Session 12: Our Ideas Part 2

So this week's class started with a critical analysis of our individual reports. We were pulled back to the reality of writing reports which included tedious tasks of referencing and following guidelines. Prof reminded us about how this isn't an essay and in fact an academic paper.

Next up were the remaining presentations. The first presentation was on Transportation. This group decided to take up examples of several transportation technologies and how they're moving towards development. The video they created was actually commendable and a really good idea. They covered air, land and water transportation technology mainly and what the future holds for the same. An interesting thing about their presentation was the mention of failed experiments in getting to where we are today. The weird thing about transportation technology is that people are always looking to make it faster and faster whilst keeping it fuel efficient as well. It's like we want it all without making any compromises. Typical humans. Although present vehicles are managing to fulfill these requirements to an extent, it's turning out to be more and more expensive. But then again, people are not even willing to pay the higher costs. Rapid transport probably comes closest to fulfilling ALL of these requirements of sustainability, cost and speed. It's not only important to develop new technologies but equally important to improve the existing ones. There should be an equal focus on improvement as it could be less costlier and more efficient in terms of the man power required. Plus, it will also not cause the complete wastage of the existing transportation systems.

The next presentation was on one of Prof's more favorite topics: 3D Printing. They spoke of how printing itself has developed over the years from being engraved to 2D printers that we use today! It was interesting to see the practical applications of 3D printing in our day to day lives and how it can make everything so much simpler. Some of its applications include fields of automobiles, prosthetic, dental etc. An important thing about these technologies is to review their impact. There's no use of a technology which helps today but harms tomorrow. 3D printing on a whole has a relatively positive impact and hence can be adopted for the general good. Something to wonder and think about is that will 3D printing actually do good or bad in the years to come? Well that's for me to wonder and us all to guess.

The other presentation of our class was on SeaSteading. An interesting thing to talk about here would be about how humans are probably running out of land to provide for the growing population and now are beginning to move towards the sea to provide for space! On a side note, I would be more interested in this topic. Maybe we're moving towards a dead end. What happens after all the sea is also used up? It's a scary thought!!!

The final presentation of the class was on Powered Exoskeleton. This system can have several advantages in so many fields especially military. The video showed in class demonstrates that perfectly.

Overall, my rating of the class: 8/10 :)

Session 11: Our Ideas Part 1

This was the week of the group presentations. This was an opportunity for us to get together with our peers and develop a website on any topic of our choice, that would be relevant to what we've learnt over the many weeks in class. It was interesting because each group worked for weeks and hours and nights to make sure their presentation was up to the mark. Impressing prof, indeed, is a tough job! 

The first three presentations included my group's presentation as well. I'm going to begin with an analysis of my own presentation. We presented on the topic: Towards A Greener Singapore. Our agenda was to show how Singapore can move towards sustainability. In current times, the world's resources are depleting faster than the growth of our finger nails. As such, there is a need to move towards renewable resources to ensure there is enough for the future generations to come as well. So we decided to do case studies of about 12 sustainable technologies around the world, followed by a comparison of them with Singapore, including how they can be incorporated in our country today. We had several examples. A few of them were The Rotating Tower, Dice House and Soft House etc. Through our project, we emphasized how the sun is one of the most valuable resources for Singapore. If utilized well, it could help development in leaps and bounties. Although, prof had some valuable insights about our website and our approach, and we're planning to go back and redo our bit.

The other presentations included one on Stealth and one on Cloud Computing. Both these presentations were extremely interesting, but personally I feel that the topic of stealth had a slight edge over the other. This is completely a personal opinion and maybe because being an IS student, I've heard a lot about Cloud Computing, so for me Stealth was a completely new topic. The thing I wanted to mention about this technology is that it could be a potential threat to the world as well. With terrorism on its rise, these new technological developments could actually aid in these activities. This means that we need to move towards developing and adopting new technologies. As much as it can help, we cannot avoid the harmful effects either.

Overall, my rating of the class: 9/10 :)

Session 10: Being Futuristic

Unbelievable. Week 11 of school is over. The term is nearing an end. Everyone is running around, looking for an internship. Thankfully, my run is over and I did manage to find an internship. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend class this week as I had to finalize some formalities. Going through the slides, I wished I hadn't missed class. These last two sessions' topics were really interesting and from the start of the semester I was looking forward to the discussions on these topics. Anyway, what's done is done. For this blog post, I guess I'll have to just put down my thoughts. 

As I mentioned in my post earlier, there is a need to develop newer technologies. As these new technologies are being developed, there is a need to see what the future benefits and hazards of these would be. A single new invention can cause a lot of changes in terms of economic, social, ethical etc. We cannot just blindly do rampant development of these new technologies. The timing has to be correct, in the sense that in times of war you cannot be investing in R&D for these technologies right?! This topic reminds me of a very famous and popularly used quote: 

"Change is the only constant!"

