Lesson 1 - Technology and the Rise of Civilizations

Yesterday was the first day of school and TWC was my second lesson. We all went into class not knowing what to expect. When I first stepped into class, I saw the whiteboard at the back of the class, on it was written: "Technology is easy, Humans are hard." At first I thought it was just a random phrase someone wrote and left there. However after the lesson, my perspective began to change. Somehow the phrase seemed to be true. Technology is indeed easy and makes life easier for us humans, however it is mainly how we humans use it that really makes the impact.

As the title suggests, the rise of civilizations was accelerated and assisted by technology. Come to think of it, can the very "technology" which helped the rise of civilizations be the very same thing that causes it's downfall? Technology is everywhere! Everyone is dependent on technology these days. For some of us, give us a day without our mobile phones and we get all lost and disorientated. To me, the main point is not about how technology could bring a rise or fall to human civilization, but rather about how we humans use the technology to make changes. Take for example the picture of evolution Prof showed in class, where an ape turned into a fat human being carrying a cup of coke. Well, we definitely cannot say that technology was the cause of this, but merely played a tiny fraction in the process. Everyone has choices, and we as humans were engineered and designed to have our own minds and decisions to make our own. If a person chooses to indulge in technology, be lazy and grow fat, that is his/her own doing and has no one or nothing to blame but himself/herself! Another example could be drawn from nuclear technology. Nuclear technology gives us the ability to produce so much more energy than that of natural gases and coal, however, we humans had decided to use it to make bombs and weapons which could very well lead to our own destruction one fateful day! Superpowers in the world are now having stockpiles of nuclear weapons in their weaponry. I dare not think about what would happen if they were brought into use.

Also, Prof showed us a video, a short extract from Guns, Germs, and Steel. It concluded with a black man asking a white man why the whites had so much cargo while his own people, the New Guineans had so little. That got me thinking, and for a moment i was stumped. Was it really their race that made the difference? The class discussed it for quite awhile, yet no firm conclusions were drawn from the arguments and discussions. Personally, i think it depends on a few factors, for example our environment, our culture, and how we adapt and make use of technology to our own benefits. For example, it was China who invented the gunpowder, however it was first used by the Westerners for bullets. The same principle applies in that case.

Well, i guess the key takeaway point from lesson 1 was how technology affects the way we live and it is really how we humans make use of it that determines whether it is good or harmful to us.

I would rate the lesson a 8/10 as there were alot of discussions and alot of good points and insights were thrown onto the floor for the class to ponder about and expand on. The videos were interesting and made the class more interactive too.

See you guys again soon at lesson 2!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-