Week 11

Overview

Technology Assessment and Forecasting-Developing framework for understanding what comes next is one of my favourite topics as it is so flexible without much theory. It essentially falls under the future development part of our topical review paper!!! Luckily prof extended the review paer dateline because what was taught in this class was useful to me. I like the quote by US President Hayes to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 when he invented the telephone saying that "An amazing invention, but who would ever want to have one? " It is really true that it is difficult to market one's invention, especially if a sponsor company is required. As mentioned earlier in other lessons, we talked about technology that aid in the medical sector such as portable tools that are able to do simple scanning of the patient. this technology was no able to be produced because many doctors strongly rejected the idea as it might render their service less useful in that there is no need for consultation. Thus, even though the invention is very useful, it will not be able to launched if company's feels threatened by it. In this world, it is every man for himself and not for humanity.

Moreover, new ideas such as photoshop which was invented by 2 brothers named Thomas and John Knoll had difficulties finding a sponsor and a manufacture to market their products. It was not until they visited adobe which they accepted the idea. Think about it, if adobe did not accept their idea and helped them market it, we would not have been able to enjoy the benefits that photoshop and computer arts would not have existed.

Interesting observations

Article written by P Bala Bhaskaran on Futurology talks about the importance of looking at the past to predict the future. He says that the past could project "current trends onto the future through extrapolation, through scenario building, through brainstorming, through forecasting etc. One of the tools for mapping foresight is by the European Foresight Monitoring Network (EFMN) which had been a great tool for many policy-makers, foresight practitioners and others who require information to make an informed decision. It consolidates past researches and any information regarding the field of concern so users could simply download it and garner themselves with the necessary knowledge to create future technologies or decisions. This data could be used to monitor developments in the foresight fields across the globe on an annual basis (European Commission, 2009). By doing so, it maps out the process by countries and also facilitates competition to some. To put it in layman’s term, technological mapping foresight is all about getting information, knowing the problem and analysing how future potential technologies can be implemented in a strategic time line.

Adapted from Showker Graphic Arts

One thing that surprises me is that none of the countries uses gaming (as shown in the diagram above).

I believe gaming should be a major drive for foresight exercises since it can map out the scenarios visually and users may even be able to experience a virtual scenario whereby the pressing problem is so real that new solutions arises in their minds. After all, I believe that change occurs fastest in times of crisis.

Key takeaways

• New technology requires a long period of time for it to be accepted by the pioneers and later by the masses. Government measure to support such inventions in terms of monetary funding would indeed spur more innovations.

• Forecasting is important and games as a tool for mapping foresight should be included!

Further discussion

I think further discussion on the ways that companies and individuals who have an invention created, could patent their ideas or innovations. More could be talked about regarding copy right issues and patents.

Rating

8/10

I believe gaming should be a major

Week 10

Overview

It’s all about new and emerging technologies!! I like this topic as it does not consists any important definition or any graphical chart. It’s all about innovation and a mind of creativity and vision. The readings were interesting too especially reading four that shows the 10 most important inventions.

We also talked about ways that companies could introduce their new product to the masses so that they will accept it naturally. Now, they depend on the work of advertisement and making people think that they need the product. After all, we did not need computers last time but now, without a computer, you will go nowhere. In my psychology class, I learnt something about priming effect and I think that if companies used that to market their product, it would be easy for the masses to think that it is important. After all, they will have some form of familiarity with the product even though they have never really seen it before. This familiarity makes it easy to connect to people and catch their attention.

Interesting observations

The smart card was pretty interesting in that the card number will disappear after a while which I thought will definitely decrease the chance of people being able to use the smart card if they found it. However, I do not like the idea of combining all the cards even though it was convenient. I mean if I lost a card, I would be glad if I have another so that does not seem as appealing for me!! Moreover, I wonder how much they will charge for a replacement card since it is rather high-tech. I guess the innovation idea came from the hard token which doubles your bank account security when you use internet banking.

Similarly, I think the idea of the paper wand that has the ability to your notes and be read from another platform is something like the idea of the smart card. This means you just need to carry one “paper” and everything will be inside, something like Ipad I think. Well, this seems cool especially if you can use it with the new “nanotechnology” (the video Prof showed us) which will be able to change the shape according to what you want it to be. It seems to me that everything is all about combining and convenience. This scares me a little since I foresee the near future as a world of laziness and diseases. Like the movie wall e, technology moving towards convenience will end up making humans lazy. Exercise in the form of walking to the mrt of bus stop will cease to exist and without exercise, our body will degenerate and new diseases will hit us. After all, man was made with a built for physical activities.

Key Observation

Imagination is the key to new technology. However, imagination alone will not make it a reality. We still need funding and approval from the rest of the existing companies since new convenient technologies means that some companies will have to cease their operations. I guess every change has its sacrifices so we need make certain sacrifices to improve and yield the benefits installed for us.

Rating

7/10

Week 8

Overview

Energy and world change. It’s all about sustaining our world’s energy demands which increases every year. How can we sustain our way of live if energy resources such as fossil fuel run out? As can be seen in the diagram below (taken from BP statistical review of world energy, June 2010), our fossil fuel reserves-to-production is clearly not enough to support our rising energy consumption. Just take a look at China, they were once a net exporter of coal but now they are the net importer as energy need increases.

Today’s lesson seeks to wake all of us and inform us of the urgent energy crisis all over the world. It instills a sense of urgency that we should find ways to produce energy, to replace the non-sustainable one. We need to ensure energy security.