Frankly, the slides on how to foresee and the need to foresee .. well they didn't really make sense to me. These graphs kind of confuse me. The graph on the uses for foresight uses was indeed very interesting. It gives a nice overview, categorizing the usefulness according to the continents. 

Having started my internship on a part time basis, I didn't even get the time to go through the readings. However, I'll be doing the same this week, so I look to update this post after I've gone through the many!! :)

I can't rate the class, however, I can rate the content: 8/10 :)

Session 9: What's In Store?

Just a few days back, I was traveling in the MRT when I saw this kid, about 3 years old, on a pram with a Samsung Galaxy II in his hand. As I observed, I was amazed to see how the kid was using the phone with so much ease, playing games. I know for a fact that today if I asked my grandmother to use the phone, although she's over 70, she won't be able to use it with such ease. When I was a kid, my toy used to be my barbie doll or my Lego blocks. Today's kids have an iPad or an Xbox as their toy. Technology has indeed become "child's play"! With the passing day, there are new and emerging technologies. It's exciting and scaring to see what the future holds.

An interesting thought here is why do we need these new technologies? Again, there are several factors. Firstly, the needs of society are increasing. For instance, people used to feel too hot, so the AC was invented. Then people started feeling too cold, so the heater was invented. Basically, humans want to make their life easier and simpler. In a sense, everyone wants to be spoon fed. Every individual wants all the possible luxuries. This leads to an increased demand which needs to be satisfied by increased supply, which is achieved by inventing new technologies. Moreover, people are increasingly wanting to make their imaginations a reality. This is what is driving the emergence of new technologies and inventions. Another important point Prof mentioned in class was, supply creating demand. Nobody was interested in the iPhone till Apple created it. The supply of the iPhone created a demand for it. Same withe the tablets that people use today.

Essentially:

Smart people + smart ideas + smart money + smart partnership = New and emerging technologies.

We saw interesting videos regarding these new technologies. The perfect woman, which my friend says is "a myth" (I beg to differ!). The perfect woman is actually a result of our efforts to make our imagination a reality. Every man wishes for a perfect woman, and there it is. Again, an interesting thing discussed in class was augmented reality. What is it? Well it's the world as seen virtually. And it looks exactly the same as that in reality. In the literal sense it's modified reality. The other day I saw the movie "The Prestige" which showed  Nikola Tesla's model of wireless electricity. Although it is fiction, but it's interesting to see how long it will remain fiction. Just a few years ago, electric cars were fiction. Not anymore. In fact, wireless electricity is already making it's way to becoming reality.

The readings for this week were particularly interesting. One thing which came to my notice was how one article mentioned that robotics has not lived up to it's potential. This topic is very debatable according to me. While there are so many expectations pinned on to robotics, look at nanotechnology as well which has equal or more potential. However, in spite of my discussion with Prof in class, I thought over it a lot and yet I'm not convinced that robotics hasn't lived up to it's potential. I still believe that there was probably a very high expectation off robotics and that's why people are disappointed with it's progress.

The presentations in class this week were all very interesting and I could see in class how everyone was hooked on to every presentation. All in all, I feel that this week's topic was particularly interesting.

Overall, my rating of the class: 9.5/10 :)

Session 8: The Sun, The Trees, The Oil

I guess no one wanted this class to start. It meant the end of the mid term break. And the "enthusiasm" could be seen in the class. However, this week's topic was interesting, and before we knew it, the class was underway in full force. Again, this was like my Environmental Education classes in high school, except, this was a topic I actually liked. As the population of the world increases, it calls for more development. As there is more development, there is more need for energy resources. As such, the important factor that we forget is that the energy resources of the world are finite. Therefore, there is a need to move towards sustainability, newer renewable energy resources. Newer technologies are being developed to conserve energy and utilize renewable sources. 

An important point we discussed in class is that all the energy resources can be classified into two: above the ground and below the ground. All the sources above the ground are directly or indirectly affected by the sun. Some examples include, wind, water, biomass, waves etc. In short, the sun is the main source. Fossil fuels are the most prevalent energy sources across the world today. However, they are limited. This means that we need to look at other more viable options to satisfy our energy needs. This is when we need to look at renewable sources. A study showed that the renewable sources are so abundant across the world that if we utilize them efficiently then the world can become a more sustainable place. The sun alone provides SO much energy to the earth that it can independently fulfill the energy requirement of the entire planet. 

Today, the entire world is investing in future technologies. Now the race is not about who consumes more energy, but about who consumes more efficiently and sustainably. China is moving towards becoming a world power. Even in terms of investment for the future, China has overtaken the U.S. Their growth in investment is over a 100% today which is mind boggling. With the development of new technologies, wonders like the electric cars are being invented. These can be recharged and run completely on electricity. We can see the change happening. We can see the world moving in the positive direction.

