This week talks about forecasting world trends and the methods used. However one thing we must remember is that no matter which method we use to forecast trends, we must be ready for any "wildcards" happening. This simply means that we must be prepared for the unexpected. Expectation is always good, and the one of the ways to forecast the future is to actually see what we can improve today.
Look into the future to see what you can change, and what you want to achieve. This thought of mine during the lesson was surprisingly in line with what Benjamin Franklin said. He said, "look before, otherwise you will find yourself behind." There is a necessity to look forward, if we want to improve what we already have today. Otherwise, others will define the future for you. This mentality I would say is the mentality of leaders and visionaries. Where great people who wanted to change something badly in their day, through no small effort of theirs, managed to fight the odds and achieve great change. Writing about this reminds me of a previous lesson where we discussed the traits of leadership and management.
Indeed forecasting the future is such an important factor in deciding where we humans want to propel the world economies to go, that mega corporations also have a departments just to analyse the current situations and plot plans on how to achieve their future goals in the future climate. There is indeed uncertainty for the future climate, and hence intrinsically bring uncertainty to their plans for achieving their goals. That is why, forecasting the future is such a big business. Businesses like Siemens and Nokia as we have seen in class, treat these methods of forecasting very seriously. By having already the tradition on envisioning the future, can these corporations move forward to where they are. The teams of visionary has already helped shaped these companies into the powerhouses in their industries today.
We too learnt how to envision the future. For our TWC Individual report, Prof reminded us once again how it should be done. Envision the future we want it to be. Find a problem today that is hindering us from progressing to the future we want. Then come up with solutions for change that will enable us to reach our goals for the future.
Through this lesson, I have realised more the importance of envisioning the future. Anticipate and lead the change you want for a better future. Only by taking stewardship for change, can one truly make the future his own. For anything in the future you want to achieve you have to start with the change or game plan you have devised. If you truly hope for change, do take the initiative, after all, the future is where we are going to spend the rest of your life. Do you not want a future that is truly yours?
7/10 lesson was a tad technical, however the many provoking questions that came up in class really made this lesson a pretty stimulating one for the mind.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Session 9
This week's session was about future and emerging technologies.
The main point I got through this session was that when it comes to new and emerging technologies, we are only limited by our imagination. With our current development in the realm of new technologies and coupled with our innovation and creativity, the sky is our limit. Although that statement "the sky's the limit' may one day be used in the opposite sense of the original intent. This holds a massive truth in our current situation in the technological arena today. We have developed cures for multiple diseases that used to plague our humanity, we have transcended the depths of the oceans and explored what so many before us have only dreamed of doing. We have sent drones and satellites into space to observe distant worlds. The sky's the limit could one day mean the opposite, meaning we only dreamed of the sky; the day will inevitably come when we are able to travel to distant worlds and find alien cilivisations, where our wants for ever more energy can be fulfilled. Are not all these fueled originally from man's imagination? Men from our past have dreamed the things we are achieving and doing today at no blink of an eye, what more for future generations who look back?
Einstein, one of humanity's most ingenious specimens, through ONLY his thought experiments could come away with certain rules that formed the grounding for modern physics. It is then rightfully his that he should mention that 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all that there ever will be to know and understand.'
The lesson that we went through touched on some of the new technologies that were emerging, and these new technologies, we must constantly remind ourselves are just the tip of an iceberg. Many new technologies are constantly emerging, because the human race are a race that have the ability and the resources to make dreams reality. What we dream today, as what people dreamed in the past would be fulfilled in the future. Just like how it was man's dream to fly, and we have fulfilled it. Like how it was man's dream to communicate over long distances, we have fulfilled it via the creation of the internet, video conferencing. However there are of course certain dreams not yet fulfilled. How we cannot get transported over long distances instantly unlike our images that travel from across the world in a split of a second. How we cannot yet travel to other worlds without considerable risk and time.
It was of course a pleasure watching the new and merging technologies that prof introduced to us. Like the development of claytronics, where it is possible to change the shapes of real things into something else, a shape of a honda in to a ferrari was something we joked on. We dwelled into the topic of robotics where there was a clear message being driven across. As robotics become more advance, where they are starting to replace human limbs, and where they can help us in areas of repetitive jobs, they too have come to a phase where they could replace humans in their emotional attachments. What do I mean? The video also shown to us showed the "perfect woman" The brainchild of a japanese and a frenchman. It aims to create a robot advanced enough to provide emotional attachment for a man, in a facade of a woman. The message is then, will robotics have the potential enough to not draw a clear distinction between human and robot? The answer I believe again, is how much we are willing to let our imagination run. How much are we willing to risk for the creation of an object that could one day turn into an object of desire? Will then, there be problems arising from all these? If so, how?
All these questions are worth giving a thought for. The presentations too presented some developments and a peek into the new and future emerging technologies. Virtual reality was dwelled upon, and so was fibre optics. However, as radical as how our imagination puts us for the frontier of developing new technologies, the presentations I felt was abit lacking in creativity of this particular area, wherein a sense, it was not as revolutionary as one would want it to be. Indeed that was the only comment I had, because the presentations were thoroughly well thought and executed, but if one would be presenting on new and future tech, would one pick fibre optics as revolutionary when most undersea internet cables are already using fibre optics? Perhaps one again, could pick on something so insanely new and revolutionary that will being forth an age of new technological marvels.
