This week's session was on technology assessment and about forecasting the future. The topic that was discussed this week was really fresh to me. The term technology assessment, i have never really considered it before. Technology assessment (TA) is the study and evaluation of new technologies. And in reading 4, it states that TA is the practice intended to enhance societal understanding of the broad implications of science and technology and therefore, improve decision-making. One of the reason for establishing TA that was brought up in the reading was because of the need to respond to new and long-standing challenges posted by technological changes. It was interesting to look at how the future technologies will be like. Also, it is important for us to do that as we have to always look forward so as to remain competitive in the society. I believe that forward looking is the way for us to go as we continue to improve.
The lesson started off with prof showing us videos on what the people would think the future will be like, the changes in the types of technology that would be present in the future. Then the idea of teleportation came along. I thought teleportation machine would really be a hot seller if there is one. It saves a lot of traveling time and saves us all the waiting and walking time. This means that we can use the spare time to do stuffs that are more productive as compared to traveling. However, just like a coin having 2 sides, teleportation has both benefits and harm. The harm would be that we will be over dependent o the machines and if one day the machine breaks down, we would all be handicapped and hence, affecting our lifestyle.
I found reading 2 interesting as well. We were introduced to the term "Futurology" and was also given the different perspective of science fictional. Futurology is mainly driven by collective effort of think tanks. Science fiction tend to be result of individual. They are both different in a way that science fiction is more of individual findings while futurology is driven by a group effort where they predict the future together. Previously, i had the idea that these 2 terms were similar as they both have to do with new findings hence, this reading has really given me new insights on the 2 different terms.
We were also introduced quotes and one of which is, " The present is pregnant with the future"- Voltaire. I agree with this statement as the present holds the things that lies in the future. We can say that what we do now, in the present shapes how the world will be like in the future. Hence, we should be more careful as our own future lies in our own hands. Whatever our actions are, it plays a role to how our future will be like. I found this quote really cool as i feel that it's a quote that kind of bear a really "heavy responsibility", as it explains the significance of our actions today and how we live in the future is really up to us to crave.
Also, another quote that caught my attention was, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it"- Alan Kay. This shares the same idea as the previous quote as it also mean that the future is out there for us to crave it. This falls along the same idea as a change leader, where we are the one that is causing the change and make things happen and not just waiting for things to happen and react and respond to it. I agree with this quote also as, we know ourselves the best and hence, we know what we want the best. Therefore, the best way to predict the future, to predict one that we all favor and look forward to, we have to invent it on our own and create it the way we want it to.
In conclusion, i felt that this week lesson was really engaging and it also gives us a perspective of what we should be thinking of when working on our individual report. It also ended this whole module well as we have discussed in previous lessons the things that were influenced by technology, the past, present and future of it. Hence, we should start looking towards the area of future technology and explore the wonders that it carries.
Class rating : 8/10
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