Even if 10 people use energy efficiently and one person wastes energy resources, it is harmful. We gradually need to move towards making the entire world a sustainable place. So how do we further spread awareness about such issues? Some of the ways could be by starting education campaigns, provide incentives, tax exemptions, compulsory standards etc. The presentations made by my friends in class were seriously very interesting. Be it using banana peels as biofuels or electric cars of China. The most interesting observation I found was that energy efficiency could have a reverse effect. It could lead to increase in energy consumption as well. As such, we need to realize that we are treading on delicate grounds. There has to be a correct balance in what we do and how we do it or else it could have adverse impacts on the world and it's people.

Overall, my rating of the class: 9/10 :)

Session 7: Time For Revolution

Life is a rat's race. Everyone wants to finish first. Everyone wants to make it big in life. Everyone wants to find a place in the world. As peoples' ambitions get bigger, they take actions to fulfill it. More and more people move from small towns and villages to the bigger cities where they hope to make their dreams a reality. As more and more people move to the cities, new buildings are made to accommodate them, more land is encroached and more trees are cut. Urbanization has been on the rise and it has been growing almost exponentially. Like we discussed in class, the trends in urbanization have been on a rise in almost every part of the world from Asia to Latin America. The rate at which we are becoming urban has increased the prospects of biobusiness across the world.

Biobusiness covers almost all fields from medicine and healthcare to agriculture and food services. Again, with biobusiness, the main focus should be on summit opportunities, ones with less competitors and high barriers to entry. Even with the growing scope of biobusiness and environmental sciences, there are concerns which cannot be ignored. For example, is genetic modification good and morally correct? Is it important to grow food or is it important to develop energy resources? There have been lots of debates going on about these topics and many more on similar lines. Indeed the world is split into two when it comes to controversial topics like these.

The growth in urbanization has been coupled with the growth in population. As the people in the world increase, the space and food availability reduces. This leads to problems like starvation and poverty. The common aim of people around the world is food security. It is the bare minimal to provide people with food and shelter. There could be several challenges to this as well. A broad classification of these challenges would be physical, economic, sociopolitical and physiological. The solution is to try and move towards a healthier and safer world where everyone at least can live peacefully if not luxuriously. If each of us take the initiative, we could make a great change. Small things like separating degradable and non degradable waste, recycling and reusing can be extremely impact full in the long run.

Among the readings, the one that interested me the most is the last one, looking into the future to see what the world is going to become. Will the current problems prevail or will we learn from our mistakes and help make a better future where at the least food is there for all?

Overall, my rating of the class: 8/10 :)

Making Singapore Green?

From the day we are born, till today, our parents keep working to make our future better. When we were kids, they started saving up for school, when we grew older they started saving up for college and it continued. Ever thought, what if the world wouldn't be there? What if they were saving uselessly? What if, there is no tomorrow? This isn't any practical joke. It's the bitter truth! There is a need for sustainability if there is to be a tomorrow. The rate at which the world is going right now, there will be no resources left for our future generations, our kids. Why look so much into the future? Maybe there will be no future left for us!!

The world has finally opened it's eyes to this problem. There have been many laws made, and strict actions have been taken against people/companies causing harm to the environment or our resources. Moreover, there have been many steps taken in the positive direction as well. Sustainable cities and structures are being developed to promote the cause. As people are becoming more and more aware, they are moving towards sustainability. As such, even the popularity of it is growing. 

Our project is based on the various initiatives that have been taken to move towards sustainability, and how Singapore can learn from them. A few of the examples we have taken are: 

Rotating Tower

World's first building in motion, takes the concept of green buildings to the next level, generating electricity for itself, making it the first skyscraper designed to be entirely powered by wind and sun.

Teatro Del Agua

The Teatro Del Agua works by coupling “a series of evaporators and condensers such that the airborne moisture from the evaporators is then collected from the condensers, which are cooled by deep seawater.” The sweeping structure will incorporate solar panels to provide heat for the evaporators and will operate almost entirely on renewable energy.

Dice House

The Dice House looks like part of a Monopoly set, but the design has real-world ambitions. The 30-by-30-by-30-foot concept home, designed by the British architecture firm Sybarite, improves on standard building tech to erase its carbon footprint.

These are just a few examples. In our presentation and the wix page, we will show you how the world is moving towards becoming sustainable. Moreover, we will also show you how Singapore can learn from these examples and develop in a greener way.