Technology development is a tool to bring hope to our humanity. A tool to propel humanity into the future. If a person from the distant past saw what technology we are using today, wouldn't he think it was so magical and revolutionary? It is my hope that I can live to see the new future technologies that will awe me, that will save me from creative damnation. From prof's fav poet, "There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing." If we long it hard enough to have the passion to create something new, we will do it, and I do hope that it will be for the better for humanity.
And for the person from the past, a quote from Arthur C. Clarke "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
The lesson was abit dry, but it was a thought provoking lesson. I really liked the "moments of truths" or "little enlightenments" that came to me during the course of the lesson! 8/10!
The main point I got through this session was that when it comes to new and emerging technologies, we are only limited by our imagination. With our current development in the realm of new technologies and coupled with our innovation and creativity, the sky is our limit. Although that statement "the sky's the limit' may one day be used in the opposite sense of the original intent. This holds a massive truth in our current situation in the technological arena today. We have developed cures for multiple diseases that used to plague our humanity, we have transcended the depths of the oceans and explored what so many before us have only dreamed of doing. We have sent drones and satellites into space to observe distant worlds. The sky's the limit could one day mean the opposite, meaning we only dreamed of the sky; the day will inevitably come when we are able to travel to distant worlds and find alien cilivisations, where our wants for ever more energy can be fulfilled. Are not all these fueled originally from man's imagination? Men from our past have dreamed the things we are achieving and doing today at no blink of an eye, what more for future generations who look back?
Einstein, one of humanity's most ingenious specimens, through ONLY his thought experiments could come away with certain rules that formed the grounding for modern physics. It is then rightfully his that he should mention that 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all that there ever will be to know and understand.'
The lesson that we went through touched on some of the new technologies that were emerging, and these new technologies, we must constantly remind ourselves are just the tip of an iceberg. Many new technologies are constantly emerging, because the human race are a race that have the ability and the resources to make dreams reality. What we dream today, as what people dreamed in the past would be fulfilled in the future. Just like how it was man's dream to fly, and we have fulfilled it. Like how it was man's dream to communicate over long distances, we have fulfilled it via the creation of the internet, video conferencing. However there are of course certain dreams not yet fulfilled. How we cannot get transported over long distances instantly unlike our images that travel from across the world in a split of a second. How we cannot yet travel to other worlds without considerable risk and time.
It was of course a pleasure watching the new and merging technologies that prof introduced to us. Like the development of claytronics, where it is possible to change the shapes of real things into something else, a shape of a honda in to a ferrari was something we joked on. We dwelled into the topic of robotics where there was a clear message being driven across. As robotics become more advance, where they are starting to replace human limbs, and where they can help us in areas of repetitive jobs, they too have come to a phase where they could replace humans in their emotional attachments. What do I mean? The video also shown to us showed the "perfect woman" The brainchild of a japanese and a frenchman. It aims to create a robot advanced enough to provide emotional attachment for a man, in a facade of a woman. The message is then, will robotics have the potential enough to not draw a clear distinction between human and robot? The answer I believe again, is how much we are willing to let our imagination run. How much are we willing to risk for the creation of an object that could one day turn into an object of desire? Will then, there be problems arising from all these? If so, how?
All these questions are worth giving a thought for. The presentations too presented some developments and a peek into the new and future emerging technologies. Virtual reality was dwelled upon, and so was fibre optics. However, as radical as how our imagination puts us for the frontier of developing new technologies, the presentations I felt was abit lacking in creativity of this particular area, wherein a sense, it was not as revolutionary as one would want it to be. Indeed that was the only comment I had, because the presentations were thoroughly well thought and executed, but if one would be presenting on new and future tech, would one pick fibre optics as revolutionary when most undersea internet cables are already using fibre optics? Perhaps one again, could pick on something so insanely new and revolutionary that will being forth an age of new technological marvels.
Technology development is a tool to bring hope to our humanity. A tool to propel humanity into the future. If a person from the distant past saw what technology we are using today, wouldn't he think it was so magical and revolutionary? It is my hope that I can live to see the new future technologies that will awe me, that will save me from creative damnation. From prof's fav poet, "There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing." If we long it hard enough to have the passion to create something new, we will do it, and I do hope that it will be for the better for humanity.
And for the person from the past, a quote from Arthur C. Clarke "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
The lesson was abit dry, but it was a thought provoking lesson. I really liked the "moments of truths" or "little enlightenments" that came to me during the course of the lesson! 8/10!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Session 8, week 9
Hello everyone, back again. Recess week was not that refreshing! haha, and this week was my twc individual oral presentation! oh wells, this week's lesson was about energy, past present and future. After doing the readings, it was pretty clear that fossil fuels would one day be depleted. And also that it was crucial for us, if we do not want to live in an energy-less world, that we would have to somehow find alternative sources of energy to fuel our need for power. Prof also echoed this sentiment that "the days for fossil fuels are numbered, renewable energy will fuel the next industrial revolution.
The lesson went through some different types of renewable fuels and some of the measures that governments are taking to address the problem of the depletion of fossil fuels and how they are hurting the environment. Energy today is being traded as a commodity, and energy sources such as oil are often priced too low, because they usually rely on human sentiment and also because we do not take into account what externalities we give out to the environment, thus people are compelled to consume more, especially developed countries, because they can afford the costs of this "cheap" energy. That is reason enough to see why that the average american consumes up to 60 times more energy than the normal man in China or India.
