t imagine. The area we concentrated on was Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences.

One of the discussions we had which I found interesting was that on how USA spends a large amount on people who are on advanced stages of diseases. This is pretty much a waste of resources as many of these people are near the end of their lives. Singapore on the other hand is actually moving towards prevention, health promotion and wellness care. This does make more sense as many times it has been proven that prevention is better than cure.

Another discussion we had that interested me a lot was about the video by Microsoft and the future of healthcare. It was about making the healthcare system a lot more convenient for people. They had patients who could actually have consultations with doctors through the television. But the question was and is that is it sensible? How much can the doctor be able “check” one through a TV? What happened to the idea of getting one’s blood pressure checked or blood tested? Are some things better off the old way?

Presentations were great. We had a presentation on genetic discrimination. When we hear of something new and different that has benefits we immediately get very excited. But we never stop to think of pros and cons. This presentation helped me gain more insight on such issues.

The presentation on telomerase was like going back in time to a biology lesson. It reminded me of things I had forgotten. If one is able to live forever how would it be? I would not want to live forever. May be I don’t mind. I am not sure. Let’s wait to see if it’s even possible.

Overall I rate the class 10/10 as I learnt a lot.

Session Five

The main topic of the day was information and communication technology. We went through some areas of interest. What interested me most was the Internet which has one of the biggest impacts on human kind. How we have moved on from a basic web 1.0 to a more interactive web 2.0 plays a major part in our lives as web 2.0 has become a distinct aspect of our daily activities. But the biggest change would be the web 3.0. The idea of web 3.0 excites me, however, it also sounds a little scary. The main question that always comes to my mind regarding advancement in technology is that: Where should we stop before either the human touch is lost or we may be taken over by these very “robots”? May be it might be too much of influence of science fiction movies but if things we did not imagine have been achieved, I am sure even these fears may come true. I also found the idea of knowledge management quite enlightening.

Prof showed us a video on Project Natal. VERY EXCITING! But after reading prof’s blog I kind of agree with Kenny (one of my classmates) that having a computerized person as a companion for kids and elderly a good idea but it may have its implications. As much as parents and teachers can control the use and effects of such technology on children we don’t know how children’s mind work! They may form a bond with such a character and despite all our attempts we might not be able to break that bond. This would definitely affect how the child will interact with others and perceive the world. And in a negative way.

We had a discussion on digital poverty. I feel that even though ICT is a very powerful economic tool to remove poverty in developed countries by educating the people or by allowing greater access to information it is not the answer yet. There are many more important needs in people’s lives. We can’t forget the basic needs of human kind which is food, water, shelter etc. Without these needs no ICT can help these people. May be ICT can be used in another way the help people with their basic needs. That is something I would like to read up on further.

Two presentations were quite interesting. The first was by Melissa on the future of television. The discussion in class seemed to show that a lot of people felt that this will not be a very successful innovation. However, I feel that it might just do well. In TWC class we may be so influenced by the idea of having advances which are way above the television but many people out there aren’t. So the most little improvements in any technology that is part of our daily lives will most probably interest a lot of people out there. This is especially for people who can afford these innovations. A lot of folks out there are willing to use any technology or update their current ones as long as they can afford it.

The next interesting presentation was by Shaak. His article answered my question of the idea free. I was very very very interested, surprised and enlightened by this tactic or method companies use to attract customers. I think this idea is something that will stay all the way with me.

 I give this session a 9/10 as I got to learn a lot.

OUTLINE FOR INDIVIDUAL TOPICAL REVIEW

Specific innovation of interest:

The specific innovation I am choosing is the use of motion control and detectors in video gaming. Motion detectors basically contain sensors which quantify motion that can be either integrated with or connected to other devices that alert the user of the presence of a moving object within the field of view. This technology is now being used for video games such as Wii and Kinect where the games can be played with actual body movements detected by these sensors.

Rational for selecting this innovation:

I believe that two different technologies (motion detectors and video game technology) have been brought together to bring about such a huge change to the gaming industry. But what made this change more attractive was the fact that its impact was so huge that it has also affected other areas outside games, such as healthcare and education. Its social, economical and technological impact has been tremendous.

Proposed approach to development of paper:

Executive summary:

A review on impact of motion sensors in gaming and its spillover effects on other areas.

Background / Introduction:

-          Background on revolutionary/disruptive innovation.

o   Characteristics and indicators that allow us to determine what a disruptive innovation is.

-          Background on video games.

o   Rough idea on how they work

o   Rough idea on progress made

o   Companies related to them

-          Background on motion sensors.

o   Explain how they work.

Historical perspective:

History of

-          Video gaming before motion sensors

-          Technology before motion sensors

Current Situation:

Changes brought about by this technology.