Session 6: Going Green

Just a few months back I had gone for dinner with my parents and their friends. At dinner, the ladies kept talking about organic food and the health factors it includes. About one week later, one of the ladies from the same group told me about how I should turn vegan. About two weeks after that another one of the ladies from the group told me about how it's not safe to buy fruits because they're heavily fertilized and that it's better to buy packaged fruits. All of this came across as a trend to me. BioBusiness has become a trend, a status quo. As people are becoming more and more informed, as ICT is taking over the world, biobusiness opportunities are increasing exponentially. The more people learn about the harmful effects of antibiotics, the more they tend to shift towards herbal and traditional medicines. The more people learn of how the industries are harming the environment, the more these industries will take precaution and take steps for safe disposal of their wastes. The more people learn about how fertilized crops are harmful, the more they will tend towards organic food. In short, the more people learn, the more biobusiness will grow. As peoples' awareness increases, so will the popularity of biobusiness.

As such, there is constant need for innovation in this field. As people are moving from rural to urban areas, their mindset is changing and they're becoming more and more open minded. They want to learn and move towards a healthier planet. As prof mentioned in class, innovation doesn't only mean doing research in a lab. Even if you sit under a tree and think, that's also considered innovation. With growing healthcare concerns and diseases, biobusiness innovation is becoming a need more than a desire. We have seen how in movies they use new technologies to solve criminal cases or to solve murder cases. As a kid I used to think it's all fiction. However, today, fiction is becoming fact! Cancer which was considered incurable can now be cured.  Technology is advancing. AIDS which was considered a taboo is now widely being accepted as a disease. Peoples' mindset is also advancing. 

BioBusiness has it's advantages. However, today it is being taken to another level altogether. Doctors are practicing genetic engineering to tamper with the genes of couples to produce kids with desired traits. As a result, there have been cases of unhealthy and even mentally ill kids being produced. What is happening is that the child is becoming an experimental tool. On the flip side, the practices by doctors have made prosthetic a reality today. Stem cells are being used as medicines, bringing about miracles which couldn't have been perceived a few years back. Like everything else, biobusiness has its good and bad. Let's hope that the world capitalizes on the good and not the bad. 

On a whole, this topic didn't interest me much as I haven't really seen or personally experienced the effects of biobusiness. 

Overall, my rating of the class: 6.5/10 :)

Session 5: How The World Has Changed

I still hear stories from my grandparents about the black and white TV they had, or the letters they sent, or even how they never had telephones. It's always fascinated me. I can't imagine my life without the luxuries and technologies I have today. Life is so convenient today. You don't know anything, just google it, you are bored, just put on the TV and watch something, you miss someone somewhere far away, pick up the phone and call. In fact, technology has advanced to such a level that your TV, google and phone are all on one device, namely your hand phone. Everything has grown and changed the world at the speed of lightning! 

Today, before the news is even out, the media is already talking about it. Social networking sites have taken over every aspect of life, from dating to breaking up, from finding new friends to keeping in touch with old friends and family. Technology has taken over education as well. There are schools with smart boards, eLearning videos, online quizzes and sometimes even online lectures. Human touch is lost.

On the flip side, ICT has it's advantages also. A major part of the world is living below the poverty line. As such poverty alleviation is an important concern. Poverty alleviation does not mean providing services to the poor. It means enhancement of the agency of the poor. The world's technology is unevenly distributed. As such, ICT plays the role in dealing with the digital divide. ICT also provides humans with the knowledge that they would otherwise never know. For example, today people do not run to the doctor for a slight flu or cold. They just find an appropriate medicine online. Even when patients visit a doctor, they do proper research on what the doctor says after they go home. This makes them feel more comfortable and at ease. These days, ICT is providing solutions to most of our problems! However, we have to keep in mind that ICT only improves that which is already good and worsens that which is already bad. It does not bring about a complete transformation!

The thing about ICT is that it not only has advantages and disadvantages, but has concerns as well. The top few concerns include security, espionage, invasion of privacy, identity theft and even corrupting influences! ICT brings along with it, a lot of risk when it comes to businesses and their private information. Moreover, ICT can be used for the wrong purposes as well. For example, terrorists use this technology for getting inside information about a country or its government. ICT has the potential to improve a country's situation, but it also has the potential to completely bring it down! There have been so many cases of identity theft. There have also been cases where people have taken up a false identities and fooled people. Several incidents have been reported where young boys/girls have committed suicide over a crush on someone they met online. In many of these cases, the person they had a crush on turned out to be a fake identity. Therefore, ICT has a potential risk on lives as well. Fiona's presentation in class was exactly about this. It was something that struck a chord and really interested me. 

