I asked myself, what exactly is technology and world change? Are they positively related in the sense that technology is the key factor that distinguishes the us and them, the haves and the haves-not? Life was progressing at a relatively slow pace until the rapid use of technology doubled our pace of life and essentially changes how we live our life.
Today's lesson was like digging back to the good old days where we compare the past to the present and eventually to the future. What do we want to see in the future? Think back and imagine days without the invention of computer, were we happier back then? This evolution of technology with respect to the way civilisation progresses was the main overview of today’s lesson.
Interesting observations
What vividly left an impression on me was the diagram on the evolution of mankind as shown in the diagram above (I’m a visual person). Ever since the movie “Wall-E” came about, I have been thinking if humans would really become reliant on technology so much that we would end up not needing to move our muscles at all. To me, I do not think that the scenario will ever be real since humans are rational beings who want the best for themselves but are never satisfied. Prof’s quote on the whiteboard clearly says it all, "Technology is easy, People are hard”. Technology is ever changing but it takes time and effort for people to fully embrace it. This is evident when prof showed us the video with the main point being “data set does not equal to mindset”. This simply means that technology is moving faster than the speed that humans could embrace them. I believe this simple research portrays the fact that time lag do exist which may be good since it will display the pros and cons of that technology whereby humans can then make a rational decision. Therefore, I believe the last scenario will not occur. The next stage would probably be back to the stage where technology has not been invented as I believe like the end of the world theory, a massive clash of system will occur.
The thing that got me thinking was Yali’s thoughts, “Why you white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?"I guess there were many factors that contributed to this divide, mainly the time of change, the geographic, and the absence of a dictator/leader. I believe one must always have a leader to exhibit change since humans are known to resist change and prefer to live life the way it is. Maybe New Guineans just do not have a leader and before they knew they were losing out to other countries, it was already too late. It somewhat represents stocks and shares. It’s about predicting the future and having essential start up capital which probably New Guineans did not.
Key takeaways
"Technology is easy, People are hard”. It would be interesting to see how each of us embraces or distant away from technology. Apart from that, I think technologies were created with the mere objective of helping humans and easing the tensions in life but when it results in the wrong hands; technology can easily tweak itself and do more bad than good. Thus, how technology will help us in the future is entirely based on how we use it.
"Solving problems that never existed".This statement that prof said was really intriguing yet simple. It makes you wonder if humans are trying to be God by predicting the future or are we simply too free? Moreover, we are learning things that would have been obsolete by the time we go into the workforce!!
Further discussion
I wish that we could watch more of Yali’s account of life in Papua New Guinea and discuss more on that divide. We could do a prediction of New Guineans life if they were provided with certain technology. Could they actually catch up with the other wealthier countries? Would they have invented their own technology? Could they be the next China? I guess it will always be interesting to think about the “what if analysis”.
Personal Rating
Lastly, I rate this class as 8/10 for I gained a whole lot of new insights in just one lesson. Moreover, so far this was the first Prof who assigned individual assignment with a twist!! I’m sure all of you know what I’m talking about! I’m all set to come for the next TWC lesson with an open mind. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment