Technology Assessment & Forecasting; Developing a framework for understanding what comes next

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

New and Emerging Technology

Today’s lesson was on new & emerging technology. I really enjoyed this week’s lesson as I felt that it really stretched our imaginations on the future types of technology that we’ll have. We cannot control what lies ahead of us and hence, it allows room for our imagination to run wild. With the rapid advancement of technology, I firmly believe that the future technology will be much more magnificent. Quoting from what Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Knowledge is what everyone knows and hence, it’s the same across everywhere. People all get the same information and there’s nothing special about anything. However, imagination on the other hand is different. It is based on how an individual thinks and rarely do people think alike.  And this makes it different from the rest. It is more important as it allows us to differentiate things and people. Hence, with this imagination, it leads to more innovative inventions being introduced and we can expect a great difference in the area of technology as compared to now.

This leads me to one really interesting thing that I got out of reading 4 and that is augmented reality. It states that augmented reality holds both tremendous creative potential and truly horrifying potential for abuse.  The reading links augmented reality to education. It gave an example of having a tiny computer worn on the wrist or around the waist, would recognize the geometry and the content user’s immediate environment and overlay that environment with meaningful images and sounds for specific purposes. It went on to talk about augmented technology immersing individuals in experiential learning environments. I found this really interesting and really look forward to such a technology. This would greatly help us in learning and allow us to learn in a faster way, as we’re able to experience what we are learning. Also, I feel that it is easier for us to learn new things when we experience it. This is because; we are able to remember better the things that we have done before. This also brings us away from the mundane school lessons that we now have and it’ll also bring more fun towards learning.

I find this week’s presentation much different from the usual presentation topics since we’re talking about emerging technology and hence the topics discussed were really fresh.  I find the presentation on driverless car really interesting; the fact that we won’t have anyone being our chauffer picking us up or the fact that we’ll be in a taxi without a driver. It’s really amazing how technology can get. However, I don’t think I’ll have the full 100% confidence to sit in a driverless car. Like what was brought up in class, it’s really dangerous to have cars with drivers and without drivers on the road. 

Then again, just like how there are 2 sides of a coin, I think that driverless car has its advantage too. For instance, it saves us all the trouble standing under the hot sun, spending a long time hiring a taxi and also, there may be cases whereby the driver will not be certain of the directions of certain places. Hence, with the driverless car, we need not afraid that the driver will not be familiar with the place that we want to go.

Another fact that I found rally amazing was from the presentation on nuclear fusion. The fact that our computer battery can actually provide us with so much energy really strikes me. We were told that that the computer battery that we use, which makes use of lithium, mixed together with water can actually provide us with electricity that can last us for 3 years. Hence, I don’t see any harm for us not encouraging nuclear fusion. Never knew a small computer battery that we all own, can do so much wonders. Imagine how much electricity we can generate given the fact that almost everyone owns a laptop.

We were also introduced to a new quote, “In terms of the development and application of new and emerging technologies, we are limited only by our imagination- and, all too often, the lack of there of”. I agree with this statement as nothing is impossible and impossible is nothing. It only depends on our own imagination and how we let it run. 

Class rating: 9/10

Energy and World Change

Today’s class was on Energy and World Change. We talked about renewable energy where it is the energy, which comes from natural resources. We were also reminded of the many different forms of renewable energy, for instance, hydroelectricity, geothermal energy, solar energy and energy from biomass and wind turbines that we have. I’m certain of the importance of all these renewable energy looking at the rate at how our energy sources are depleting. Such alternative sources of energy are crucial to help sustain the world today. Commercial activities by mankind have caused much damaged to our Earth today and that our demand for energy will just continue increasing, like what one of the presenter said; where energy is needed is almost every part of life. Hence, having all these renewable energy is important to us and important for sustainable development.

Also, with all the usage of the fossil fuels; burning them, we are emitting harmful gases especially CO2 into the environment. This then lead to global warming which will affect our goal for sustainable development. Hence, renewable resources are important to us. Citing from reading 2, it states that there is an increase in CO2 emission and use of energy supply.  It also states that the rising CO2 emission from energy will be 60% higher than what they are today. Also, it states in it that this has caused climate change. Due to the rise in CO2, it has led to global warming and hence, is a contributor of climate change. Furthermore, climate change will influence economic prosperity, environmentally sustainability and energy security. This greatly affects us as I feel that it is an obstacle to us in achieving sustainable development. We have to ensure the survival of our environment and yet, we are depleting it ourselves. Like what reading 2 stated, “human induced climate change”. This reading further talked about transport technologies where technologies could provide the foundation for a sustainable transport system, with zero or near zero emission of CO2. I feel that with the advancement of technology, we should make use of it to help improve our environment and help sustain our environment, where we transform the way energy is supplied and used.