Because most developing countries' goals is for better economic growth, oil rich developing nations like nigeria would hence be willing to sell their oil for a cheaper price than the developed nations like UAE and Saudi Arabia. The energy security for the buyer country can thus be fulfilled, without spending too much, this too is another reason why there is the perception that energy is trading below its real costs. With 95% of their economy dominated by this oil trade, countries like nigeria, trying to develop and fund its infrastructure as much as possible, before their oil runs out is entirely probable because, as history has shown, when oil prices rise, the world would always then turn to other forms of greener energy and research, hence this is another reason why we are facing the crisis that we are seeing today.
However, on my personal opinion, I do feel that this fossil fuel fight is over-rated in some sense. This is because, understandably, fossil fuels have been the main source powering our world for industrialisation. The world has too many other problems to solve rather than fighting for each others fossil fuels. This is supported by the fact that there are many projects that try to cut down on the use of fossil fuels and in fact replace them fully, just that we humans have been to comfortable with the usage of fossil fuels as our main source of energy. Examples of these renewable energy resources would be the bioethenol/biofuels project in south america, and the solar energy mega project that is happening in munich, germany, where people are getting paid to provide clean solar energy to others. In fact, Prof mentioned that of the 3.85 M EJ the sun provides a year for the earth, only 0.00015% of it is needed to sustain our energy needs. The problems we should be focusing on, in terms of energy consumption would be to provide energy for the rural and the poor. Efficient energy is usually not available in such areas. They use primitive methods to make energy, such as using biomass to cook. These methods are really dirty, and in fact on their micro level in relativity is actually alot more harmful than just burning fossil fuels. Providing them with new tools, such as solar panels to harness the sun's energy would be alot better, being more efficient and cleaner.
The point of solving the world's energy needs in my opinion is not a large hurdle to cross, it is just because that we have become too reliant on fossil fuels providing us with energy that we have become worried because of the lack of it. But humans, having adapted on the earth for so many thousands of years, surely we have the ingenuity to come up with different replacements for fossil fuels that is cleaner and better? And thats what people have been doing. The presentations this week show exactly that. From harnessing osmosis power to algae power and nuclear power, it is obvious that we will solve our energy needs without fossil fuels. For a cleaner and greener world, fossil fuels is not the way to go. Let us embrace this mentality, and march forward to the day when we will have renewable and sustainable energy for all. The days for fossil fuels are numbered. Renewable energy will fuel the next industrial revolution. And with our ever increasing ingenuity, that day is inevitably drawing closer...
The lesson went through some different types of renewable fuels and some of the measures that governments are taking to address the problem of the depletion of fossil fuels and how they are hurting the environment. Energy today is being traded as a commodity, and energy sources such as oil are often priced too low, because they usually rely on human sentiment and also because we do not take into account what externalities we give out to the environment, thus people are compelled to consume more, especially developed countries, because they can afford the costs of this "cheap" energy. That is reason enough to see why that the average american consumes up to 60 times more energy than the normal man in China or India.
Because most developing countries' goals is for better economic growth, oil rich developing nations like nigeria would hence be willing to sell their oil for a cheaper price than the developed nations like UAE and Saudi Arabia. The energy security for the buyer country can thus be fulfilled, without spending too much, this too is another reason why there is the perception that energy is trading below its real costs. With 95% of their economy dominated by this oil trade, countries like nigeria, trying to develop and fund its infrastructure as much as possible, before their oil runs out is entirely probable because, as history has shown, when oil prices rise, the world would always then turn to other forms of greener energy and research, hence this is another reason why we are facing the crisis that we are seeing today.
However, on my personal opinion, I do feel that this fossil fuel fight is over-rated in some sense. This is because, understandably, fossil fuels have been the main source powering our world for industrialisation. The world has too many other problems to solve rather than fighting for each others fossil fuels. This is supported by the fact that there are many projects that try to cut down on the use of fossil fuels and in fact replace them fully, just that we humans have been to comfortable with the usage of fossil fuels as our main source of energy. Examples of these renewable energy resources would be the bioethenol/biofuels project in south america, and the solar energy mega project that is happening in munich, germany, where people are getting paid to provide clean solar energy to others. In fact, Prof mentioned that of the 3.85 M EJ the sun provides a year for the earth, only 0.00015% of it is needed to sustain our energy needs. The problems we should be focusing on, in terms of energy consumption would be to provide energy for the rural and the poor. Efficient energy is usually not available in such areas. They use primitive methods to make energy, such as using biomass to cook. These methods are really dirty, and in fact on their micro level in relativity is actually alot more harmful than just burning fossil fuels. Providing them with new tools, such as solar panels to harness the sun's energy would be alot better, being more efficient and cleaner.
The point of solving the world's energy needs in my opinion is not a large hurdle to cross, it is just because that we have become too reliant on fossil fuels providing us with energy that we have become worried because of the lack of it. But humans, having adapted on the earth for so many thousands of years, surely we have the ingenuity to come up with different replacements for fossil fuels that is cleaner and better? And thats what people have been doing. The presentations this week show exactly that. From harnessing osmosis power to algae power and nuclear power, it is obvious that we will solve our energy needs without fossil fuels. For a cleaner and greener world, fossil fuels is not the way to go. Let us embrace this mentality, and march forward to the day when we will have renewable and sustainable energy for all. The days for fossil fuels are numbered. Renewable energy will fuel the next industrial revolution. And with our ever increasing ingenuity, that day is inevitably drawing closer...