I had my individual presentation as well this week. My presentation was on the influence of social media on the world. It was based on an article from Cliche magazine. During and even after my presentation, I surveyed the class and most of my peers were of the opinion that social media is moving towards taking over the world. In an extreme sense, we are all becoming slaves to social media. There was a heated discussion after my presentation as well, on this very topic. One of my "food for thought" questions was that is the youth of today becoming a slave to social media? Again, there were varied opinions on the same. However, in conclusion, all I said, and would like to say is that we have to remember that nothing should be taken to extremes. Complete withdrawal from the use of social media is also bad. There has to be a proper balance where the human emotions aren't lost. Let's hope that we never see a day where the human is so used to chatting and texting, that he loses his ability to talk and make conversation.

Overall, my rating of the class: 8.5/10 :)

Individual Review Paper - iTunes U

iTunes U - Change The Way The World Learns

Introduction and Background

This revolutionary application by Apple, gives you access to the world's largest online catalog of free education content from leading institutions. Learn a new language, study Shakespeare or discover a new cosmos. It has more than 500,000 courses from colleges all over the world, including Harvard, Oxford, MIT, Stanford .. and need I name more? It can be customized as well such that your professor uploads his lecture slides on iTunes U and sends it out to only people from your class. Thus changing the way the world learns.

Recap

The learning and teaching style of the world has changed unbelievably. Earlier there used to be days when the professor used to give lectures and write on the whiteboard for explanations. The students used to take notes and if they missed something, it's gone. Then came the time when slides used to be handed out in class. So at least if a student missed something, he/she would have a rough idea of what it was. Then came the smart boards. Whatever the teacher wrote on the board would come on the screen on the child's desk. And finally, today, we're at the stage when learning has been made an application. You just download the application and sit at home, whenever you want, and study the lectures the professors give. This is the extent to which the way the world learns has changed.

Future

What is the future of learning? Will we all becomes slaves to technology? Do you  think education without a human touch is of any use? Isn't the classroom environment better than slouching on the bed at home and going through your phone or iPad for lecture slides? Isn't it possible that the intelligence level of the future generation suffers a serious blow because of this "tech savvy world" we are moving towards.

All of this will be answered in my topical review paper. Watch out for it :)

Session 4: Adapting To The Change

Change is the only constant.

The minute prof wrote this on the white board, I could immediately relate to it. Be it on a large scale like the world, or on a small scale like my life ... Everything is changing, almost every second. In class, we spoke about the world changing. There are many factors leading to world change: environmental, scientific and technological, social, demographic, cultural, ideological change, just to name a few. You may wonder, how these factors bring about change in the world? Well, evolution, development of man from a hunter-gatherer to a farmer and eventually leading the world toward industrialization - that changed the world. The result of industrialization, the pollution and global warming - that changed the world. The various inventions, like the light bulb - that changed the world. 

We humans have gone through evolution and the world has gone through revolution. You may wonder, what's the difference? The world, since it's inception, has been going through constant change, some good, some bad. Humans have evolved as a result of these changes. They have adapted themselves to the world of today. What would have happened if they had not changed and stayed as hunter-gatherers? They wouldn't have been able to survive long enough. The ability of a living being to adapt to changes determines their longevity. Leave humans, even the various animals and birds in the world have learnt to adapt. Those who cannot adapt well to changes, shift places (migrate/hibernate). This is, in a sense, the law of nature.

Another important thing about change, people only change when they want to. How is that? Let's take the example of the iPhone 5. When it is launched, the tech crazy and Apple fanatics are the firsts to buy it. Next would be those who have used Apple products and want to upgrade maybe. Third would be the ones worried about status quo (the whole world has an iPhone 5, how can I still have the 4S!!) and finally would be the ones who after hearing from everyone, would like to change their phones for more convenience. So you see, a person only buys the iPhone 5 when he/she wants to. Sometimes, there is no option and change is inevitable. Like for example, when there used to be a fire in the forest, the hunter-gatherers had to move away from that place. Similarly, when the world undergoes revolution, the people have to change. So change is also a two sided coin. It depends on which side faces you once the coin falls. 

In the second half of the class we spoke of managing change and leading a change. Again could be related to the analogy above, humans wanting to change v/s humans being forced to change. When you lead a change is when you want the change. However, when the world changes, you are forced  to change. Even in the behavior model we had studied in the earlier session, it all depends on your willingness to change. The rising star is one who is willing to adapt to the change, and perhaps even think ahead and anticipate the change. The dominant player too is the one who has accepted the change. However, the dominant player becomes the falling star as soon as it denies changing. In other words, you either change, or you die. There is no third option. There are two ways to change: you either change and settle in the change and then once the next change comes you change again (confusing right?!) or you keep changing continuously with the times. Again, if you have the iOS 5 on your phone, and you just don't change until your phone stops working and asks you to update your iOS, well that's being forced to change. On the other hand, you keep updating your iOS as and when updates come along, that's monitoring the change and adapting continuously.