I found the presentation on Fly Kites Fly really interesting. It talks about a new alternative energy, Kitegen, which uses flying kites to capture wind, which will then translate it to energy. I thought this was a really creative idea, to make use of kites to get energy. However, honestly, I wouldn’t support it 100% at the moment. I feel that there are still many things that we have to take into considerations. For instance, will the kites cause any obstruction to the things in the sky? But then again, considering the size of Singapore, it’ll be really cool if we actually build this Kitegen on HDB flats, where we save up space for other purposes. Or like what one of our classmate said, where we build if above the area where we place our solar panels. 

Then we were introduced to a new term Geoengineering. Personally, I have never came across this term before. I found it really amazing. We have bioengineering and now, Geoengineering. Where ways are invented to help decrease global warming. However, I agree with what was brought up in class, where this solution will only help cover up the problem and not solve the root cause of it. Hence, it may not be very effective in the long run. I feel that we have to tackle the root of the problem like coming up with alternative sources of energy so as to work towards sustainable. 

We ended class with a new quote,"Days of fossil fuels are numbered. Renewable energy will drive the green revolution". I agree with this statement. With the continuous research on new renewable energy and other alternative sources, i feel that we are working towards a stage where we will not depend on fossil fuels anymore. Which i feel will help us also, in terms of our environment state.

Class rating: 8/10 

BioBusiness Revolution2: Agriculture and the Environment

Today’s class was on the revolution of the agriculture sector and the environment. After this week’s lesson, I even more convinced that technology has really unknowingly seeped into our lives and how it has really changed our lives. Last week was how it impacted the healthcare sector, and this week on the agriculture sector. Specifically playing a part in the food that we consume. The consumption of GM food was raised and whether GM food should be labeled, risks brought about by GM food and so on.

What caught my attention was reading 3, where the risk involved from GM was actually raised. For a long time, having consumed GM food, i never thought of the possible risk involved or even thought that there will be risk involved. However, reading 3 talks about some countries who are in opposition to transgenic seed varieties and food products due to unknown risk and absence of obvious consumer benefits arising from genetically modified food. I guess some of us just take things as it is and accept things that are introduced to us. And I guess that it also depends on the background that we are coming from. For instance, people from the other countries may be less educated, hence, may not go so far into thinking of the possible risk involved, or some are just ignorant about it. Furthermore, they are just concern of the benefits that it brings for instance, it provides marketing advantages to food retailers or improved nutrition or taste to attract consumers. 

This also led to the point on whether we should consume GM food. Personally, i feel that it is something that we have already gotten used to. For instance, the broccoli and cauliflower are GM food from wild cabbage and i'm sure there are many more out there in the market. We have already gotten used to eating these vegetables. Furthermore, in one of the presentation, we actually came to realize that the MacDonald meal that we eat has corn or used corn related stuffs to prepare. Jut like how we cannot avoid corn related food, i feel that it's the same as how we can't just avoid GM food. 

In another of the presentation, it talks about the company Monsanto, where it states that farmers have to resort to committing suicide as they are unable to pay off the debt to Monsanto due to high cost incurred for the patenting of their seeds. The number of farmers that committed suicide really shocked me. It really shocked me at how Monsanto actually set rules in different countries, just for their own benefits.  But then again, we cannot push the blame to Monsanto. That's the common goals of most companies- make profits, which help keeps you competitive. I guess the argument here is whether we should be profit driven or we should be welfare driven?? Where they also think about the farmers welfare instead of their own benefits. We also discussed if GM food should be labeled, which i feel that we should. This is also a form of respect to our customers, that we're not hiding anything from them and it also leaves the option open for them to choose whether or not to consume the product. Furthermore, i feel that there is nothing to hide whether or not it's GM food unless there's really something wrong with the product and hence causing the producer to dare not label them. After-all, it's about the producer's integrity, which i feel is one of the most important factor to win the customers' support because there's trust. Hence, i feel that it should be labeled.