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Session 7
This week's lesson was the second part on biotech revolution. It concentrated on the 2nd most widely used application of biotech - on agriculture. Yes biotechnology 2nd largest application is on agriculture.
The readings generally told us about the need for biotechnology to grow crops. This is because, to feed a growing world population, more crops must be grown. With biotechnology, crops that can withstand droughts, floods, carry higher nutrition would be favoured over traditional non-transgenic crops. Hence the need for biotechnology. With biotechnology, crop output would also get higher, in fact, shockingly enough yes, to feed the world in 2050, you will need an increase of 70% of food production today. It is calculated that 20% of the increase is going to come from more arable land, and 80% from the increase in food crops. Hence, we can see that biotech must play an integral part in increasing food supply for the next 50 years.
A viewpoint I came across was the fear people associate with transgenic foods. How it will/may have repercussions that we cannot see right now. For those organic foodies out there, can you deny that you have never eaten transgenic/GM food? Oh please, seriously. In fact many of our products we eat, if they are from the US, most probably WON'T tell you that its transgenic. Only the Europe people.:) But I mean our seedless grapes, our sweet oranges, our favourite Mr Bean soya bean, rochor tao hway, are all GM food. Soya bean that has gone to make these yummmy foodstuff, most probably, if nearly not all certain, was already GM-ed. So we come back to the class, and there was this lively debate, and the verdict turned out we should just consume GM rice too. I mean even in our readings, Nobel Laurette Norman Boulaug commented that the risks involving consuming GM food should not be a concern, but rather, feeding the people who are starving should be the main point. I mean, if GM food can solve the world's food crisis shouldn't we aim to make it safer rather than trying to go organic and NOT solve humanity's first concern?
Oh yes, one thing I noticed about the GM food hoo-haa is the one on money issues. Yes, GM crops are made by private sector, lots and lots of red tape to overcome, intellectual property issues about who owns the modified genes etc. Frankly speaking, I don't even see a problem in countries not having enough "money" to feed their people. It is because of rampant corruption and greed in the level of the policy makers, I feel that food never reaches where its supposed to reach. International aid is so readily available. Ask and you shall receive. Really. So with the concerns about people not being able to farm their food, because of draught etc, and need for more hardy crops, thats why they need biotech to provide them with these crops (I'm talking about countries like bangladesh) I feel although yes, it is definitely a problem, I don't think that the local authorities are doing enough to help people in their situation. I may be wrong, but currently with the rich poor divide in nearly every country widening, maybe the richer people could/should/would have enough resources to actually help?
Another solution was from Prof Shahi.He believes that the rural environment is getting overcrowded. I mean, we all can think of many reasons why its getting overcrowded. Being from a rural environment, you would not have proper education. Without proper education, you wouldn't know much. From Maslov's hierarchy of needs, it states that sexual experiences is a basic need. So we know why there is overcrowding. More people, less plot of farm land for each person. Prof Shahi recommendation was for them to migrate to urban areas. Although uncertain, with opportunities in the urban areas, doing odd jobs etc, the money gained could be used to translate to more food for themselves. With less people in the rural areas, rural people will have bigger land to farm with and that would translate into more profits with more crop yield. And then they can afford machineries. and then lead to more crop yield. and then better crop seeds, and then more crop yield! and everybody wins. But being human, although this is an option, alot of us don't want to move out of our comfort zones, and thus I believe that if the authorities were to ever think of this solution, they must provide solutions to the unique situations each individual faces. The stress of urban life, or the toil of rural life.
Ultimately, in the future, with the world population growing, the only feasible and viable option is for biotech to solve this problem. The future of farming will no longer be just uneducated people farming. The future of farming will be scientists who with their knowledge and expertise of farming, and GM crops and optimal conditions create an environment more suitable for growing crops. These 'farmist' will be the future of farming. it is really a high tech and high value approach to farming. with economies of scale, food production hence will become cheap, and this is ultimately what we hope to achieve to solve humanity's problem of starvation.
There was this point on if the whole word goes vegan, there will be still sufficient food. However I felt that that was like really unrealistic. 60% of crop output in the US goes to feeding livestalk. If there is a demand for more expensive food, there will always be a supply. If people cannot afford to pay, no one will feed you. This is human nature. Yes, even though with all the advancement in farming tech to create more food etc, I believe that even in 2050, people will be starving even though there would be more than enough food produced to feed the world's population. Now too, people are wasting so much food. How many thousand tonnes of food go to waste every year? In my personal opinion, I would think that there is sufficient food to feed the world right now, but then people are still starving! This is not a food scarcity problem! This is a human perception problem. No matter how much we try to increase food production, if we do not change our human perceptions to be better and more altruistic, there will still be starvation even when men have found life on other planets!
7/10 lesson. Presentations were pretty good, however I felt that at some points in the lesson, talking about agriculture was a tad too stifling... But overall, at least I thought about stuff more! :)
The readings generally told us about the need for biotechnology to grow crops. This is because, to feed a growing world population, more crops must be grown. With biotechnology, crops that can withstand droughts, floods, carry higher nutrition would be favoured over traditional non-transgenic crops. Hence the need for biotechnology. With biotechnology, crop output would also get higher, in fact, shockingly enough yes, to feed the world in 2050, you will need an increase of 70% of food production today. It is calculated that 20% of the increase is going to come from more arable land, and 80% from the increase in food crops. Hence, we can see that biotech must play an integral part in increasing food supply for the next 50 years.