So throughout the presentations, it gave me an overview of the different kinds of energy renewable sources such as wind turbine. Before I dwell into the stuff that interest me, I thought it was good to make a distinction that renewable does not = sustainable. In Marvin’s presentation, he said that renewable energy sources is continuously available but requires good management while sustainable energy resources are supplies that are not renewable but can sustain for a long time. Example of renewable energy would be rivers while sustainable would be radioactive material that produces a lot of energy. Marvin had also sum up the advantages and disadvantages of each type which implies that none of it is more superior to the other and we must have a mix of all to sustain the world’s hunger for energy usage. So basically, the class focuses on the issue of how the world will survive many decades later.

Interesting observations

The technology that Patrick brought up was pretty interesting in that it uses carbon dioxide, a gas that we have often tried to eliminate!! The project centres on carbon capture and recycling (CCR) where it captures CO2 and store it, creating a closed loop that is self-sustaining. I guess this will be beneficial since it eliminates the CO2 from the environment and also does not need feed itself. However, I feel that if this gives on, there will be an increase amount of CO2 since the CO2 remains stagnant for the CCR while we still give off CO2 which I suppose is one of the disadvantages.

The better form of invention would be the one brought up by Sweeney on fusion energy that uses the universal force (sun and star) to produce a large amount of energy. Moreover, it does not use CO2 so it is considerably clean. The technology once built, is also self-sustaining. Thus, from the two kinds of technology brought up by Patrick and Sweeney clearly shows the importance of self-sustainability in today’s rational for energy resource technology.

Even in Singapore, the test for electric cars is being conducted. Renault-Nissan will supply electronic vehicles (EVs) to the Singapore market and share their knowledge on the technology. Moreover, Keppel Energy is also targeting to develop charging stations and other infrastructure that supports the EVs. Therefore, though Singapore does not have space for wind turbine and solar panels, it is working hard in being part of the sustainable energy source project.

Speaking of solar panel, I felt that the use of incentive to facilitate people to install solar panels was an excellent idea. It really speeds up the process for change as it benefit not only the uses but the society as a whole.

Key takeaways

Well, I guess the main key takeaway would be the importance of searching for renewable energy resources and that crisis often spurs innovation and problem solving. Hence, I feel that even though the use of renewable and sustainable energy was not widely implemented all over the world, I think it will be when the time comes but since we have the resources and power to do research, we should do it now then wait for the crisis to approach us.

Further discussion

Maybe we could discuss on the different kinds of research and development of renewable energy across the globe and how each country focuses on the technology which they deem is useful or sustainable to them.

Rating

8/10 as I learnt a lot on renewable and sustainable energy and the urgent need to start our green revolution act.

Week 7

Today’s focus was again on Biobusiness but centering on agribiology, environmental life sciences and industrial biotechnology. We can classify the different areas of biobusiness under a colour scheme; red for biomedical since it relates to blood, white for environmental and industrial, green for agri-veterinary and food, blur foe marine and water. So as per other lessons, we are concerned with the factor of “sustainability” and the only way to achieve that is to grow the resources we need. We need to balance out earth’s carrying capacity with human carrying capacity.

Before moving on, I need to clarify some terms from the slide that prof shown us. Firstly, the difference between farmer and farmist is that a farmer does all the traditional physically form of farming but a farmist is the new age high technology farmer that uses technology to his advantage which is cool. Next, bioremediation refers to taking contaminated environment and use biotechnology to clean it. So for example, we can use plants or enzyme to break things down, such as heavy metal that was thrown underground for years. Next, we talked about labelling GM foods and I never knew that Japan insist on the labelling of GM food which provides people with the freedom of choice if they are against GM food. However, countries like America and Singapore cannot label GM foods.

The key thing about today’s lesson is on food security-a condition where, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy live. So basically, it is like a food bank/ supply when poverty comes.

Interesting observation

I guess what’s interesting for me was the presentation on the fishery as I never knew so much about corals and fisheries!! It surprises me as to how technology can also be used in the sea water. Seems to me like the possibilities of technology is endless with no limits or boundaries. I also liked her key takeaway message; “with new technologies comes the need for new regulations” and “For these new technologies to be adopted in a widespread manner, support is needed”. I could not agree more that with new technologies comes the need for new regulations. Without proper regulations, I believe new technologies will easily fall from the summit to the valley. After all, patents and copyrights rules need to be enforced so that there will be incentives for the inventors. Moreover, it ensures that technologies will not go into the wrong hands like those in the movies such as spiderman.

I got great insights into GM crops too. All along I thought GM were simply modified food because of pest and to make it more standardize such as the Macdonald concept. However, the presentation showed otherwise. It also includes drought tolerance and added nutrition. I thought the drought tolerance factor was very important as it increase the factor of sustainable to a higher level. It was mentioned in previous presentation; I think by Spencer, that humans need to fulfill the basic needs which are food before we can focus our energy into creating other technologies that are more for convenience and luxury. So I think GM technology has greatly sustained our economy and enabled rapid progression.

Key takeaways

I guess what I learnt is the power of technology to alleviate poverty. We could have done it with the current technology but many countries still decide to keep stocking up their food security just in case anything happens. So clearly, it’s every man for himself and this mindset though not wrong, will not help solve the problem of poverty in other countries.

Further Discussion

I’m quite interested in biomedical and agri-veterinary field so maybe the combination of the two could be further discusses. For instance, how they can work hand-in-hand to make the world a better place.

Rating

8/10