Technology And World Change

Lesson 12: Group Presentations

2010-11-14T08:37:00.001-08:00

Again, we had group presentations this week. And my group also presented this week!

Group 1: Technology and Armageddon

The group did role-playing and entertained the class. It was a good idea as they role-played what they were talking about. For example, there was a cyborg, and a robot. Their presentation was mainly on how to prevent the end of the world, and also if such a situation were to occur, who would be able to survive and why. They also showed us videos, which were interesting and captivating.

It was an interesting presentation as how often would one think about when the world is coming to an end? It then made me start to think what would I be doing if tomorrow will be the end of the world. Seriously, I really don’t know. Do you??

Group 2: Diseases And Technology Related To Combat Their Spread

Our group basically gave an overview of the infectious diseases and how technology had helped in the control of the spread of these diseases. Also, we gave ideas on the upcoming and emerging technologies related to combating the spread of diseases. We had a role playing exercise and I believe we managed to entertain the class and yet at the same time get our ideas across to them. We really had a fun time preparing for this presentation and doing up the website.

We decided on the topic because we felt that very often, the spread of diseases is often due to the lack of education. Hence, if through our website, the public can get a better idea on how such diseases spread and how to combat the spread, these diseases will claim less victims and the world would be a much better place!

Group 3: Technology and Art

Very often, people think the technology and art are mutually exclusive. It is hard to see how technology can be incorporated into art. After listening to the group’s presentation, they managed to convince me otherwise. They came up with the idea of a multipurpose stylus and how it will be able to mimic the different brushes.

However, I feel that if art is to be digitalized, it will soon lose its exclusiveness and somehow, looking at a canvas is always different from looking at a digital screen. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s how I feel. Other than that, I felt that the topic was rather interesting and there is potential for technology to develop in the area of art.

Group 4: Women And Technology

The group basically aimed to prove the stereotype of women being technologically unsound wrong. Personally, I do not believe in such a stereotype, as I know many female friends who are far better in computers than I am.

Also they offered interesting alternatives to everyday gadgets that makes it easier for women to use. They made videos of themselves, which was really funny, and it managed to lighten up their presentation. Well, the very fact that they were a all girls team and had managed to build up their website already proves the stereotype wrong!

With that, we concluded the whole Technology and World Change module for our semester. It was a really interesting course, as we would be introduced to new and exciting emerging technologies that really excite me. The course had made us ready to prepare for changes in technology to come in the future and be able to better deal and cope with the situations that may come with it. In order to progress and stay on top, we have to take the bold step forward, and embrace the change! (:

With that, I end my blog! Thanks for tuning in every week! Cheers! And all the best for your exams or whatever that may come your way! (:

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 11: Group Presentations

2010-11-14T08:36:00.001-08:00

This week, we had group presentations.

Group 1: How Air Transport Changed the World.

The group managed to captivate the class by role playing to attempt to make us feel like we were in a plane ready for take off. They talked about how there will be flying cars in the future and the limitations and how we will get there. I felt it was a very interesting presentation. True enough, transportation plays a very important role in our lives and in our economies. With such an evolution in transportation technology, it will revolutionize the way we live and our economies.

However, personally, I feel that such a development will not be in the near future. In fact, it will be a long time before such a technology comes into play. The whole country’s infrastructure will have to change in order to accommodate such a daring evolution and the cost to implement such a technology may very well outweigh it’s benefits. Ultimately, the very cars we have now can already bring us to our desired destination!

Group 2: Cleaning Up Space.

It was evident that the group was a group of space enthusiasts. The terms they used and the ideas they brought forward required one to have knowledge on space technology to be able to understand.

It is important that we do not take the things we have now on earth for granted. Looking at earth in terms of the universe, the earth is just but a grain of sand on a sandy beach. Hence, like how we are trying to keep our earth clean, it is important that we keep space around earth clean too! We would not want unwanted junk to be falling from the sky and damaging our buildings everyday!

Group 3: Technology In Dealing With Space Constraints

The group was entertaining and fun to watch. They brought across their idea to the class by showing us the past and the future and how technology dealing with space constraints can have an impact on us.

True enough, as the world develops and the human population grows, land, and space is growing increasingly scarce. Just take Singapore for a simple example. Buildings are getting higher and higher in order to accommodate to the growing population. The group went more in depth and talked about how other forms of technology can actually help ease the problem of space constraints. It was a really interesting presentation.

I felt that the 3 groups managed to bring their ideas across to the class well today and I enjoyed myself thoroughly listening to their presentations.

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 10: Technology Assessment and Forecasting

2010-10-29T04:29:00.000-07:00

“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there” –Charles Kettering-

A very simple phrase, yet it compels us to think about it and reminds us that we have to be forward thinking.

“Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today” -African proverb-

As cliché as it may sound, prevention is better than cure, and preparation is required in order to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

With the current rate of development of technology, it is important that we are able to assess it and forecast where our developments are heading and hence create new management guidelines and methods in order to manage these new developments. Imagine a country without any traffic light systems to manage the traffic flow. Or a public transport infrastructure with no one to manage it. Accidents will be happening everywhere and the whole city will be in chaos!

It is important to forecast technology too so as to know where we should be investing in! We have to analyze each upcoming technology, the progress of the development, and then decide whether the technology is feasible or not. Definitely, we do not want to invest precious time and money into something that will not give returns. Furthermore, we are all facing limited resources and it is important that we allocate them wisely.

This ties in closely with reading 1, which acts as a guide or manual to teach us how to analyze and how to expect what is to come in the future. However, I feel that it is not necessary to go through all the 17 steps. Sometimes, to achieve great things, we will have to take higher risks. As they say, “higher risks, higher returns.” If we were to follow what reading 1 tells us to do, we are following a very conservative method and for risky developments that have potential and may be ground breaking will be neglected and left untouched.