A viewpoint I came across was the fear people associate with transgenic foods. How it will/may have repercussions that we cannot see right now. For those organic foodies out there, can you deny that you have never eaten transgenic/GM food? Oh please, seriously. In fact many of our products we eat, if they are from the US, most probably WON'T tell you that its transgenic. Only the Europe people.:) But I mean our seedless grapes, our sweet oranges, our favourite Mr Bean soya bean, rochor tao hway, are all GM food. Soya bean that has gone to make these yummmy foodstuff, most probably, if nearly not all certain, was already GM-ed. So we come back to the class, and there was this lively debate, and the verdict turned out we should just consume GM rice too. I mean even in our readings, Nobel Laurette Norman Boulaug commented that the risks involving consuming GM food should not be a concern, but rather, feeding the people who are starving should be the main point. I mean, if GM food can solve the world's food crisis shouldn't we aim to make it safer rather than trying to go organic and NOT solve humanity's first concern?
Oh yes, one thing I noticed about the GM food hoo-haa is the one on money issues. Yes, GM crops are made by private sector, lots and lots of red tape to overcome, intellectual property issues about who owns the modified genes etc. Frankly speaking, I don't even see a problem in countries not having enough "money" to feed their people. It is because of rampant corruption and greed in the level of the policy makers, I feel that food never reaches where its supposed to reach. International aid is so readily available. Ask and you shall receive. Really. So with the concerns about people not being able to farm their food, because of draught etc, and need for more hardy crops, thats why they need biotech to provide them with these crops (I'm talking about countries like bangladesh) I feel although yes, it is definitely a problem, I don't think that the local authorities are doing enough to help people in their situation. I may be wrong, but currently with the rich poor divide in nearly every country widening, maybe the richer people could/should/would have enough resources to actually help?
Another solution was from Prof Shahi.He believes that the rural environment is getting overcrowded. I mean, we all can think of many reasons why its getting overcrowded. Being from a rural environment, you would not have proper education. Without proper education, you wouldn't know much. From Maslov's hierarchy of needs, it states that sexual experiences is a basic need. So we know why there is overcrowding. More people, less plot of farm land for each person. Prof Shahi recommendation was for them to migrate to urban areas. Although uncertain, with opportunities in the urban areas, doing odd jobs etc, the money gained could be used to translate to more food for themselves. With less people in the rural areas, rural people will have bigger land to farm with and that would translate into more profits with more crop yield. And then they can afford machineries. and then lead to more crop yield. and then better crop seeds, and then more crop yield! and everybody wins. But being human, although this is an option, alot of us don't want to move out of our comfort zones, and thus I believe that if the authorities were to ever think of this solution, they must provide solutions to the unique situations each individual faces. The stress of urban life, or the toil of rural life.
Ultimately, in the future, with the world population growing, the only feasible and viable option is for biotech to solve this problem. The future of farming will no longer be just uneducated people farming. The future of farming will be scientists who with their knowledge and expertise of farming, and GM crops and optimal conditions create an environment more suitable for growing crops. These 'farmist' will be the future of farming. it is really a high tech and high value approach to farming. with economies of scale, food production hence will become cheap, and this is ultimately what we hope to achieve to solve humanity's problem of starvation.
There was this point on if the whole word goes vegan, there will be still sufficient food. However I felt that that was like really unrealistic. 60% of crop output in the US goes to feeding livestalk. If there is a demand for more expensive food, there will always be a supply. If people cannot afford to pay, no one will feed you. This is human nature. Yes, even though with all the advancement in farming tech to create more food etc, I believe that even in 2050, people will be starving even though there would be more than enough food produced to feed the world's population. Now too, people are wasting so much food. How many thousand tonnes of food go to waste every year? In my personal opinion, I would think that there is sufficient food to feed the world right now, but then people are still starving! This is not a food scarcity problem! This is a human perception problem. No matter how much we try to increase food production, if we do not change our human perceptions to be better and more altruistic, there will still be starvation even when men have found life on other planets!
7/10 lesson. Presentations were pretty good, however I felt that at some points in the lesson, talking about agriculture was a tad too stifling... But overall, at least I thought about stuff more! :)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Session 6
The biobusiness revolution WILL transform out lives and our economies! Our health, our cloths and materials. Our food, our energy. This week's lesson was about the biobusiness revolution. Basically anything that is "organism" related, such as the health sector, growing new genetically modified crops and making money out of these areas are classified as biobusiness. Hence we see that is indeed a very large area, with many sub topics to cover. In Dr.Shahi's words, "Economic activity of life and life processes."
Biobusiness provides for 25% global GDP, but provides for 40% of the world's labour force. This statistic struck me pretty hard. I previously thought that biobusiness, with all the glamour of doctors and surgeons, and people developing new medicines, and huge pharmaceutical companies making high profits, I wondered whether at all that would be true. However, because of this lesson, I had my predicaments turned sour. It didn't occur to me previously that biobusiness consisted of the illiterate farm workers growing the food we eat as part of it. With that thinking then, wouldn't biobusiness be thought of as being around since man learnt how to farm and trade? And not be a fairly new concept?
Back on track, biobusiness does indeed encompass health and life sciences. And this would probably be where the bulk of revolution is taking place. In the arena of health we now see more and more point of care diagnostics being developed. Common point of care diagnostics that we know of would be the pregnancy test kit, and more recently, the H1N1 test kit, where people can know whether they have caught that dreaded flu bug within a couple of hours. With Genetic engineering, researches now can also grow medicines in life stalk. In a time not too long ago, people couldn't do these things, and of course medicines were synthesized by mixing compounds together. There would be left overs for at times, only the by product of the synthesis was what they wanted and not the main product generated. This represents a great leap forward with the production of medicine. It would of course cheaper as the processes are natural.
The Biobusiness revolution is indeed huge. Many people know that deciphering the whole human genome was a significant milestone in man's history. Or a least i consider it to be. The lesson proved my instincts right. HA! With the decoding, there came a lot of business opportunities. People knew what proteins could be synthesized to cure any flaw. Pharmaceutical companies began their research to produce drugs to help solve any potential problems that came up with genetics. However there were setbacks too. Of course now insurance companies, know that some diseases that may be hereditary, now backed my scientific prove may not be willing to insure someone with a family history of it.
The development of GM food has caused much scare to skeptics. Of course there are always the alternatives to turn to. Going organic and stuff like that. With issues such as these, provides the opportunity to expands man's creativity to provide, hence also providing much business activity. Perhaps it is due to this reasons that have also driven the biobusiness revolution. Nutraceuticals are an example of this. People prefer to eat the food rich in the certain nutrients that they lack rather than just popping a pill. For example eating more red meat, and green leafy vegetables to supplement their iron intake, rather than just popping an iron supplement.
The biobusiness also expands the horizon's of man's imagination! I feel that with the new knowledge, techniques and methods acquired throughout the ages have given a man a step closer to their imagination. Creating new species, bringing back extinct species are all theoretically feasible now, however man has yet to succeed. Cloning animals now is feasible, however we have yet to confirm on the success and certainty of our techniques. All these have given much promise to the hope of genetic engineering and closer to our ambitions. Eradicating diseases, creating hybrids of more powerful humans! This only happens in the work of science fiction authors!
The presenters did a pretty good job! I enjoyed the discussions thoroughly. Perhaps more than the lessons itself :P Probably because we dwelled into the specifics and the consequences rather than the generals of the topic! I enjoyed the development of nano medicine presentation! I was like "wow" its super cool! and the consequences of us being healthier,and not to undergo painful treatments such as chemotherapy and instead just targeting the cancer cells.
Lesson would be 7/10. most part of the lessons i felt intimidated because of the broadness and scope of the subject. However the presentations and discussion gave better points!
Oh! and I just remembered a funny thing about the difference between disease management and wellness management! There is no difference! Just that disease management is about keeping diseased people well, and wellness management is keeping well people well! LOL XD
Biobusiness provides for 25% global GDP, but provides for 40% of the world's labour force. This statistic struck me pretty hard. I previously thought that biobusiness, with all the glamour of doctors and surgeons, and people developing new medicines, and huge pharmaceutical companies making high profits, I wondered whether at all that would be true. However, because of this lesson, I had my predicaments turned sour. It didn't occur to me previously that biobusiness consisted of the illiterate farm workers growing the food we eat as part of it. With that thinking then, wouldn't biobusiness be thought of as being around since man learnt how to farm and trade? And not be a fairly new concept?
Back on track, biobusiness does indeed encompass health and life sciences. And this would probably be where the bulk of revolution is taking place. In the arena of health we now see more and more point of care diagnostics being developed. Common point of care diagnostics that we know of would be the pregnancy test kit, and more recently, the H1N1 test kit, where people can know whether they have caught that dreaded flu bug within a couple of hours. With Genetic engineering, researches now can also grow medicines in life stalk. In a time not too long ago, people couldn't do these things, and of course medicines were synthesized by mixing compounds together. There would be left overs for at times, only the by product of the synthesis was what they wanted and not the main product generated. This represents a great leap forward with the production of medicine. It would of course cheaper as the processes are natural.
The Biobusiness revolution is indeed huge. Many people know that deciphering the whole human genome was a significant milestone in man's history. Or a least i consider it to be. The lesson proved my instincts right. HA! With the decoding, there came a lot of business opportunities. People knew what proteins could be synthesized to cure any flaw. Pharmaceutical companies began their research to produce drugs to help solve any potential problems that came up with genetics. However there were setbacks too. Of course now insurance companies, know that some diseases that may be hereditary, now backed my scientific prove may not be willing to insure someone with a family history of it.
The development of GM food has caused much scare to skeptics. Of course there are always the alternatives to turn to. Going organic and stuff like that. With issues such as these, provides the opportunity to expands man's creativity to provide, hence also providing much business activity. Perhaps it is due to this reasons that have also driven the biobusiness revolution. Nutraceuticals are an example of this. People prefer to eat the food rich in the certain nutrients that they lack rather than just popping a pill. For example eating more red meat, and green leafy vegetables to supplement their iron intake, rather than just popping an iron supplement.
The biobusiness also expands the horizon's of man's imagination! I feel that with the new knowledge, techniques and methods acquired throughout the ages have given a man a step closer to their imagination. Creating new species, bringing back extinct species are all theoretically feasible now, however man has yet to succeed. Cloning animals now is feasible, however we have yet to confirm on the success and certainty of our techniques. All these have given much promise to the hope of genetic engineering and closer to our ambitions. Eradicating diseases, creating hybrids of more powerful humans! This only happens in the work of science fiction authors!
