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.
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| 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.
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.
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| The book cover before the movie |
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| 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.
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
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