Reading 2 tells us about “futurology”, which is basically the scientific study of the future. I feel that this whole issue is very subjective and It really depends on how the futurist feel and think the future is heading towards. Now, noone can predict the future. Instead of trying to predict it, I feel that we should be focusing on how to deal with the future and how to cope with the changes coming up. It also talked about how science fiction had molded the way people think about in the future. It acts as an inspiration for people to continue to work on so as to achieve even greater things than what futurologist may come up with. The main difference is that futurologist will tend to be bounded by scientific limitations and models to follow, however science fiction has no boundaries and hence greater ideas are created.

This is addressed by reading 3, which focuses more on roadmapping the future of technology. It is a more systematical approach to foresee the development of technology in future and it is easier to access it and hence see if we are following the roadmap. This helps make policy makers implement policies more efficiently and helps investors make better and more well informed decisions.

“It is said that the present is pregnant with the future” –Voltaire-

Come to think of it, it is very true. Like how a woman feeds the baby in her tummy, we are feeding the future and hence what we are doing now will affect the future! What we do now will shape what the future will look like. Hence, whatever decisions we make now should be made carefully so as not to take the wrong route down in the future. Basically, it boils down to the fact that technology is neutral! It is only how we choose to use it.

Reading 4 talked about how it is important that we not only take the view of one body to assess where technology is going. Instead, it is important that we include the general public and take into account their views on where technology is going so as to have a better perspective of it.

Presentation 1 by Hanah Chua talked about how it is important that we also look into the ethical aspects as we access technology. I feel that a balance must be drawn. As long as the technology would not harm any group or minorities, I feel that we should move on. Furthermore, as a peer mentioned in class about how the technology can in the long run in fact benefit the minority, it is critical that we do not cut the technology without analyzing and looking at the long-term effects and benefits of the technology.

Today’s lesson covered a very important concept on how we should access technology and make appropriate and wise decisions on how we should use it and develop it. Hence, I rate today’s lesson a 9/10.

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 9: Emerging and Future Technology

2010-10-22T00:10:00.001-07:00

Quote of the day: “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 thereof. –Gurinder Singh-”

True as this quote may be, we still need to have much more in order to develop and apply new emerging technologies. We then talked about the “4smarts” to kickstart future technologies. Namely: Smart people, smart ideas, smart money, and smart alliances and partnership. Hence, besides having smart people to have fertile imagination, and feasible ideas, we need investors and often the government’s support to carry out the ideas.

Reading 2 then gave a little insight on the different government spendings in nanotechnology and AI. It gave us an idea about how nanotechnology, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and biotechnology have progressed together. As AI can be boosted by nano technology, and nanotechnology may converge with biotechnology as it uses the structures of biological system to manufacture the tiny nano machines.

It is interesting to note on how they try to foresee the near future and where we could be going in terms of the nano tubes. It mentioned that instead of using carbon fibre, there will be nanotubes, which boast of being light weight, yet stronger than steel. Such new materials can be used in many forms and will open a whole new industry in terms of material engineering.

However, one point to take note is that this article was written in the year 2003. 7 years have past and the development of such nanotubes have yet to be seen.

Another quote introduced to us in class was: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’” –George Bernard Shaw-

Basically I feel that it portrays the same message as the electric car and smart efficient energy grid video, which ended with a phrase, “The world is going to change, let us change the world!” Basically, we have to be different and stand out in order to lead change and lead the development of new technologies. Instead of accepting things the way they are, we must stand up and ask why can’t it be different?

This ties in with Reading 4, which talked about the top 10 emerging technologies we can all look forward to. The part that stood out most to me was about genetic engineering, where we can “rewrite our own software”. There has been a lot of debate going on recently regarding this issue as many opponents will condemn the proponents as trying to play God and going against Nature. While the proponents argue back that it is only for the better of the human race. Genetic diseases such as blindness, and cancers can be prevented and humans can live longer lives. Then again, it links it to reading 2, which brought in the whole issue of genetism and medical ethics. It talked about how instead of racism, humans now discrimination one another in terms of their gene pool.

Therefore, I feel that there must be a balance in everything that we do and as we develop new technologies in the future. To please both sides, genetic engineering could be done in a way that it is only used to prevent genetic diseases, but not to enhance the human nature. One problem is that this is a very fine line that we are threading on. Who will be monitoring the changes and the development? And more importantly, how?

As we further analyze the article, we realize that we are already on our way to the future technologies as mentioned in the article. For example, we now have 3D display on flat screen monitors. The challenge now is how to make it like a holograph and have a true 3D display system, like that in Iron Man, which wow-ed many viewers.

Also, reading 1, a website that talks about all the interesting stuff that is going to be developed. It mentioned about upcoming technologies such as robots becoming more and more humanized. These robots are able to adapt and respond to the environment and surroundings around us, just like humans.

Another future technology which I feel is already nearing is augmented reality. It is exciting to see how it is slowly being incorporated to our daily use and people are slowing learning how to use the technology. Now, whenever I try to look for the cheapest parking space in town, I turn to my iPhone, which tells me all I need to know with the right app. Also, I am able to find out where sells the same product the cheapest by merely scanning the barcode with my phone’s camera. To sum it all up, augmented reality is basically adding many layers of information to our current reality. With such technologies, life has been made so much easier and has made information so much more accessible.

Our classmates then shared about the new exciting rising technologies namely:

Presentation 1: Electronic paper

Presentation 2: Touch technology interface

Presentation 3: Bometrics in enhancing security

Presentation 4: Gaming technology (about kinect)

Presentation 5: Multi card

I felt that all these technologies are already in the pipeline and I am really excited to begin using these technologies when they are made available. Changes and developments are inevitable and in order to keep ourselves on top of things, we have to embrace these changes!