The presenters did a pretty good job! I enjoyed the discussions thoroughly. Perhaps more than the lessons itself :P Probably because we dwelled into the specifics and the consequences rather than the generals of the topic! I enjoyed the development of nano medicine presentation! I was like "wow" its super cool! and the consequences of us being healthier,and not to undergo painful treatments such as chemotherapy and instead just targeting the cancer cells.
Lesson would be 7/10. most part of the lessons i felt intimidated because of the broadness and scope of the subject. However the presentations and discussion gave better points!
Oh! and I just remembered a funny thing about the difference between disease management and wellness management! There is no difference! Just that disease management is about keeping diseased people well, and wellness management is keeping well people well! LOL XD
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Session 5
In this session we talked about ICT. What is ICT then? Before I attempted the readings, the term ICT was totally foreign to me, although the concept was seriously not. ICT or information and communication technologies are what in my opinion is definitely a driving force for change and development in the world today. A few examples of ICTs that we are familiar with would be the internet, cellphones, and more recently cloud computing.
Essentially, ICTs have not been around so long as the other drivers of world change. This is because, ICTs were developed as I found out only with the development of the knowledge economy. When information needed to travel fast and accurate in real time, hence the needs for Information and Communication technologies, albeit people for the longest time needed to transfer information accurately as fast as possible. I imagined in ancient times, the most common form of ICT for them, especially to the people who were fighting battles and wars would be the messengers, the horses and their pigeons. (punt intended)
So we discussed about the history of the internet. My history of the internet was initially warped, but at least I learnt the truth of it in the lesson. The internet, unlike my contrary belief, was created by the US army, not CERN. CERN came up with the global network, but the US army came up with the first "network" What I found particularly interesting for this session was the componant about web 3.0. We are all familiar with the current web 2.0, where there is the development of different media sources for us to gain information and services. Such as online shopping and video viewing. I honestly haven't heard of web 3.0, but from what i recall, it is about a semantic web. Information is aways collected from your surfing habits, to what you purchase online. Very soon, the web would be integrated into our everyday appliances, for example, when we search for a destination, it would give us recommendations of food and services along the route etc. However we all must avoid the pitfalls of having web 3.0. seem different. Essentially its a gradual implementation of collecting information and then ultimately its goals is to aid us in our likes and dislikes, help us to make more informed choices.
I really like the idea of web 3.0, however, with the data collection for predicting or recommending websites and services, wouldn't it be nearly an invasion of privacy? We let go so much of ourselves when we are on the net, because of the cover of the way the net is built, we feel safe behind a computer, because nobody will know what we are doing, who we are. However with the collecting of information fro our surfing habits etc, companies working with todays psychologists and social scientist, and also mathematicians programming the most advanced algorithm, they could hence build a profile of the person sitting behind a computer and with today's prevalence of social networking, finding out who we actually really are wouldn't be that difficult a job right? This is just a thought to ponder on yeah.
Also, with ICTs the arena of gaming has achieved a paradigm shift. Games are now more interactive. In a nugget, they have become more "real" than ever. With real time information gathering, a programme could essentially, I say again, predict your behavior and react to you, based on the algorithms they have been programmed with. It may seem like a real being we are actually interacting with, rather than just an algorithm. Perhaps then, it has been our mistake for being so developed. People could now take solace with virtual characters, sympathize with them etc. They are not real, but we are. So our psychology could change and we may end up thinking that we are really interacting with the virtual world, and lose track of what is real and what is not.
With ICTs, people now do not need to travel hundreds of miles to perhaps consult a doctor when they are sick. The doctor can diagnose the illness, and the patient can go to their local pharmacy to pick up their prescription. I have read that in fact, with real time transmission of images and data, operations can also be done remotely. A doctor on the other side of the globe can control a robot which will do an operation for a patient. The same goes for board room meetings, With video conferencing, people can stay at the same place, but the formation of ideas can take place across the globe.
With such prevalence, wouldn't it be a matter of time before the world sees ICT penetration as a rule rather than a tool for the rich? For at least some parts of the world it could be. In fact, in Finland, broadband 1mbps is a human right!
Cloud computing, a developing component of ICTs, bases programmes and systems to be stored on the internet rather than locally. This in my personal opinion is a paradigm shift. We learnt in class about the benefits of how it really streamlines startup costs for enterprises and enable multi tenancy etc. However what does this all mean? If you do not experience it first hand, you will never comprehend the feeling. A few years back, with the prevalence of the internet, we could send files over after we had edited it and stuff. It was good, however it wasnt efficient. People couldn't see what was already done, and there would be overlaps of similar ideas, and hence a loss in productivity. The key point here is productivity. With cloud computing, many people actually can access the same document in the cloud, and edit something onto it. There wouldnt be overlaps, because people could see what is already being written. Essentially it is the same as doing the job face to face, but now its being done remotely. WOW. A very clear example of the cloud prevalence is the Google Docs platform. For those who already know, good for you. For those who do not, I wont spoil your surprise, but you really have to adopt this, and your life's convinience will never be the same!
