This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, 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 life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Week 7
This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, 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 life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, 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 life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Week 7
This class we discuss about BioBusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology. This is actually an appealing topic to me personally, because it suggests some solutions for my country, Vietnam, a poor developing agriculture-based country.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, 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 life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
As usual, prof started class by showing a short clip, “Humans”. The clip is a brief of human’s impact on environment. It is the same as other topics we have discussed from the first class, how human is damaging our nature, but this clip goes further, giving potential trend of moving out of the Earth. It is scary, because this, from my viewpoint, is an unavoidable future for human. Sooner or later, if we cannot decelerate this speed of exploitation, we will have to think of another home outside the universe. This vision is also illustrated in media, e.g. in the cartoon “Wall-E”, in which the Earth is depicted as a huge disposal area and human has to leave it. We need to take action soon, to save this Earth to our precedents, the question is: How?
Our class today is part of the answer: BioBusiness.
We have to admit one big problem currently: overpopulation. The UN anticipates global population will grow from 6.7 bil today to 9.2 bil by 2015. Overpopulation is the root of numerous problems: rising demand of products and commodity leads to an escalating exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs; rising demand of housing leads to an overtake in agricultural land, as a result it creates shortage of food; etc. This fact triggers scientist to cope with the overpopulation problem by making sure the standard living condition in this context.
Agriculture biological technology is a solution. We watched a clip demonstrating how agribiology can change the world by improving productivity in crops, creating more food in less land (as a matter of fact, we are feeding more people in less land – about 50% decrease of land in 45 years from 1961 to 2006) and saving environment. It deals with the problem of drown by using water more efficiently and also the problem of energy by providing the new environmental friendly energy bio-fuel.
The argibiology and agribiotechnology solution was also supported by the idea of tower garden presented by our classmate Quek Wenxin Anneliese. Essentially, this is a short tower that “circulate nutrient-rich water for three minutes, four times an hour, to feed the root system of plants situated up the sides of the tower.” With one tower like this, we can not only grow up to 20 plants but also recycle the water for several circulations. I think this idea was stunning, as it deals with problem of land shortage and also drowning issue. However, if it is feasible to apply this tower in real life is another story, because in general, I doubt that people will be willing to pay a large amount of money (the article doesn’t refer to the price of setup) to have a private garden in their house. The use of electricity is another concern, but think about it, if we can apply solar energy in associating with this garden tower, it would be great.
As we moved on, the issue of food security was raised. Food security, according to FAO definition, is “a condition where all people, 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 life”. Obviously, famine is a challenge to developing countries, especially in Africa - with 38 mil facing starvation (2003). However, to solve this problem, it is just simple how to produce more food, but rather how to distribute food equally, or how to accelerate food production in starving countries.
“There is enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
Agribiology may be considered a solution to cope with famine; however, it can only with acceptance from people. Take GM food for example; even though it creates more food with high productivity, people are still reluctant to use it as concern of health and environment effect. Even starving countries like Ethiopia refuse GM food when being proposed to help. In his presentation “GM food: Monster or Saviour?”, Yong Hefeng Edison trigger some arguments relating to this issue.
After all, it is always the problem of sustainability.
“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability”
Gurinder Shahi
Key takeaways:
1. BioBusiness, including Agribiology and agribiotechnology, is a solution to deal with problem of famine and sustainability of the world and is potential to develop more in near future.
2. However, we can only make its full advantages of this field when people accept it as a healthy and environmentally friendly technology.
Week 5
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important factor in the modern context, when information is gold and effective communication is the “shovel” to dig the gold. The issue of ICT is getting more and more attention along with the globalization trend all over the world, where the world becomes flat, the national boundary is blurred.
"ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution"
-Gurinder Shahi-
Some issues refer to ICT that we should take into consideration is mass media, the Internet, wireless, and interactive telecommunication. ICT has a short history with only about one century development, but in that short period of time, ICT has changed the world overall, from the means to communicate, entertain to educate. However, at that point, our Prof Gurinder Shahi claims that ICT has not reached its utmost capacity: in the first revolution of human in agriculture, we raised the productivity by 25 times by replacing stone appliances with metal ones; the second revolution in 17th century, we also raise the productivity by 25 times thanks to industrialization; but the ICT revolution only raises the productivity by 5 times. Why does such a breakthrough make such inconsiderable effect? I myself think it is the issue of measure, because the industrialization has improved the productivity to nearly reach its maximum potential so that the advancement is not so apparent. However, Prof refers to previous lession
"ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution"
-Gurinder Shahi-
Some issues refer to ICT that we should take into consideration is mass media, the Internet, wireless, and interactive telecommunication. ICT has a short history with only about one century development, but in that short period of time, ICT has changed the world overall, from the means to communicate, entertain to educate. However, at that point, our Prof Gurinder Shahi claims that ICT has not reached its utmost capacity: in the first revolution of human in agriculture, we raised the productivity by 25 times by replacing stone appliances with metal ones; the second revolution in 17th century, we also raise the productivity by 25 times thanks to industrialization; but the ICT revolution only raises the productivity by 5 times. Why does such a breakthrough make such inconsiderable effect? I myself think it is the issue of measure, because the industrialization has improved the productivity to nearly reach its maximum potential so that the advancement is not so apparent. However, Prof refers to previous lession
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Week 3
Brief overview
This week we had quite an interesting lesson about two topics:
· Technology and Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability
· Technology and Innovation Management
It was interesting that every class started with a new quotation concerning to the issues that we were going to discuss. Here is the quote for the class:
"Sustainability requires a shift from linear to circular thinking
Old industrial mode: Economic Development vs Environment Well-being
Sustainable industrial mode: Economic Development AND Environment Well-being"
-Gurinder Shahi-
What does it mean by "linear" and "circular thinking"? Prof gave us the answer by showing a motivating clip named "The Story of Stuff". From this clip, we learned about our "system in crisis", about what we human are doing with the Earth, with our future and its consequence. It is amazed to know that the U.S, containing only 5% of the world's population, are using up to 30% of the world's resources; and our lifestyle - working hard to earn money for shopping - is the root of the problem. Get back to the class, we got to know that the world is now in the transition between old and new industrial model, trying to replace the traditional linear system with the environmentally friendly circular system.
The 1st part of our class provided us information about the trend of industrial development towards sustainability. The tradition linear production has exploited 70% of our natural resources, and if this continues, the resources will run out sooner than we can imagine. To solve this problem, the most effective and feasible solution so far is to change into circular production, which allows maximizing value creation without reducing options for future generations. To help us understand how far people has gone in circular production, 2 fellows gave 2 presentations relating to the issue: Bernadette Ho Yining about "Urban Aquaculture" and Ng Yu Hui about "Clean Tech in Israel". These presentations appealed me as they raised the question: where are we now and where are we going to be in the process of saving life in the world.
The 2nd part, we dealt with "Innovation Management", which was really interesting with the Shahi's landscape model for Technology. According to this model, there are 3 kinds of opportunities: Valley opportunities - to deal with almost solved issues; Summiting opportunities - to deal with ongoing issues, with highly potential; and Cloud opportunities - to deal with "future issues". Obviously, the Summiting opportunities are the focus of every business, as it brings people what they need, i.e. in high demand. The Valley and Cloud opportunities, in the other hand, can also be exploited if we know how to turn them into Summiting opportunities. Through the process of RDA, aka Research - Development - Application, only a small part of new ideas are turned into realize. Our friend Leon Leo told us the story of Google's success with his presentation “How Google Grows… Grows… and Grows”. According to Leon, Google's achievement is based on the company's policy of innovation, in other words, fast and continuous innovation helped Google to meet market's need, satisfy them and stand on top of the market.
Interesting observation and ideas
1. Significant change starts from small actions:
Have you thought of changing some of your behaviours/habits to change the whole systematical consequence? Saving the Earth may sound substantial, but if we can control our action, we can make a significant change. It may come from the habit of using plastic bags, using paper, electricity or water, and even the habit of watching TV. As explained in the clip "The story of Stuff", the more time you spend with your TV, the more ad you watch; and advertisements give rise to a need of shopping - the more you shop, the more products are consumes, meaning the more material is gotten out of nature. One people may not affect considerably, but 6.8 billion of people in the world is a huge amount to take into consideration. Change your daily lifestyle, then the Earth may be saved.
2. In business, standing still means getting backward
With support from the fast pace of technology development, there is no such thing as holiday or break for business, it moves forwards for every second. Everyone now perceives the importance of innovation, they try to strain every nerve to create something new, to stand out and gain some market share. Taking Microsoft as an example, this company has dominated the computing products for over a decade, but Microsoft's golden age may not last for long, since its young but dynamic rivals Google and Apple are stretching their capacity to take over Microsoft's market share. Google and Apple share the similarity in their inventive culture, though in different aspects: Google focuses on developing Internet tools while Apple compete against Microsoft in field of Operating System and computing devices. If Microsoft does not take good care of these rivals, it will lose its leading position soon.