Today’s lesson was really interesting, where we uncovered many new forms of emerging technology and were fascinated at what could be made available to us in the future. Hence, I rate today’s lesson a 9.5/10.

See you guys next week!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 8: Energy and World Change: Past, Present, Future

2010-10-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Once again, we were greeted with a quote on the whiteboard at the back of class that said: “The days of fossil fuels are numbered. Renewable energy will drive the Green Revolution. –Gurinder Singh-”

Straight away, I was reminded of Reading 2, which talks about how we can incorporate new technologies to achieve sustainable energy usage. For example in vehicles, instead of petroleum, we can now use biofuels, fuel cells, and cleanly produced hydrogen. For buildings, insulation and new efficient equipment can help to reduce energy usage. Also, we can incorporate computerized energy management systems. For industries, advanced in technologies can reduce energy usage and CO2 emissions.

Also, it continues to talk about how technologies can transform energy supply, from fuels which will produce a lot of CO2 to renewable energy sources e.g. using nature, advanced fossil fuel combustion technologies which can reduce the amount of CO2 produced, and also technologies which can capture and store CO2. Other alternatives include hydrogen and nuclear fission technologies.

However, the article was focused more on how new technologies can be used in transport to move towards a sustainable transport system. It also provided steps on how to achieve a sustainable transport system. Which was really good. Transport is a main area where we use a lot of energy in. Hence, if we were to change the way we use the energy in transport from non-renewable to renewable energy sources, we will be taking a huge step forward in moving towards sustainable development.

If we were to take a look at real life examples, we can already see countries taking that step. For example, Europe’s government said that it is their aim to have 10% of the energy used for transport be bio fuels instead of using petroleum by 2020.

Prof then showed us a video on how until 1850, all the energy used was renewable, after that, things started to change. Now, we are moving back to our old ways. A cycle is formed. However in the future, when we get complacent, we will start to use non-renewable fuel again! However, if we were to analyze it deeper, in the past, less energy was needed as technology was not so advanced and hence needed less energy as compared to present times.

This ties in with Reading 1, which gives us an idea about how much of each resource is left in the world and the consumption rates of these resources which are used to produce energy.

It is shocking to note that the only form of renewable energy in BP’s chart is hydraulic energy! The rest of the resources used to produce energy by the world are non-renewable! At the rate we are going, it is said that we will only be able to use these resources till they become depleted in a mere 40 – 50 years time!

It also shows the trends of countries. For example, the US is the largest consumer for gas and fossil fuels, while China is still the largest for coal. However, it is good that China is currently investing the most in moving towards clean energy development, even more than the US. It could be due to China who had moved from being the largest exporter of coal to the largest importer of coal, hence causing much pollution that had damaged the environment in their major cities. Hence, they need to invest more to clear up the mess they have caused.

Also, Germany is particularly active in solar energy. 30% of it’s energy used will be renewable by 2020. The government played a role by offering cash incentives for putting up solar panels and everyone is starting to use solar panels.

Hence, we can notice a trend that the world is moving towards the idea of having sustainable development and replacing their energy sources with cleaner, and renewable ones. Come to think of it, we all have no choice! Sooner or later, the fossil fuels will run dry, and we have to look for alternative forms of sustainable energy sources! Fossil fuels and coal should only be used as a transition stage where the world innovates and invents new forms of energy.

However, very often, the move to take such a step towards such a change must be taken first by the government. Reading 3 talked about how it is important to balance the 4 areas relating to energy. These are economic development, national security, social welfare, and environmental protection. Resources are there, but it is the governance that matters.

It is true that as the world is experiencing a global population rise, and hence we will all need energy, we still have to balance it with environmental protection. Too little energy will affect social well-being. However, in order to have more energy and more pollution is caused, it will also affect the social well being of the society. Hence, it is a very fine line to thread on. Hence, a solution as mentioned is the use of alternative energy, which is what most countries’ governments are now doing. And also to have good energy efficiency programs.

Reading 4 went in dept of the bioenergy sector now and the process of how it is being produced by using biotechnology. Which links us to our previous lesson about biotechnology and how it has developed.

Bioenergy is an emerging form of energy now as it is renewable and it does not cause so much harm to the environment, however at the same time meets our requirements. However more R&D has to be put in to improve the production efficiency of bioenergy. This brought to mind what a classmate brought up in class, where he said that the only way that we can continue to sustain our energy use is by continuous R&D. Governments and NGOs must continue non-stop in their quest to find alternative clean energy sources so as to create a sustainable energy cycle.

We then had our student presenters who each gave us many different ideas of alternative energy sources. They were interesting and it gave us an idea about how we are all moving towards using alternative energy sources and all we need is just continue R&D to improve and refine the process invented.

This lesson was really interesting and insightful. Most of the presenters this week were really good and they know their stuff well. Hence, I would rate this lesson a 9.5/10.

See you guys next week!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 7: BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology (Past, Present and Future)

2010-10-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Quote of the week: “When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability.”

This applies not only the food that we eat, but also the energy and materials that we use. So long as we can grow it, we are sustainable. However I think that one important factor that we have to take note of is that we must be able to grow it either at the same pace as we use the resources, or faster in order to be sustainable in our development.

Agribiology

Biotechnology can be incorporated into agricultural processes, this is called agribiotechnology. Reading 1 describes about how agribiotechnology helped to solve many problems such as not having enough food, or how locusts destroys so much crops and how people are lacking in Vitamin A by using GM crops.

One solution I felt was the most important was actually teaching the farmers how to perform such processes and make use of agribiotechnology. Even if it is widely available, but if farmers are ignorant, there wont be much use for such agribiotechnology. Also, it is important that the farmers learn how to observe the growing change of demand for certain crops so that they can move towards them.