The presentations in class were also very well done, and I especially like the presentation on Hugh Hefner. It was an interesting perspective, seeing a casanova as a leader of change. It takes a great mind to come up with the idea of Playboy. He changed the way the world thinks. Who knows, maybe he had a major impact in the making the people of the world open-minded. Maybe he is the one who changed the perception of "sex" being a taboo word. Whatever it is, he brought about a change in the world.

Overall, my rating of the class: 8/10 :)

Session 3: Settling In

If the entire world continued writing the traditional stories and poems, there would be no Shakespeare. If the entire world continued painting the traditional paintings, there would be no Picasso. If the entire world continued sitting on their asses and living the monotony, there would be no world today. I'm not saying I'm any Shakespeare of Picasso. I'm just saying that this time I'm going to try something new. This week my blog will not be about what happened in class. It will be MY thoughts on the topics we discussed in class. I'm from the shy part of the world so I thought that I could voice my thoughts here. After all, this is my blog. And like prof said, I'm free to write anything on my blog.

So let's start. 

Sustainability. This word just reminds me of one thing: my environmental science class from high school. EVERY chapter used to some how end up revolving around this one word. If I sit to count the number of times I've written this word (in various forms) in school .. okay wait. I can't even remember! It's amazing how two years changes you so much. Two years ago, this was just another word. Today, I finally get it. The world is coming to an end. Maybe it didn't end in 2012 as the movie suggested. But that doesn't mean it won't ever. It's not a now or never. It's a sooner or later. You cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely!! We have to learn to make sustainable use of our resources (finally this line actually makes sense).

Let's talk statistics. US has under 5% of the world's population but its energy consumption is over 25% of the world. Africa on the other hand occupies 15% of the world's population but their energy consumption is less than 1/3rd that of the US. Do you think it's fair? We are using up almost all the resources of the world to satisfy our present needs and desires. If we continue at this pace, there will be nothing left for our future generations. Do you think it's fair? The world's energy consumption has increased exponentially. The industrial revolution had a huge impact on the world. However, this impact became apparent only about 100 years after. Looking back, it is difficult to realize how what took place then is having such complicated and vast effects today. Our current lifestyle is putting a tremendous strain on the world's resources. Already parts of the world are facing energy shortages. If we move towards sustainable development, even those parts of the world will make immense strides in development.

The world has a lot of potential in terms of renewable energy resources. It is not possible to make the shift immediately and all at once, but instead we have to aim at a gradual change. We have to learn to differentiate between needs and wants. There are places in the world where people are not even being able to satisfy their basic needs, whereas there are also other places in the world where people throw tantrums when their whims and fantasies are not fulfilled. They are two ends of the same spectrum, two parts of the same world. Sustainable development not only brings positives to the future, it also negates the negatives of the past. We need to explore our options, move towards technological innovation to build a sustainable world. 

There is also a flip side to technological innovation as well. When there is a new technology in the market, it is pounced upon by other developers. It is a summit opportunity, one not easily found, rare and new. Soon, this gets overused and turns from a summit to a valley opportunity. Like HTC was the leader in touch screen phones. Then entered Apple, closely followed by Samsung and now all other phone companies. So touch screen phone became a summit to valley opportunity. We hear of research being done on 3D phones. Now that is a cloud opportunity. In short, for the case of renewable energy, we should be focusing on summit opportunities mainly, with little emphasis on cloud opportunities as well. Research does not necessarily mean working in the lab. It also includes sitting under a tree and thinking about new ideas. That we all can do. 

To conclude, I believe that we all can make a difference. This is our world and it is our responsibility to make it a better place for our future generations. We are not doing anyone a favor. It is only for the greater good of the world. 

In my opinion, the class was an interesting one, but I have a bias against the continued discussion of sustainable development. I've been learning of it ever since I was a kid. However, what I don't understand is that I don't see anyone implementing it. There is no point in having great discussions on this topic. There is need for action. 

Therefore, my rating of the class: 7/10 :)

Session 2: First Glance

I made my way to my first TWC class of the sem. I bought my sub. I bought my drink (after both Prof and I struggled a little to make the vending machines accept our coins!). I entered class just in time. I expected the class  to be a heavy one with a LOT of talking from the Profs side and a LOT of absorbing on our side. 

