This week's lesson focuses on technology assessment and forecasting. I would share 2 interesting quotes shared during Professor Gurinder lesson
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there - Charles Kettering
Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepares for it today - African Proverb.
This actually shows the importance of having a good foresight and we have to foresee what future holds because we need to get ourselves ready for it.
One interesting observation that i have observed for this week is the commonly used foresight methods known as SWOT ( Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) This is a useful model to analyse the technology as well as foreseeing potential problems and this model includes all aspects of assessment. It won't be useful if the technology is useful but poses a threat to the community. Another interesting observation is the 9 steps to end poverty that was presented by one of our peers. The 9 steps involves harnessing global science, promote sustainable development, adopt a plan of action, commit to the task, raise the voice of the poor, strengthen the IN, rescue the IMF and world bank, redeem the US role in the world and lastly make a personal commitment. These steps in the model seems comprehensive. However, tackling certain issues such as redeem the US role in the world and strengthening the U.N might be tough. This was the topic that i wished that we could spent more time on if time permits. The reason is because poverty is a issue that is plaguing certain countries and with so much surpluses of food in the world each day, we are still facing this problem. Thus, it is important that we look into this issue carefully and work towards the solutions.
One of the key takeaways that I have was about the ability to work back from the future and not work from the current issue now and work for the future. The reason is the constrain that we have today. If we are able to look at what we have and think to improve things in the future using what we have, the ideas will be better as it is used to tackle current issue. Another key takeaway is that when we assess a technology, one most important consideration that we should have is the impact on society. People are the one that are dependent on technology. If one fails to consider that factor as his priority, the technology might not be useful and well accepted by the society.
I would rate this week's lesson as 8 and i am looking forward for next week's group presentation!
Before i end my post, i will share a meaningful quote that i have found this week.
The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Lesson 9: Emerging and future technologies
This week's lesson focus our attention to emerging and potential technologies that is emerging in the future. We discussed mainly on nanotechnology, robotics, surveillance technology and computing-based simulation technologies. The quote of the week shared by Dr Gurinder is
"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 there of."
What is meant by the above statement is that technologies knew no bounds and the only boundary is the boundary set by humans; lack of imagination. Just like what George Bernard says, "You see things and you say, 'why?' but I dream things that never were and say why not?" What he trying to suggest is that we need to let our imagination run wild and this is only when we can create new technologies that will benefit our society. In addition, the source of motivation to create that wild imagination is actually the unmet market opportunities and need. In short, the market force is the one that drives R and D and hence, new technologies emerge.
One of the interest things that i have observed for this week's lesson is robotic technologies. The "perfect woman" was developed by 2 Japanese and that "perfect woman" is someone that all man would desire. The project was initiated as he has seen that there are a handful number of people in this society who are lonely and lack of friends. This is one good example of the development of robotic technology and other products include robotic pet and robotic "hands" in factories to assemble complicated parts. Another interesting observation is the rising of nanotechnology. Prior to this lesson, i was not sure how much nanotechnology can do to improve our lives. However, my knowledge has expanded with the video that prof has shared and the presentation that one of our peers has done. I am amazed by how cryonics can do and it is inexpensive. However, every emerging technology will face some ethical issues. In this case, it involves resurrection and people might start the question if this technology is morally right as we are indirectly playing the will God has created. The question that i hope that we could have more time to discuss on is how are we able to eradicate this perception and make people accept this technology.
One of the key takeaway message that i wish to drive across is that whatever new ideas or technologies that introduced, it's bound have conflict with ethical issues. However, I feel that sometimes we have to put ethical issue aside in order to have breakthrough. Another key takeaway that i want to share is that the difference between us and computer is that a computer is able to retain all the knowledge that the world posses but humans can only retain a certain portion of it. Hence, we can see that we must create a relationship between computer and us so we are able to maximise what the computer has with what we know in order to create the limitless imagination that I have mentioned earlier. Only then, new breakthroughs could be made and new technologies could emerge.
I would rate this week lesson 8/10 and i hope that i will benefit from the leftover 3 sessions with Dr Gurinder and gain interesting insights from TWC.
"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 there of."
What is meant by the above statement is that technologies knew no bounds and the only boundary is the boundary set by humans; lack of imagination. Just like what George Bernard says, "You see things and you say, 'why?' but I dream things that never were and say why not?" What he trying to suggest is that we need to let our imagination run wild and this is only when we can create new technologies that will benefit our society. In addition, the source of motivation to create that wild imagination is actually the unmet market opportunities and need. In short, the market force is the one that drives R and D and hence, new technologies emerge.
One of the interest things that i have observed for this week's lesson is robotic technologies. The "perfect woman" was developed by 2 Japanese and that "perfect woman" is someone that all man would desire. The project was initiated as he has seen that there are a handful number of people in this society who are lonely and lack of friends. This is one good example of the development of robotic technology and other products include robotic pet and robotic "hands" in factories to assemble complicated parts. Another interesting observation is the rising of nanotechnology. Prior to this lesson, i was not sure how much nanotechnology can do to improve our lives. However, my knowledge has expanded with the video that prof has shared and the presentation that one of our peers has done. I am amazed by how cryonics can do and it is inexpensive. However, every emerging technology will face some ethical issues. In this case, it involves resurrection and people might start the question if this technology is morally right as we are indirectly playing the will God has created. The question that i hope that we could have more time to discuss on is how are we able to eradicate this perception and make people accept this technology.