However, there are still limitations of implementations of agribiotechnology. This is mentioned and expanded on in Reading 3. The point I felt was most striking from the article was about how there are no comprehensive domestic policy and federal systems when it comes to food safety through transgenic events.

As transgenic events are now playing such a huge role in agribiotechnology, it is appalling that there is no proper regulatory system. I feel that especially in such a major industry that could potentially affect the health and life of millions, it should have a proper regulatory body to set laws and rules in order to safeguard the population’s health and interests.

Environmental Life Sciences

Part 2 of reading 1 actually explains us in detail about how biotechnology will be able to help us with the sustainability of the environment with means such as using waste to produce new forms of energy, using bioplastics and biomaterials that are biodegradable.

Land pollution is a main concern for the developing world right now. With these forms of biodegradable materials, they can be easily recycled and hence solve the problem of land pollution. As discussed in the reading, there is tremendous potential for the development of biotechnology in industrial process that can help in the sustainability of the environment.

If biotechnology can assist in sustaining the environment, I don’t see why we should not do it. The probable main reason I reckon could be due to the high cost of biotechnology and the high cost in R&D to continue innovating. However, I feel that the benefits definitely do outweigh the cons as we only have one earth and most of the resources that we are using now to fulfill our energy needs are non-renewable. We can’t be selfish and let the future generations suffer for our sake.

Industrial Life Sciences

Industrial biotechnology interlinks with environmental biotechnology. Through industrialization, we have caused so much harm to the environment. Biotechnology is used to deal with the harm caused, and also to reduce the waste brought about from industrialization.

This can be done through biofuels, industrial enzymes and other mining purposes.

However, one point that reading 4 brought forth caught my attention. The author brought up an observation that biotechnology which would result in new products and new processes are very quickly implemented in all areas where biotechnology is able to play a role in. However, if it was going to replace an existing process or end product? The implementation process will be a long arduous one as somehow it is just in human nature to be resistant to change!

This brought me back to last lesson, where we discussed about how some doctors and hospitals are rejecting certain new modifications to certain procedures so they can continue to earn more revenue.

In order for any form of technology to develop, we must first overcome our resistance to change and keep up with the developments. This brings to mind a point from reading 4. Reading 4 talked about the different ways biotechnology can help end world hunger by increasing agricultural yield. However, many are still opposing the idea. The author based his argument on an objective basis and gave credit to environmental activist on their role to helping maintain acceptable air pollution standards and keeping the environmental standards now which could have easily been worse. However, to protest against biotechnology is based on the argument that we should not interfere with nature is ironic as without such developments, it will be impossible to keep up with the world’s growing populations and the world’s growing wants.

Overall

Biotechnology can help us in various ways and it is only whether we choose to adopt such technologies or not. We must not stick to our conventional ways and instead use science to help increase our efficiency to keep up our growth.

Many have misunderstood that only the developed countries mainly use biotechnology as they have the capital and facilities to integrate biotechnology into their processes. However, from reading 6, we see how the implementation of biotechnology is able to provide various opportunities for the developing countries. The 4 opportunities that were mentioned were:

Biotechnology may be able to reduce the cost of investment and production.
Biotechnology enables the developing countries to grow their bio products such as bio fertilizers locally so they wont need to spend on importing and instead export more to other countries requiring the fertilizers while using some to improve their crop yields too.
Biofuels could replace petroleum-based fuels in developing countries as prices of petroleum-based fuel are higher there due to the lack of refining knowledge in the country and they have to import. Hence, biofuels enable them to cut costs.
Biotechnology enables the countries to add value to their raw materials, enabling them to export them for higher prices. And also enable them to convert waste into useful materials.

That basically summed it all up for us! I had a great time learning about how biotechnology can be used to help solve so many of the world’s current problems. This lesson was very informative with the 5 student presentations and opened up a whole new dimension of technology to me.

See you guys next Monday!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 6: BioBusiness Revolution

2010-09-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I will first comment on the 2 quotes written on the whiteboard at the back of class. They were: "The BioBusiness revolution will transform our lives and our economies” and

"BioBusiness may well be our best hope for sustainable development."

According to prof, biobusiness will change our lifes in ways such as healthcare, food, clothes, energy sources etc. As mentioned, biobusiness accounted for up to 33% of the global GDP. When I first heard that, I found it astonishing. However, after looking at the break down of figures, I realized that it is actually rather expected. Unknowingly, the world had entered into an era of biobusiness as we developed.

This ties in with reading 1. As the rest of the world continued to develop, the developing countries are left behind. In the reading, we read about how there is a need to deal with underdevelopment the challenge of poverty. People living in rural areas still lack access to sanitation and clean drinking water. As we can see, there is such a vast disparity! Biobusiness makes up 33% of the global GDP, and yet, there are still so many people living in such conditions! Hence, I support the article as it gave a solution to the problem. We need to have innovation and strategic investment in biobusiness that can help improve the conditions of the rural areas.

One major problem that governments are facing which prevents them from helping improve the conditions of such areas is the problem of patents. The developed countries are making use of the developing countries for testing! This links up with reading 2. Reading 2 argued that these intellectual property rights are mainly just for companies to maximize their profits and monopolize based on their property rights. It also mentioned that in the process of coming up with the patents, so much testing had been done on the third world countries that it damages their ecology and yet, no credit had been given to them.

Through patenting, it has become more expensive for the government to try solve these problems as if they will want to use a certain biotechnology to solve a problem, for example drinking water, they will have to buy the rights to use the technology patented by a certain company before using it. I find this ridiculous. Yes, patent may help protect property rights and hence inspire more people to innovate. However, appropriate credit should be given and appropriate corporate social responsibility should be shown to the people who were tested on and who needs all the help they can get.