We were introduced to another quote this week. "When we are able to arrow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability." I agree with this statement and i felt that it was really true. To remain sustainable, we have to have ample resources for us to use as well as for the future generation. Hence, once we are able to arrow the resources, we need not worry of running out of them in the future. I feel that of course, technology will play a part in helping us arrow the resources, looking at how it has changed our world since the past.

I feel that we have to continue embracing the change in technology on our environment and agriculture to be able to reap greater benefits. It really makes me wonder how will the future GM food be like, what kind of new stuff we can expect from the continuous advancement of technology on this sector.

Class rating: 9/10

Biobusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences

This week's lesson was on the revolution of the biomedical industry. The class started off with the introduction to the term biobusiness, where it is a commercial activity based on understanding of life science and life science processes. I see it as businesses that are related to the biomedical industry. We also came to know that this constitutes over 25% of global GDP and employs some 40% of world's labour force. 

There's really been a vast change in the biomedical industry looking back from the past till today. The role that technology has on this revolution is really great i can say. With the advancement of technology, it allows research to be carried out which fasten the pace at which medical science advances as well. I feel that the advancement of medical sciences is really crucial. Just like a double edge sword, it benefits us as well as having the possibility to harm us and raises ethical issues. Firstly, this really benefits us, as we're now able to receive better treatment and also precautions to diseases. Of course, this would lead to an increase in the living conditions that we're in as hence, increasing life expectancy. However, we also know that all these research require money. Hence we can see the difference in the different countries- underdeveloped, developing and developed countries. Just like what reading 5 has stated, "We must find better ways to increase value, to keep modern care affordable, while still encouraging medical innovation. With these unprecedented technological achievements have also come unprecedented concerns about the total spending on healthcare and, in particular, about the rising spending on these new medical technologies. Many worry that, even if these new technologies come along, they will not benefit because they will not be able to afford the high cost.” Hence, we have to ensure that such medical innovations reach to all parts of the world to ensure that everyone gets to benefit from it.

On a flip side, like what reading 4 has stated regarding the disruptive innovations and healthcare, where dominant players place too much emphasis on improving their products to the point where consumers don't even know what they are using. Also, with the increase in innovations, it creates the potential for companies to introduce something known as disruptive innovation, where companies come up with cheaper and more convenient products to meet the needs of less-demanding customers. Just like a double edge sword, the increase in medical innovations has both its positive and negative side. However, i feel that this should not stop companies from the continual innovations and research that they are having. It is still important as this not only bring benefits to the healthcare sectors, it also aid in providing jobs for the people. 

The class went on to discuss on whether we should enhance human beings. In my opinion, i feel that we should not encourage the enhancement of human beings. Speaking from the ethical side, like what they say, it disrupt God's creation. Everyone is wonderfully made and created by God, hence we should not try to enhance ourselves to make us even better. From the other point of view, i feel that there may also be cases of discrimination and it adds stress to the person. Furthermore, it may also lead to a case whereby the person dared not leave her house just to avoid the criticism. Also, we are not sure the side effects that it may cause in the future. 

We were again introduced to 2 quotes, "Biobusiness may well be our best hope for achieving sustainable" and "The Biobusiness revolution will transform our lives and our economies-in the area of health, food, clothes and energy sources". I feel that it is really true that our lives will be transformed due to the biobusiness revolution. Many new inventions will be introduced with the continual advancement of technology and this causes people to be more reliable on them and hence it may become part of our lives unknowingly. 

I felt that this week's topic was really interesting as it talks about the healthcare side which most people are concern about. Moreover, seeing how the healthcare sector has advances, it really makes us wonder what type of new innovations we can expect in the future. 

Class rating: 9/10 

ICT & World Change

This week's lesson was on ICT and world change. ICT- Information & Communications Technologies, which includes Mass Media, the Internet, Interactive telecommunications, Wireless and so on. Indeed, technology has brought drastic change with regards to ICT. It is evident that we have progressed a lot ever since the past. Many forms of communications were being introduced. I shared this during the 1st TC lesson and that was; i remembered that when i was much younger, pagers were still in existence. However, just a leap of 10 years or so, instead of having pagers, we now have the iphones, blackberry and so on.

Many forms of ICT were introduced and what caught my attention was cloud computing. I've never heard of this term before. Cloud computing is Internet based computing where shared resources, information are provided to computers and other devices on demand. I like the idea of cloud computing as it is really low cost which lessens the burden on business owners. Seeing this, it really shows how much technology has advances, where with cloud computing, you need not require a large amt of capital to start your business and still able to reap as much benefits and profits.