This made me smile :)

The class started with a short recap on administrative matters. The slides said that the first half of the session would be about "Technology, Society and Global Dominance" and the second half of the session would be about "Technology and Human Development". Honestly, neither of the topics interested me. I couldn't think of anything interesting about ANY of the two topics. So Prof started his lecture by talking about his organizational model for identifying innovation leaders and dominant players. I found this very interesting. It was actually something that was being played out in front of our eyes. Like it was discussed in session 1, US is beginning to lose its  power whereas China is growing exponentially. China is the rising star and US is the falling star. Why is it so? This was explained very well by the analysis of the model. US is sitting on its laurels, not interested in learning from others or developing new ideas. They feel they are invincible. However, as everyone (except probably the US) can see, China is moving towards becoming the super power of the world. China is the one that is absorbing knowledge and creating new ideas at the pace of growing fingernails. They are not intentionally looking to become the world's best. As discussed in class, when US looked to Africa for resources for their own development, they destroyed Africa. However, when China is doing the same today, looking to Africa for resources for their inventions and development, they are helping Africa develop as well. China is keen to learn from others and invest in new ideas. The thing with US was that they were the rising star at one point in time. They then became the dominant player of the world. However, once you reach the top, there's no where to go but down. So gradually began their decline.

This was followed by a discussion on the readings. I shall not go into too much details, because that's what the discussion in class was for. In fact I shall only speak of the ones that particularly interested me.
Firstly, Innovation of the reset world: Again, these captions sound so boring, it's deceiving. It took me like 30 mins to convince myself to read the article. When I finally did, I came across the box theory. This is a very simple theory but explains one of the most complex ideas. How to survive, and perhaps even expand, in recession? The unbelievable but true fact mentioned was that recession is the best time for expansion. Take advantage of the weakness and make it your strength. If you think about it, that's exactly what has been happening with third world countries. They are the weakest of the world, and people are taking advantage of them to build on their strengths. Similarly, in times of recession, talent is abundant and cheap. It's the best time to find the gems in the dark. This article can also be related to the theory mentioned above. The strategy of the rising star should not be to plan for what they have to do in 2020. It should be to plan for what they need to do now to become the dominant player of the world in 2020. The summary of the article is basically that companies need to focus on all three boxes equally to survive and expand in recession.And secondly, A stagnant and meaningless popular culture is a big problem for society: This one, I really liked. It is one article I would probably suggest my friends to read as well. Something I would share on Facebook. It speaks of something we are all turning a blind eye to. Today's entertainment sucks (pardon my language!). What is Big Brother? A bunch of people locked up in a house with no work in life. What is so interesting about it? Nothing. Then why do we watch it? Because everyone watches it. What are these Hollywood Sci Fi movies? A process of ruining people's imagination. On a tangent, another point that hit me while I was reading the article was how movies are made out of successful novels. Why would anyone do that? When you read a book, you imagine the appearance of the characters, their voices, the stage settings .. everything. But when the movie is released, you just silently consume the director's imagination of the entire novel. And then you come out saying, "WOW! It was brilliant." Why don't we give credit to our imagination? Maybe our imagination is better. This making of movies out of novels is ruining the creative brain of the younger generation. So many people don't even read books anymore. They just wait for the movie to be released. On the flip side, even movie directors and script writers don't have the innovative brains to come up with their own stories. They all just bank on the success of the novel they are making the movie on. 

The book cover before the movie

The book cover after the movie

Do you see the difference? That is not how I pictured Harry Potter when I read the book. Who allowed them to put that face up there?

Apart from the discussions, we saw a couple of videos as well. Again, I shall only speak of the ones that caught my eye.
To start - History of the World in 7 minutes: It started with the big bang, followed by the creation of stars, the sun, the solar system, the earth, the continents and the appearance of the first human. It also included the development of human beings and how they learnt to live and create a world for themselves. The entire video was in the form of a timeline, which I thought was a very interesting concept. Each second of the video represented 50 years in the timeline. The video included the development of man from a hunter to a farmer, the appearance and disappearance of civilizations over the centuries, including Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Parthian, to name a few. In the span of 7 minutes, the whole world came into being.
Progress in Human Development: This video presented the idea of differential development of the various nations in a humorous way. It showed how the world is moving from the "poor and sick" segment to the "rich and healthy". Today, there are many nations where the urban areas are already at the top of the "rich and healthy" segment, where as the rural areas are still in the "poor and sick" segment. For example China. However, the positive aspect is that, the present growth rate indicates that eventually the whole world will be in the "rich and healthy" segment. In this video we are shown that the world we live in is radically different from the one we imagine. The video basically shows the history of the world while using stats and augmented reality animation.
Next, History of the British Empire: Now being an Indian, and knowing that the British ruled over my country for the longest time possible, I really liked this video as it exposed the true nature of the old British Empire. Their power was not because of their own greatness, but because of the value of the colonies they had occupied. This video brings to light the reality that England would not have been able to even sustain itself if the rest of they wouldn't have exploited different parts of the world. At one point in time, even England was a superpower. But as it lost its colonies, it lost its power as well. Thus, point proved.
The final one, Achieving The Millennium Development Goals: This was a very heart warming video. It brought to light how little things that people do can make such a huge impact on the world. You might say that Africans are suffering from hunger and poverty. How can you help sitting here in Singapore? Well, the least you can do is not waste food. It's a really weird world we live in today. The poor walk miles to get food and the rich walk miles to digest it. You might say that there is illiteracy in the world today. How can you help sitting here in Singapore? The least you can do is donate your old books and stationary to the homes for the poor and orphans. It's a really weird world we live in today. The rich crib about how the A.C is not strong enough when they are studying and the poor just try to find a street lamp to sit under so they can study. My point is that anyone can make a difference. You just have to try.