-          Direct impact on gaming industry for which it was meant for (e.g.: economical).

o   Positive

o   Negative

-          Impact on other industries.

o   Positive

o   Negative

Future considerations:

New ways of gaming through cloud gaming platform

Conclusions

References

Session Four

The main topic for the day was CHANGE. At the start of the lesson we went through the different drivers of world change. Such changes come in two ways:

-          Evolutionary

-          Revolutionary / Disruptive

Evolutionary changes are incremental changes that happen over time. They tend to just improve existing technologies, services or products according to customer’s needs.

I was especially interested in revolutionary changes. This change is also known as disruptive innovation, which was a term introduced by Clay Christensen. The whole idea is to basically overturn the existing dominant technology, market, product or service. However this doesn’t happen overnight. According to Christensen, “many innovations are often inferior in most respects to established products, but succeed because they possess some attribute that is valued by a new customer segment–or possess an attribute existing customers did not even realize they valued”.

I came across a graph which seemed to increase my understanding of a disruptive change.

We also went through the different ways in which people react to changes.

-          Reaction One: An eagle

o   They have a bird’s eye view of what is happening and they react accordingly to the changes.

-          Reaction Two: Ostrich

o   They recognize the fact that there are changes happening. Provide their opinion on what is going to change, what should be done etc but never do anything.

-          Reaction Three: Dodo

o   This are the “blur” group whole completely fails to recognize that there is even a change. Thus, failing to take any appropriate action.

During the discussion prof mentioned to us about adaptability, flexibility and specialization. I feel that we can be and should be specialized in what we do but within that field/discipline we should have enough flexibility to change according and be willing gain the new knowledge/lessons that change brings to us.

We then moved on to part two of the lesson in which we had an intense discussion on management and leadership and its differences. Prof mentioned that as times are changing to a more knowledge based economy, leaders/managers can’t treat their subordinates as “donkeys”. They can’t just shout or order their team members to give their best. There will be no motivation for these employees to give their best ideas or put in their best effort. Eventually it will be loss of knowledge for the leader/manager and company.

We got to view video about how anyone can be a leader. But the difference is that they must have the courage and in a lot of cases they must be thick skinned enough to be different from the rest. One point prof that stayed me till now is that another important person who helps that one person to be a leader is his first follower. And that makes so much sense. If you have at least one person who truly believes in something/someone it definitely does make you think what is so special about that thing/person that attracts anyone. From here the interest starts.

The presentation that interested me most was the one on a CIO’s role in a company. A CIO can no longer just be someone who knows a lot about IT. But he or she must be also aware on how these technologies can work well together with their business processes to further enhance their productivity, efficiency etc.

I rate this session a 9/10 as it really kept me interested and motivated me to do more research on my own.

“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.”

Bruce Barton

BUT we must keep in mind that:

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”
Ellen Glasgow

Session Three

This week’s class started off with a summary of the past two sessions. The question raised by Prof was: How are we going to see children in the coming future? Are we going to despise them because they would be a burden on us? Or are we going to envision them as the future Einstein and work towards making them that successful?

We moved on to the topic of sustainability. We were asked to think about what we thought sustainability was. On the top of my head, without checking the proper definition, sustainability to me is something that is possible to happen/occur/do for a long time without difficulty. The two dictionary definitions I got were:

 1. Pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse

2. Able to be maintained or kept going, as an action or process.

Two words that stand out from these definitions, for me, are ‘maintain’ and ‘reuse’. This is how sustainable development should be like. One of the biggest concerns now is the fact that due to increasing global demand, resources are running out. I was shocked to find out that by now we have used up 1/3 of the world’s natural resource bases. Many of these resources aren’t renewable. Thus it is very important that we keep these two words in our mind because our only solution to protect our environment and our future is through sustainable technologies or resources that can be MAINTAINED and REUSED!

The first presentation we had has stayed on in my mind. It was on the use of palm oil as a bio fuel. We had a discussion on how viable are its economic benefits as compared to how it affects the environment. Without thinking too deep into it I felt that it was a very good substitute for fossil fuels. I decided to read up more on it and realized that there is a totally different side to it. Two articles that caught my attention were

1.      http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/palm_oil_biofuel_position.pdf

2.      http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/04/energy.indonesia

From these articles I understand what the prof meant when he said: Economic growth has surpassed environment endowment. When we talk about coming up with substitute resources such as palm oil for energy, we have to be very careful that the benefits surpass the risks and problems by many folds. What is the point of having developments that turn out to be a bane more than a boon?

In the second section of the class Prof went through with us “The Shahi Landscape Model for Technology Assessment: Conceptual Framework”  and “The Shahi Technology Innovation Value Creation Pipeline”. The first model reminded me of his “The Shahi  Organizational Behaviour Model for Identifying Innovation Leaders and Dominant Players”. Through the discussion in the second half we spoke about the different types of technology. They are innovation driven and market driven technologies. Monetary success is the top in the to-do list of many companies thus the majority of the products we currently have is definitely market driven.