The second quote on the white board made me think a lot more. I recently gave a presentation on sustainable development in class and the second quote came as an enlightenment. Why haven’t I thought of that when I did my presentation? Indeed, biobusiness can play a major role in helping us move towards sustainable development. Through biobusiness, we improve the way we do business through the introduction of biotechnology. With biotechnology, we can create biodegradable materials, or we can create new forms of greener energy. Most countries in the world today are focusing on investing in biotechnology.

Very often, we assume that biotechnology is all about making health care instruments and concentrates mainly on the health care sector. Today, I realized that biotechnology actually covers so much more than that. It covers all the way from making beer, to creating greener forms of energy. Biotechnology has enabled people to come up with ways to make things easier, and to improve the way certain things are carried out, especially in the health care sector.

In reading 4, we read about how innovations are being disrupted due to health care companies fearing that they will lose profits and lose their business model. I find this unacceptable. Sometimes, in order to keep their profits, companies refuse to adopt innovations that might bring the cost down and help their consumers save more money, hence affecting their profits. To bring things back to home, we can also see how doctors are sometimes doing the same thing. Some doctors give all sorts of advice just to persuade their patients choose a certain procedure or purchase unnecessary medicine just so that they can earn more from their patients. Sometimes all the patient need is a simple low cost procedure. To a certain degree, I find this despicable and low-handed. As a doctor, his/her job is to help the patient recover in the best and most cost effective way, not to make the patients go through unnecessary procedures just to make more money out of them.

We then had individual presentations. What I found interesting was about medical tourism. We were asked if medical tourism was actually causing more harm to the poor. Medical tourism mainly consists the private sector, not the public sector. And the poor do not use the private the sector. Hence, I see no reason why it is harmful to them. Maybe just the fact that the private sector will act as a brain drain and attract all the talents from the public sector due to better pay. However, the pros do outweigh the cons as there will be a spillover effect and the revenue gained from medical tourism can be used to improve the current public health care system for the poor and also the public health care system can learn a lot from the private health care systems.

On the whole, I found today’s lesson very focused on the healthcare systems and how biobusiness and biotechnology links to healthcare. I feel that there is still a lot of scope in biobusiness and biotechnology that has yet to be expanded on. I hope the next lesson will tell us more about the other areas of biobusiness rather than just focusing mainly on healthcare.

I rate today’s lesson an 8/10. See you guys next week!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 5: Information and Communication Technology and World Change

2010-09-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Every week without fail, I would be greeted by a phrase at the back of class on the whiteboard. Today's quote wrote: "ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution". In order to understand it better, we must know the difference between knowledge and information. Knowledge is a step further whereby information is being applied. If we were to read Reading 3, we notice that the author actually defined it by saying that "information is used to gain knowledge".

Knowledge can be transferred via many ways, for example through face to face contact, or simply via experiments. However, what we have today to facilitate the flow of knowledge is ICT. That, we have no doubts. The question now is how readily available it is to everyone.

This brings in the point of the digital divide discussed in class. We have to face it, not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to ICT. Especially in the third world countries. Reading 3 emphasizes and goes in depth about how ICT can actually help to achieve the MDGs set. What I found most interesting was how ICT could help in promoting gender equality and empowering women. Basically, through ICT, it can help with the follow up process of bringing gender equality, and not just saying it.

Next, we talked about the idea of Cloud computing. Cloud computing is basically about being able to access all of the firm's documents without installing any applications onto the system. All we need to do is just go online and we have everything we need as it is stored on a external server located elsewhere and we can access it via the internet. This acts like a network. However, many argue against it as it may affect the security of the data.

This links up with Reading 5. Personally, I feel that Reading 5 is a very biased article, which focuses mainly about how economical it is and the benefits of cloud computing. However, it failed to take into account the negative effects of cloud computing. One very important factor is the security of the data being put online. Though many layers of encryption may be used, ultimately, they can still be cracked and unriddled! If any professional hacker was determined enough, he would be able to access the documents and dissolve the encryption. It is just a matter of time. On the other hand, if corporations or firms with extremely sensitive and confidential data such as government organizations containing national secrets and data, or even banks, it will be much safer to have their own in-house server, where it is both being physically and geographically guarded. People would only be able to access the data within the building or area itself. Hence, call me conservative or narrow-minded, but my bottom line is to ask ourselves how sensitive and how confidential the data the firm or organization wants to keep first before making such a decision of whether to go into cloud computing or not.

We then continued to talk about Web 3.0. Personally, I feel that web 3.0 is just merely making things more convenient for us due to technology being more intuitive toward us. However, in order to achieve this, very intricate information is being observed and taken from us. For example, our personal preferences, and our very exact geographical location. Now, I feel it is very important for us to draw the line and to balance things. Yes, Web 3.0 will be a great tool, however it is important that we are able to control the degree of detail or information we want to divulge. Different people feel the need to have different levels of privacy. Hence, controlling and balancing is the key when we move into the era of Web 3.0.

Prof then introduced us to the idea of how the different levels of increase in production we had as a human race from era to era. It is stated below:
1) Hunter/Gatherer societies to agriculture and domestication of animals : 25X increase in production
2) Agriculture and domestication of animal to Industrial revolution: 25X increase
3) Industrial Revolution to ICT/Knowledge revolution: only 5X increase in productivity.
Now the question is why are we increasing so little in productivity? I have the same view point of another student in class. It is actually due to time. We have merely only begun on the ICT revolution. Innovations are being generated everyday, and all we need is time.

As mentioned in Reading 2, we first need to be ready for such a change before we enter into the networked world. As ICT had just started out about 20 years ago, many societies are still getting ready before being able to enter it. Higher levels of readiness include transparency, regulation, and more devices. Many societies are still not ready for it, hence, productivity might still be low. Give them time and once they are ready, we will be able to see productivity increasing by leaps and bounds.