Finally, about the presentations, I would just like to say that it was really well done. It takes some courage to come up in front of everyone and be the firsts to present. From Anonymous to eugenic technology to online learning to the future of education in Africa to Robots, it was all just amazing. So much so that I actually didn't mind the class ending 15 minutes late. Well done guys :)

My rating of the class: 8.5/10

                                

Session 1: Pilot

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day - it all just hurts! The morning of our TWC class, I was pulled out of bed by my shrieking, panicking mother. I wasn't done packing. I had my flight back to Singapore that night. I was to miss my first TWC class. After the most boring 4 hours, especially since I can't sleep on flights and my flight happened to have no entertainment (yes all bad things happen at once!), I reached my home away from home. I was bored further when immediately after landing I was forced to listen to my friend ranting about what we have to do for TWC. Really, I could have done without it. Anyway, so it took me like 3 days to actually register everything I was being told about the coursework and the first session. The flight had made me slow I guess. 

Since I didn't get to be part of the ice breaking session, I think I should start by a short introduction of myself. I'm from India, a sophomore in SIS (it's a tough life!!). I love music (who doesn't?!), playing the synthesizer, art work (sometimes I feel I should have gone to Lasalle!) and absolutely love to dance (although I get conscious when people stare!!). I believe in being nice to one and all (trust me it gets difficult at times!). To conclude, I have been getting this feeling that 2013 has made me smarter, like I have been enlightened or something. So I'm hoping to have a good semester, an even better year, making lots of new friends and obviously learning a lot more. 

So I got down to catching up on what I missed. I started by seeing the video: Shift Happens. I read "Size does matter" and got a little disinterested. I'm short. "Size matters" isn't something a short person would like to hear/read. I chose to ignore that and continued. On watching further, I realized what it really meant. The United States is considered to be the most powerful nation of the globe. But we measure power by where the country is today. Not by how much it's growing. Thus it proves to be very misleading. If we were to see the growth of nations, China would be at the top of every counting. The gallops that China has made is almost unbelievable. In terms of population, in terms of dominance, you name it and they have conquered it. In essence, US is just a brand name. The facts in the video reinstate the same. The power of a country is determined by its people. As mentioned in the video, China and India have the numbers in their favor. The video also mentions how the times are changing. There was day when a person worked for just one company all his life. And then there is today when a person works for almost all companies in just one life. This is the degree of change. Everyone is preparing for the future. Everyone is gearing up for a race that hasn't even started. It's mind boggling to even imagine the kind of competition that the future beholds. It's scary to think about how the human is preparing for his own doom. The shift in power has happened even before we could think about it. There was a time when England was the world leader. It was outdone by America and now China and India are looking to take the lead. It's scary to think of this uncertainty. In my opinion, it's not about how much you know, but about how fast you can learn. Everything is uncertain. Everything is changing, shifting. The facts at our disposal are growing exponentially. In this age of information and technology, it's all about how fast you adapt to the never ending change. Therefore, people are forced to prepare for the future. Students are prepared for jobs that don't exist. They are taught to solve problems that don't even exist. Essentially, I feel that they are made to live in a make believe world. Even so, the future is unpredictable. In terms of statistics, it's not about the y, it's about the delta y!

The first video made me think so much, I couldn't watch the second till the next day. Guns, Germs and Steel: it made no sense to me. What was this video about?! On watching the video, what I liked the most was the fact that it spoke of how "a society's potential for advanced development was not determined by race or creed, or by time and experience, but by access to domesticated animals and cultivated plants." It's not the fault of the people of the third world countries that they are underdeveloped. It's not that they chose it to be so. As mentioned in the video, the people are one of the most culturally diverse and adaptable. So how is it their fault that they are not as advanced as the modern Americans? Why are they so much poorer? Yali's question is so simple, yet the toughest to answer. There is nothing genetically inferior about them! How did the world get split? How did it become so different? I guess some questions will remain unanswered. I was really shaken up by this video.

To sum up, even though I didn't attend the first class, the matter was so interesting and brain wracking, that I can't wait to see what the next class holds in store for us. A criteria for the blog is to specify what I wish had been given more discussion time. Well right now I just wish I was in the class to be part of the discussion. 

I can't rate the class, however, I can rate the content: 9/10 :)