During the second set of presentations what interested me the most was the presentation on Steve Jobs. It was a shock and that got me reading up more on him. An interesting article that I read was ‘Apple cries about Samsung and Motorola’s Patent “Monopoly”’ (http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Cries+About+Samsung+and+Motorolas+Patent+Monopoly/article22586.htm).

With all the new ideas from the lesson I rate it a 9/10.

Session Two

The Colonial Holocaust and its Legacy. Initially, the content and its link to Technology and World Change seemed superfluous tome. Why learn about our ancestors’ deeds and our bloody history, when we have high-tech gadgets to confer about? As it has been very kindly clarified for us, technology is interwoven in our daily mechanics. It is a revelation for me that technology is not exclusive but something that is very integral in our day to day lives.

The aforementioned article, describes the brutality of Europeans and how the indigenous people of Latin America and India were massacred. The insistence of European dominance, including military, economic, political and cultural, had the non- European populations severely exploited. Consequently, the Europeans profited from the vast looting and plundering of these natives’ states. This is where it struck me, the reason why Europe was the rising power in colonial times. Reflecting back upon the Jared Diamond’s book on Guns, Germs and Steel and Yali’s question that it revolves around of why the whites have more cargo than the New Guineans, brutal force of the Europeans could possibly be one of the answers. It seemed that they were a force to reckon with, especially in technological innovation.

Very interesting presentations were done up by my peers and one of them caught my attention, on Singularity and computers that are smarter than humans. Humans are forever and always looking for ways to live beyond and into immortality. Super-computers could be created that function as our support and life as we grow older. The questions posed and discussed, is what the impacts will be if we are half-human and half-computerised. The direction of the discussion was mainly on the intuition, feelings and emotions, or the lack thereof, in computers. It was shocking to find out that there are chips manufactures to invoke feelings in a computer. It is way out-of-the world and eccentric and unbelievable to have computers do that. The identity of humans is at stake as its unique ability to feel and respond is duplicated by computers. I might be a stickler for constancy but are we harming ourselves and our future with our own hands, as we might get dominated by computers?

The key take away points in this lesson is that to understand and better apply our knowledge in our daily lives, we need to find out the history of how it all began. Without that knowledge we might just end up being slaves of technology, instead of manipulating it to our suitability.

Another key take away is anything seems possible with upcoming technologies. Crazy as it sounds, even robots with feelings. The dynamics of the world might change and it might be anytime soon.

For the pure craziness of ideas that are the crux of class discussions that continually surprise me, I rate the session a 10 yet again!

Session One

When I first looked through what the professor had put up for introduction questions just the day before the first class, I was a little shocked with his second question. He wanted to know what we currently knew about technology and world change and if we had any special interest. I was wondering if I was expected to have read extensively before class and was supposed to give a very intellectual answer. I suddenly was not looking forward to the class as much as before because my knowledge regarding technology was limited and special interest was totally out of question. However, I felt better after hearing many of the answers. A large number of students were actually admitting that they did not have a lot of knowledge on technology and were there to learn. This got me more relaxed as I felt less dumb.

The professor slowly introduced us to the course through some videos. I was shocked to find out the extent of technology’s impact on the world, especially after looking at facts in videos that were just few years apart from each other. The change in statistics was huge. We then went through the “timeline of time” which was very interesting as we got to see how the world has evolved from the start till now.

The main topic we touched on was a book written by Jared Diamond (Gun, Germs and Steel). The book was based on a question put forward to Diamond by a New Guinean. The question was: Why did white men have so much cargo and New Guineans so little? Diamond then rephrased the question according to what he felt was the root to the question: Why did some societies advance faster than others? The professor then put this question to the rest of the class. Some of the answers were:

-          Some societies got more exposure to different technologies and advancements by travelling. And they improve on these advancements.

-          Some societies had the ability to read and write while some didn’t.

-          Some societies could only advance with whatever resources that were available to them.

What I found interesting was that none of these answers actually answered the question to the point. For example the first point: It doesn’t answer why those societies who travelled were able to travel but not the other societies. It made me realize that as simple as the question and as obvious as the answers seemed earlier, it was a lot more complicated.

We could not go through the rest of the book or other articles provided but after reading them I felt that the first key takeaway from all the articles was the importance of farming. What we are today as compared to Stone Age times is largely due to farming. A simple tool to survive led to such huge developments such as advancement in technology and even social changes. The second key takeaway was that contrary to the traditional view that it was the whites who were pioneers of technological innovation, it was actually the natives of the Middle Eastern continent who sparked of the start of these advancements. Especially the article titled, “Science and Technology: Historic Innovation, Modern Solutions”, shows that many of today’s technologies originated from non-European scholars/scientists and were used as references/guides by the Europeans.

I would rate the class on a scale of 10. Because it has opened my mind up to a lot of different thing I had never considered or bothered about. And also these questions were not bombarded on us but instead we were slowly introduced to them.