We then had our student presenters. One point that I felt was striking was presented by Jonathan Au-yung, the last presenter. One of the questions asked was which we felt was better, face to face interaction, or via ICT? In present times, everyone is using ICT to communicate with one another that the personal human touch is lost in the process. We all choose hide behind our screens. I am not saying that ICT is wrong, however I feel that we still have to draw the balance. There are times whereby face to face interaction needs to be there. ICT should be but just a tool to help us communicate if we are faced with limitations such a being geographically apart. For example, we may have 1000 friends on facebook, but really how many friends does the person have? Friendships and relationships do ultimately require the human touch and presence.

Today's topic is one that is close to the hearts of everyone as we are all so immersed into ICT with our social networking applications and the internet. Hence, the discussions today were more heartfelt and I would rate today's lesson a 9.5/10.

Again, see you guys next Monday! (:

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 4: Drivers of World Change / Change Leadership and Change Management

2010-09-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Part 1: Drivers of World Change

Today, when I walked into class, I surveyed the whiteboards at the back to look out for quotes. And true enough, there was one that wrote:
"There are essentially 3 ways to cope with change:
a) Make it happen
b) Respond when it happens
c) Be surprised when it happens"

Prof then explained how different people cope differently with change such as, (a) a leader who is proactive and make changes, (b) either a leader or manager who is reactive to change and act on it, or (c) a dud who is blur and apathetic to his surroundings and changes. I asked myself which category I fall into now, and sadly but honestly, I feel I fall into category (b). For whoever who are in this predicament, this will not be for long! I believe that through the moulding of SMU and the environment we are in right now, we will emerge leaders in time to come! But yes, in order to be successful, we have to be the change, and not be a victim of change.

As mentioned in reading 1"Global Drivers Of Change to 2060", it gave us insights to many different change drivers. One I felt unusual to be included in the list was about how our values was one of the drivers. Usually we will think of major changes such as technology, energy, environment, or diseases. After reading the article, I realized how it is through the values of humans that brought about changes to technology and the economy, which in turn drove the world to change. I was enlightened by this insight in the reading. Due to globalization and the rise of information technology, information is widely available and everyone is so well connected to each other. Through the internet, we learn new things and are open to different view points from people, which helps to mould the way we think, the way we understand circumstances and finally the way we act. Every generation's mindset is different from the one before, hence, this driver of change is constantly happening. As more information is being made available, we all expect more and more and hence innovations and changes are happening at a faster pace as we progress.

This then links us to the next quote given in class by Oliver Wendell that was about how once we are educated, we will never go back to the small mindedness we once had. Just think about it, who would ever want to go back to the past where there were no machines to help us with the labour intensive work?

Another interesting point I got from George Bernard Shaw's quote in class was we have to be unreasonable to drive world change. This is because people who are reasonable tend to accept valid explanations, however the unreasonable one will not accept and try to make the necessary changes to the problem/situation. Another eureka moment. Come to think of it, it is true. People try to cover up for their mistakes or situations they are in by giving all sorts of persuasive explanations. If valid, we just let it go and let the problem persist. For example, it may be due to financial difficulties that a certain idea or policy could not be put into action. A reasonable person may accept that. However, an unreasonable person will say this is invalid as we should raise the funds instead of letting the idea go down the drain due to insufficient funds! This is how we as humans can push ourselves and start a new innovation and drive the change!

Reading 2 discussed on how globalization and technological innovations were the main 2 drivers of world change. It then went on to describe how these 2 drivers were actually creating competitiveness in the industries. And in order to stay on top, the firms must remain competitive and continue to innovate. Due to the availability of information these days, an innovation will not remain for long. Soon, other firms will take the new knowledge and innovation to produce a more innovative product. Hence, the only way to stay on the top is to keep going and not stop. This was mentioned as one of the competitive strategies as mentioned in the article. The other was to learn and adapt to the changing society and infrastructure.

This links to the presentation made by Kang Sheng which talked about how competitiveness drives world change. He gave the 12 pillars of competitiveness and gave us the question of whether competitiveness will be the ideal environment for future generations to grow up in. Well, it definitely is! Whether we want it or not, the world is ever changing and it is only going to get more and more competitive! In order to survive, we have to be moulded to be competitive! Hence, to be put in a competitive environment is only how we learn and how we let ourselves be moulded.

Part 2: Change Leadership and Change Management

During the second part of class, Prof gave us another 2 quotes. The first was by Robert F. Kennedy who mentioned: "only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly". This reminded me of last week's lesson, where we talked about how people are uncreative due to the high price of failure. It again reiterate the fact that we have to be daring and be receptive to failure in order to achieve greatness and be successful.

The second quote was by W. Edwards Deming who said that "It is not necessary to change, Survival is not mandatory". Basically it meant that we can refuse to change, but we will not survive. Hence, in order to survive, we have to adapt to changes! We cannot be stuck in our old fashioned conservative ways of doing things. I mean, we can, but we will not be able to go far with it! For example, in the past, top management who wanted to make changes to the firms will just pass down the instructions and make everyone follow them, making employees boycott the firm and rebel.

This can be seen in reading 1 which talked about how it is important to change the way of leading in any organization. Also, it mentioned about now JUST saying that the employees are the most valued assets, but to SHOW it. As people are more educated in the modern day, employees tend to have their own point of views and it must be heard by the top management. Hence, the article gave us figures to show that the most successful companies involved the whole company, from top management to workers on the group when making changes and made sure everyone understood the need to change before regulating the changes. It is only via understanding that employees will change their way in doing a particular job willingly and put in their best effort. Take a very simple example of teaching a child not to touch a hot kettle. If we were to just tell them strictly that they are not to touch the kettle, they will be curious as to why we are prohibiting them and still touch the kettle! However, if we were to educate them and make them understand that it is because they will get scalded, they will listen and not touch it. Same thing goes for employees and top management! Basically, it is to let everyone take ownership of the change and have a say in it.