ICT the driver of world change? We've discussed on drivers of change last session and is ICT one of the contributing factor? I feel that it has a part to play. The different forms of communication that has been introduced drove change. From tv and radios, we now have computers, laptops, mp3 etc.  It has really changed the way people communicate and changed the different forms of entertainments that are available. Like what reading 2 stated; How ICT can change the world.  As more people can afford communications due to drop in cost of devices therefore mkt more efficient. With increasing in number of people who are linked by mobile communication devices these days.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity" Albert Einstein. I agree with him.  Albert Einstein was referring to the use of nuclear weapons that US used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which led to the downfall of Japan. Though ICT is useful, it was misused in this area. Not only destroyed the land, it affected the citizens, disrupted their lives. Hence, we have to be responsible with every ICT invention and not misuse it for the wrong purpose.  Falling back on reading 2 as well, where it states that existing communication has its flaws. It enabled global warfare, crime and that powerful technology will be used by the powerful to maintain and extend power. These all actions actually misuse the purpose of ICT.

I found that the presentations this week were really engaging especially the one on the forms of reading. It showed to us clearly the change that was brought about. In tackling one of their questions; How will the future platform of information reading affect the next generation of students, whereby learning will be fully technologically based. I feel that students will be over reliant on technology. Also, they have to bear in mind that there'll be times where technology may fail us and that we may in turn becomes slaves to technology. Hence, i feel that we should not over-emphasize the use of technology in every area of our lives.

Overall, i felt that this week lesson was interesting as it brought us through how much our world has really changed and made us think of what will be happening in the future with the never ending advancement in the area of ICT.

Class rating: 8/10

Drivers of change, Change management & change leadership

This week's lesson was on Drivers of Change and Change Management & Change Leadership. I thought this would be an interesting session as I felt that change is something that is very close to our heart. The world is changing all the time and we're adapting to changes almost all the time. 

We started off the lesson with the topic on Drivers of Change; the factors that caused change to happen.  There are many different drivers of change. Whether is it caused by the environment, globalization, ideological innovation and so on. Ideological Innovation, it came to me really fresh as usually, when we mention drivers of change, the only few things that would pop out in my mind are mainly environment, technology and globalization. An example that was brought up by prof was communism. I feel that many a times, just a simple idea can change a whole system of something or the way people react to a certain issue. For instance, in the past, it is said that women are to stay at home to take care of the children and take care of the house. The mentality has been like this since decades ago. This is because people feel that women were more inferior creatures and that they are not as capable as men. However, we see that in today's society, there's a change in the thinking. We see that many women are in the workforce and even holding high positions. This change is thinking that women are not as inferior compared to the men has caused a drastic change in how people look at women. 

Also, talking about drivers of change, I agree with what reading 2 has stated. "The two most significant drivers of change in the world today are globalization and technological innovation. Both factors of growth are, in fact, the basis for a new division of labor between countries and firms that has emerged during the last few decades." Change would bring about growth to a country. It allows a country to remain competitive in today’s society. I feel that technology plays an important role in causing change. Looking back at how the world has changed these years due to the advancement of technology, I feel that it’s one of the main drivers of change.

Then we move on to Change Management and Change Leadership. We see the difference in the industries where it moved from a ‘hands-on’ industry to a knowledge economy. We are living in a modern world where we need continuous monitoring and renewal. This is very applicable to us as we’re living in a globalised world where countries are competing economically with one another. “Be the change you want to see in the world”- Mahatma Gandhi. I agree with this statement, as I feel that we cannot conform to what the society does. In this way, we won’t be able to out do the rest. We have to be the one who cause the change, the one that came up with a new trend for instance, to be able to stay competitive.

Prof introduced 3 ways to cope with change: Make it happen; be proactive, Respond when it happens and Be surprised when it happens; blurr. I feel strongly like what prof says, that is to respond when it happens, and that is to embrace change. If we don’t respond to it, we will be left behind. Which also means that it’ll affect our economic status.

Overall, I felt that today’s lesson was really interesting and that the topic discussed was really what we are encounter. The presentation was also fresh especially the one on disease as it came to me fresh, knowing that disease is a key driver of change.

Class rating: 8.5/10