Key takeaways:
- Cyclical model is sustainable
Sustainable development is not a new issue; however, how to achieve it is a big question. After the lesson, I have learned the importance of cyclical model - the friendly environmental model that can ensure the balance between economic achievement and environmental preservation. If we can use
- Innovation is the source of human revolution, for the past, present and future
“Life is pretty simple:
You do some stuff.
Most fails. Some works.
You do more of what works.
If it works big, others quickly copy it.
Then you do something else.
The trick is the doing something else.”
- Tom Peters -
What we learn from this quote? Innovation is the only way for you to differentiate from others, to stand out and success. New ideas never last long, simply because of the rapid copying process of people, with support from modern communications and technology.
Issues for further discussion
How far are people going in the process of saving our Earth? Is there any absolute solution for the environmental problem that we are facing? How can we change people's perception of our issues to get everybody involve in the process of saving our planet?
Personal ratings
I like the topics of this week, all the current issues that people are still seeking for solutions. The 3 presentations were informative and well-prepared, too. I would like to rank this class for 9/10.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Week 2 Reflection
It was my first class with Technology and World Change. Before attending the class, I was freaked out, obviously as a result of my limited knowledge relating to technology. However, as you can see, I still survive, at least for now =P, and start to like my TWC class.
Brief Overview
Our class got started by the introduction of newbies, including me. I was quite surprise to know that our 1st class had started last week already, and quite regretful missing all the fun of that - according to my classmates' blogs. But it should be fine, because I still have the whole term ahead to enjoy.
Before dealing with main issues of this session, Prof gave us a brief summary of the 1st class and show us a video named "China could already be the world's largest economy". This video astonished me with the idea that economy should be assessed not only based on GDP but more precisely by "productive capability", which is leaded by China currently. After having a little discussion of this, we moved to the main parts of this session:
A. Technology, Society and Global Dominance
B. Technology and Human Development
These two topic are both appealing to me, as they concerns several ongoing discuss and even controversy all over the world. For each part, we had 2 presentations from our fellow friends: Dickson Chew on "Is Your Firm Socially Networked? Chances Are, It Will Be Soon" and Gabriel Seet on " America's Prompt Global Strike: World Military Superiority Without Nuclear Weapon" for the Society and Global Dominance theme; Dennis Tan on "How Modern Technologies Influence Our Brain System" and Lai Ji Shun on "Singularity and Nightmares: Extremes of Optimism and Pessimism about the Human Future" for the Human Development theme.
Interesting Observation and Ideas
My first impression, as I stated above, was the clip with the theory that China's economy could already surpass America's to become the stand on the top of the world. To clarify this point, the analyst based on his analysis that GDP is only the face of economy, which can be inflated as in America's case - buy $1 resell $10 to gain $9 profit; while productive capability, in the other hand, is the true core of economy, reflecting truthfully how economy are growing and how it can sustain if crisis happens.
The second intriguing idea was the Prof's opinion, that investing in education for females is investing in education for everyone. Although most of us have long recognized the importance of maternal role of women in family, we may neglect the influential effect of this role. As quoted from the Prof’s evidence, when we educate a man, another man will be educated, and that goes on with a new generation of educated MEN. Vice versa, if a woman is educated, she will pass her knowledge to the whole family, as a result of her maternal instinct; therefore, a new generation of educated WOMEN and MEN will be born. What can we learn from this? Seize this, because this is the solution to deal with sexism – the imbalance gender role in society.
Key Take Away Points
1. Don’t judge a book by its cover: this I learn from the case of China v America in field of economy. America may seem to be the leader of the world in most aspects, but if we take a deep insight, it is not as sound as we think.
2. Never sleep on your victory: China was once the biggest giant in 1800s, then what happened? She was too proud of her victory, too confident with her advanced culture and technology that she refused to learn from other tiny country, refused to open the door to the world. Consequently, she never knew other rivals had already caught up with her, and stood out as the new leader of the world. The same scenario would happen to any one of the dominant players, for the past, present and future. Once you stop, you are already behind.
Issues for Further Discussions
I would like to question further about the failure of China in 1800s, when she lost her top position. What really happened to China? Should we consider other external factors? Was it a consequence of social or political issues?
Personal Rating
All in all, I would rate the class at 7/10. That was the first class for about 2/3 of the class, and everybody seemed not to catch up well with the rest. The presentations were a little overwhelming as well. Next week would be better, hopefully.
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