This was then expounded on when Prof gave us 2 models of how people managed change both the traditional way and the modern way. The traditional way was basically to freeze, unfreeze and then refreeze. Which was basically to have a game plan, and then work on it through the years, refusing to change it. This has pros and cons. The pros being that everyone has a common goal and there is less confusion whereas the con is that the goal was applicable only to the point of time! As the world progresses, so do we and goals must change! This is when the modern model comes in, where there is continuous monitoring and renewal. Though this may lead to more confusion amongst the corporation, it is a necessity to do so in order to keep up to date and to meet changing demands. The confusions can easily be eliminated by managing the change well as mentioned in reading 1.

Reading 4 talked about how the world economy now emphasizes so much on knowledge, where knowledge is the most valuable asset. It is only through knowledge that can help one kick start the process of developing one's ideas and innovate new things. Without the know how, we can only think of the idea, and let it remain only as an idea as we will not have the know how to go about implementing the idea or creating a new innovation. Hence, in order to keep up with the world and not be "just an amusement park and a holiday land for the citizens of more developed countries", we must be able to know how to exploit and make use of the widely available information now through the rise of IT.

I would rate this lesson a 9/10 as the presentations were all very well explained and key topics were touched and expanded on. See you guys next week!

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 3: "Technology and Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability" and "Technology and Innovation Management"

2010-09-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

Part 1: Technology and Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability

It's week 3! The past 2 weeks had gone by in a flash! Once again, it was time for TWC lesson. When I walked into class, again immediately I saw a phrase on the whiteboard that said: "Sustainability requires a shift from linear to circular thinking. Old Industrial Model: Economic Development VS Environment Well being. New Industrial Model: Economic Development AND Environment Well Being."

Prof then started off the lesson by explaining to us that sustainability is about substituting the linear approach of industrial development to the circular approach. Indeed, we cannot carry on with the way we used to do things. In the past, all industries were just concerned about maximizing profit at any cost. They had no qualms about destroying natural habitats, using up natural resources, and polluting the environment so long as they reap profits. However, in present times, due to social pressures and government intervention, industries are now made to do things in a circular manner. In such an approach, industries are made to consider the environment and negative externalities caused during their production process. This brings corporate social responsibility into the picture.

If we were to analyze the situation properly, it is a MUST that we change the mindsets of industry players! If the rate of pollution and environment degradation continues, no matter how rich the country may be, we will all be living in dumps!

Therefore, the IPP toolbox in reading 2 tells us how the different groups of society (govt, firms, and individuals) an play a role in helping move towards sustainable development.

I then presented my topic of whether development and sustainability is a trade off. There were alot of interesting and insightful responses from the class. Personally, I think that development and sustainability is to a slight extent a trade off. Although there are many new technologies in the present day which helps to counter pollution and correct pollution, they are very expensive, can only correct up to a certain extent, and not eliminate the problem totally. And although companies now are made to go green, it is still inevitable for industries to cause pollution in the process of manufacturing. Hence, though industries at present do not pollute the environment as severely as in the past, they still pollute the environment. Therefore, we can still say that development and sustainability is still a trade off, probably just not as severe in the past.

Aline then presented about ecological footprints and how effective would calculating our ecological footprints be in moving towards sustainability. Indeed, if everyone were to play a part (both individual and firms) in being mindful and conscientious about our ecological footprints, there will be less harm done to the environment even as we progress and continue with our developments. Afterall, it is only be calculating our own ecological footprints that we know how much harm we are doing to the environment and in which particular areas we should take note to reduce our ecological footprint.

Part 2: Technology and innovation management

Prof made a bold statement by saying: "The only way to stay on top is to keep innovation going and creating new products." He then showed us a diagram he drew of valleys, summits, and clouds, which represented opportunities. Prof then went on to explain how people can go from being within the clouds to being at the summit, and from being at the valley to being at the summit. To move from the valley to the summit, there must be a differentiation in a common product, and there must be a premium position to stand in the industry. This reminded me of the very popular iPhones. It is a subgroup of mobile phones, but Apple has made it different from the rest of the mobile phones and added so much value to it that it gave Apple a premium position in the mobile phone industry.

Come to think of it, it is really scary. Even though one may come up with the initial spark or bright idea of a new innovation, there will surely be firms who will take the idea, and then try all ways to come up with a better, different product. Hence, in order to stay at the top, innovation must indeed be continuous. Somehow i see it apply to everyday life too! In order to stay at the top, we must continue to improve ourselves consistently. For example, one may be very good at accountancy now, but if he does not continue to read up and be up to date with the new laws and guidelines of accounting standards, he will be outdated and people will outshine and overtake him in the very near future.

The world is progressing and developing at a very rapid rate, and in order to be successful, we must always stay at the top. Hence, we must continue to keep up with times, continue with our development and innovations and stay well ahead of competition.

We then had individual presentations again. Again, I will expand only on one, which was presented by Spencer. He talked about how important innovation management is and to what extent we should allow the freedom of innovation in a company such as 3M. Personally, I think that although innovation should be allowed, there must be a balance whereby not everyone is just busy trying to innovate things and ideas and no one is down to doing the actual work. Work should be done first, and then followed by innovation, so the situation whereby all talk and no action takes place. Also, there should be "milestone" reports or audits done regularly on the innovators/engineers in the company. Surely there ought to be ideas consistently and not just idle away, lest they become inefficient in the process.