One of the key takeaway message that i wish to drive across is that whatever new ideas or technologies that introduced, it's bound have conflict with ethical issues. However, I feel that sometimes we have to put ethical issue aside in order to have breakthrough. Another key takeaway that i want to share is that the difference between us and computer is that a computer is able to retain all the knowledge that the world posses but humans can only retain a certain portion of it. Hence, we can see that we must create a relationship between computer and us so we are able to maximise what the computer has with what we know in order to create the limitless imagination that I have mentioned earlier. Only then, new breakthroughs could be made and new technologies could emerge.
I would rate this week lesson 8/10 and i hope that i will benefit from the leftover 3 sessions with Dr Gurinder and gain interesting insights from TWC.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Lesson 8:Energy and World Change ( Past, Present and future)
This week's lesson focuses on Energy and world change from 3 dimensions namely, past, present and future. We have discussed in class about how energy has transformed from the fossil fuels era to our era of using green technology to achieve sustainable development. In our world today, we are focusing on energy conserving technologies in terms of maximising energy efficiency and GDP. We are seeking new ways to create a new source of energy that do not pollute the environment and at the same time prevent pollution in our environment. This is actually in line prof Gurinder quote of the week as shown below
"The days of fossil fuels are numbered.
Renewable energy will drive the green revolution"
One of the interesting observations that i found is since the discovery of fossil fuel, it has been used extensively and something unexpected happened in 2009; It was the only time when the fuel usage is the lowest. Some may argue that this is not due to the increased awareness of green technologies but largely due to economy contraction due to various unforeseen circumstances. I do agree that it is part of the reason but not the main reason. As we are facing the wretch of global warming, there is a need to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and switch our attention to renewable energies. The reason is simply given the estimated amount of fossil fuels left, it will only last between 40-50 years. Hence, i would say that it is through this awareness, companies and government decide to reduce their reliance on renewable energies. Next interesting fact is that the sun transmit as much as 3 850 000 EJ the earth and this is something that we can work on. What is more surprising is that we are tapping less than 1/4 of the energy that the sun has gave to the earth. The source of fossil fuels indirectly comes from solar and i believe that we can focus on solar energy as a source of renewable energy since the energy is in abundance. One country that adopted this approach is Germany. Germany aims is to achieve 20% renewable energy usage within in the country by 2020.
The key takeaway for this week is that there is a need to switch to alternate forms of energy generation. We should not rely on fossil fuels for energy generation our non renewable resources are depleting. If we do not curb our usage, we will be compromising our future generations and hence not achieving sustainable development. We can see that countries such as Brazil are moving towards Bioethanol. I am sure that as time goes by, different countries will expand their creativity on creating new technologies that is green and reduce their reliance on non renewable resources. Another key takeaway is that the government and industries are not the only one that could play a part in reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Community too can play a part. For instance, the cash incentives given to citizens in Germany that sells their excessive energy generated from their solar panel and the profit motivation factor encourage more people to adopt this technology. Government plays a huge role in encouraging the community to adopt this technology.
Well, this week session was another fruitful journey and it has indeed expand my knowledge about how much we have evolved from the fossil fuels ONLY era to our various forms of energy generation today. However, i hope a more elaborate discussion could be held with regards to Geo engineering which i finds it pretty interesting. Hence for this week lesson, i would rate it 8.5/10
Before i end this post, i will share with u guys with an interesting quote:
Be real, because a mask only fools people on the outside. Pretending to be someone your not, takes a toll on the real you, and the real you is more important than anyone else.
"The days of fossil fuels are numbered.
Renewable energy will drive the green revolution"
One of the interesting observations that i found is since the discovery of fossil fuel, it has been used extensively and something unexpected happened in 2009; It was the only time when the fuel usage is the lowest. Some may argue that this is not due to the increased awareness of green technologies but largely due to economy contraction due to various unforeseen circumstances. I do agree that it is part of the reason but not the main reason. As we are facing the wretch of global warming, there is a need to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and switch our attention to renewable energies. The reason is simply given the estimated amount of fossil fuels left, it will only last between 40-50 years. Hence, i would say that it is through this awareness, companies and government decide to reduce their reliance on renewable energies. Next interesting fact is that the sun transmit as much as 3 850 000 EJ the earth and this is something that we can work on. What is more surprising is that we are tapping less than 1/4 of the energy that the sun has gave to the earth. The source of fossil fuels indirectly comes from solar and i believe that we can focus on solar energy as a source of renewable energy since the energy is in abundance. One country that adopted this approach is Germany. Germany aims is to achieve 20% renewable energy usage within in the country by 2020.
The key takeaway for this week is that there is a need to switch to alternate forms of energy generation. We should not rely on fossil fuels for energy generation our non renewable resources are depleting. If we do not curb our usage, we will be compromising our future generations and hence not achieving sustainable development. We can see that countries such as Brazil are moving towards Bioethanol. I am sure that as time goes by, different countries will expand their creativity on creating new technologies that is green and reduce their reliance on non renewable resources. Another key takeaway is that the government and industries are not the only one that could play a part in reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Community too can play a part. For instance, the cash incentives given to citizens in Germany that sells their excessive energy generated from their solar panel and the profit motivation factor encourage more people to adopt this technology. Government plays a huge role in encouraging the community to adopt this technology.
Well, this week session was another fruitful journey and it has indeed expand my knowledge about how much we have evolved from the fossil fuels ONLY era to our various forms of energy generation today. However, i hope a more elaborate discussion could be held with regards to Geo engineering which i finds it pretty interesting. Hence for this week lesson, i would rate it 8.5/10
Before i end this post, i will share with u guys with an interesting quote:
Be real, because a mask only fools people on the outside. Pretending to be someone your not, takes a toll on the real you, and the real you is more important than anyone else.
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