Session 10: Technology assessment and forecasting.

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.