Another interesting concept brought about by another classmate was that very often, it is due to the high price tag of failure which causes people to become uncreative and have a phobia to innovate or express their ideas. I find that a real enlightenment. People in society do not dare to step out from being the norm due to the phobia of failing. In Singapore, failing in areas do carry a very high price. For example, people may be fired, or even ostracized due to their failures. This causes us not to venture out and express our ideas boldly. Hence, it is important that we lower the price of failure in order to bring out more innovators within the society. By lowering the price of failure, what I mean is to encourage people to continue trying out new things and expressing their ideas even after failure, and also instead of criticizing and punishing them due to their failures, to give them pointers on how they can do better next time and at the same time improve their ideas.

Overall, I rate this lesson a 9/10 as I learnt alot of new concepts and I had a fun time presenting my point of views to the class too!

See you guys next week! (:

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 2: Dimensions of Global Dominance, Technology and Human Development

2010-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Part 1: Dimensions of Global Dominance

In class, there were many points discussed. Firstly, we discussed if China is the largest economy today since it has already overtaken Japan in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to be 2nd in the world. Indeed, China is growing at an alarming rate and many are speculating that in the near future, it will soon be on par, or even overtake the United States. However, I do not think that merely using the GDP is a good gauge for the development of a country. We have to recognize the other factors such as standard of living, health standards, literacy rate, and life expectancies of it's citizens in order to make a fair judgment. In my opinion, China is vastly improving in these areas and personally think that in the near future, China will indeed be on par with, or even overtake the United Stated to be the world's superpower.

The Second point discussed in class was about what we should all look at when we talk about a society or country being dominant. Prof then showed us a diagram of how a rising star has the characteristics of being open to new ideas, having a hunger to learn from others and is willing to invest in new ideas. On the contrary, a falling star has all the opposite characteristics. This diagram was thought-provoking. Take for example countries such as Singapore and China, where both countries were open to learn from countries all around the world and were willing to invest in new ideas. Hence, they got where they are today. If we were to analyze it carefully, this concept actually applies not only to countries or companies; it actually applies to us as a personal level as well! In order to grow and be successful as a person, we have to keep an open perspective, be receptive to new ideas and adapt to changes.

Thirdly, Prof wrote a statement on the whiteboard at the back of class today. It wrote: "Change is inevitable and often necessary, the transition process can often be difficult or painful for some." Indeed, no one can deny that change is inevitable, and very often for our own good! However, it is the process of going through the change that puts a toll on us. We can take ourselves for example. We have all changed from being a student from pre-tertiary education institutes, to a university undergraduate. It is only for the better good of our futures, however, it is the process that is difficult and painful. I reckon some of us, including myself, can already feel the pain. However, the main point is not about the pain, but rather how quickly we adapt and overcome the pain to emerge a better person. As a very famous saying goes: "NO PAIN, NO GAIN!"

We then had a presentation by Ellen, who posed the question of whether Americanization is necessarily evil. Personally, I feel that there are both pros and cons to Americanization. For example, their nature of being open to new ideas and their freedom of expression and speech allows their people to voice their views and bring about improvements to the society or policies that they deem incorrect. Hence, Americanization is definitely not necessarily evil. Also, another question posed was how cultural diversity can be promoted via technology. I guess the answer to that is simply by media. It is through media we learn about the different cultures of different races, and learn to respect them.

Part 2: Technology and Human Development

In the second part of lesson, we discussed the different dimensions of development, namely social, economic, industrial/technological, cultural, human, and sustainability. As mentioned earlier in my first point, the development of countries or society as a whole should not be looked at from a single development factor, but really to look at it as a whole. Examples of such factors are:

Social development which mainly consists of the education, health care, and living standards.
Economic development which mainly consists of the GDP or income per capita of the people in the country. However, I feel this might not be a good gauge. Take for an example a country such as Indonesia, where the rich only gets richer, while the poor gets poorer. Their GDP and income per capita may still rise, however, they are not really developing as a whole as it is basically only the rich that are growing in wealth!
Industrial and technological development comes in very closely with sustainability. Important as it is to develop industrially, it is just as crucial that we are able to sustain it for the future generations to come.

We then also talked about the Millennium Development Goals. I felt that the goals were very closely related to globalization. It is only via globalization that we will enable us to fulfill the goals. Though lofty, I feel that they are attainable, it's only a matter of time. The rich around the world are already starting to play their part. Take for example the list of 40 billionaires who recently pledged to donate away half of their wealth. I find this applaudable and it lifts one's heart to read such news.

We then had 3 more presentations from students, however I will only expand on one, which was presented from Nickolas. The key point I got was without agriculture, human development would not have taken place. Indeed, it is through the specialization and the splitting of responsibilities that allowed human development to take place. The example used by Nickolas was how the farmer would be in charge of farming while the specialist would come out with new ways and technology to make the farmer's life easier. Hence, more crops were harvested. After analyzing, we can see this happening in companies and major corporations throughout the world. Where responsibilities are split up so that more specialization could take place in order for the corporation to continue improving.

At the end of lesson, Prof concluded by asking us whether we are better able to answer Yali's question of why the white men had so much cargo while the New Guineans had so little. After the lesson, I felt that it is due to the westerners who were open to new ideas and were willing to invest and expand on them. This helped them build up their wealth. However I feel that this is just a part of the answer and more answers can be found in the following lessons to come!

I would rate this lesson an 8.5/10 as it was a real thought provoking lesson with questions being posed with ever presentation and I got the chance to learn from my fellow peers and caught a glimpse of their ideas and insights. It was a real enlightening session.

Once again, see all you guys next week in class! (:

-Thong Yong Sen (Matthew)-

Lesson 1 - Technology and the Rise of Civilizations

2010-08-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

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)-