One of the most thought provoking episodes of this session was the "capturing of the knowledge revolution" ICTs in our opinions have developed pretty advance systems for us to streamline our services and productions, however productivity has only gone up about 5 times as compared to agriculture and the industrial revolution 25X. WHY? The answer turned out to be the way of managing people. At that instant, it brought me back to the first few lessons when prof quoted tech is easy, men are difficult. Yes, its always a grey area when dealing with humans, because of emotions and uncertainty and risk appetites. Men are not easy to herd. You would need a great leader to lead them. However a great leader doesn't come all the time. So there are lapses in decision making etc, hence because we have done what we are dreaming of, what else then can we improve to reach a higher standard?
Another thing that enlightened me was the discussion on ICTs prevalence for the poor. A necessary tool for the poor to help break out of their middleman cycle,esp farmers. With their cellphones, there is no longer a need for corporations and governments to provide for fixed land lines, hence it will be a reduction in infrastructure costs. The society there can kind of skip the step of fixed land lines and jump straight to the modern ICTs, such as cellphones and the internet. I feel that this is indeed great, but however, infrastructure for the cellphone lines are still needed. And the poor will have to pay for their cellphone bills. Only if they have subsidies for the poor to afford and pay for a cellphone, can the widespread of their use prevail. And through this, countries can then have the poor not feel oppressed, because the opportunity for ICTs are available to them, and they will thus not be exploited due to the lack of information, and also too, there will be more competitiveness within these sectors, as with more information, market forces will be more apparent. Opportunities can then be made. The poor, if they are lucky can have the chance to be liberated!
ICT is indeed, without a doubt a driver of world change. And a powerful one that it! However its prevalence must be addressed, and education for their use must be taught and made available. With this, can alot more people have the chance to go up Maslow's hierarchy of needs!
8/10 for lesson. ICTs is one of my more favourate topics of technology. I did learn alot of new things in this lesson, and alot more thought experiments about this driver of change came from that! I would however like more exploration into the way ICTs make impacts on the less fortunate. After all, more than half the world's population live on less than a dollar a day.
Essentially, ICTs have not been around so long as the other drivers of world change. This is because, ICTs were developed as I found out only with the development of the knowledge economy. When information needed to travel fast and accurate in real time, hence the needs for Information and Communication technologies, albeit people for the longest time needed to transfer information accurately as fast as possible. I imagined in ancient times, the most common form of ICT for them, especially to the people who were fighting battles and wars would be the messengers, the horses and their pigeons. (punt intended)
So we discussed about the history of the internet. My history of the internet was initially warped, but at least I learnt the truth of it in the lesson. The internet, unlike my contrary belief, was created by the US army, not CERN. CERN came up with the global network, but the US army came up with the first "network" What I found particularly interesting for this session was the componant about web 3.0. We are all familiar with the current web 2.0, where there is the development of different media sources for us to gain information and services. Such as online shopping and video viewing. I honestly haven't heard of web 3.0, but from what i recall, it is about a semantic web. Information is aways collected from your surfing habits, to what you purchase online. Very soon, the web would be integrated into our everyday appliances, for example, when we search for a destination, it would give us recommendations of food and services along the route etc. However we all must avoid the pitfalls of having web 3.0. seem different. Essentially its a gradual implementation of collecting information and then ultimately its goals is to aid us in our likes and dislikes, help us to make more informed choices.
I really like the idea of web 3.0, however, with the data collection for predicting or recommending websites and services, wouldn't it be nearly an invasion of privacy? We let go so much of ourselves when we are on the net, because of the cover of the way the net is built, we feel safe behind a computer, because nobody will know what we are doing, who we are. However with the collecting of information fro our surfing habits etc, companies working with todays psychologists and social scientist, and also mathematicians programming the most advanced algorithm, they could hence build a profile of the person sitting behind a computer and with today's prevalence of social networking, finding out who we actually really are wouldn't be that difficult a job right? This is just a thought to ponder on yeah.
Also, with ICTs the arena of gaming has achieved a paradigm shift. Games are now more interactive. In a nugget, they have become more "real" than ever. With real time information gathering, a programme could essentially, I say again, predict your behavior and react to you, based on the algorithms they have been programmed with. It may seem like a real being we are actually interacting with, rather than just an algorithm. Perhaps then, it has been our mistake for being so developed. People could now take solace with virtual characters, sympathize with them etc. They are not real, but we are. So our psychology could change and we may end up thinking that we are really interacting with the virtual world, and lose track of what is real and what is not.
With ICTs, people now do not need to travel hundreds of miles to perhaps consult a doctor when they are sick. The doctor can diagnose the illness, and the patient can go to their local pharmacy to pick up their prescription. I have read that in fact, with real time transmission of images and data, operations can also be done remotely. A doctor on the other side of the globe can control a robot which will do an operation for a patient. The same goes for board room meetings, With video conferencing, people can stay at the same place, but the formation of ideas can take place across the globe.
With such prevalence, wouldn't it be a matter of time before the world sees ICT penetration as a rule rather than a tool for the rich? For at least some parts of the world it could be. In fact, in Finland, broadband 1mbps is a human right!
Cloud computing, a developing component of ICTs, bases programmes and systems to be stored on the internet rather than locally. This in my personal opinion is a paradigm shift. We learnt in class about the benefits of how it really streamlines startup costs for enterprises and enable multi tenancy etc. However what does this all mean? If you do not experience it first hand, you will never comprehend the feeling. A few years back, with the prevalence of the internet, we could send files over after we had edited it and stuff. It was good, however it wasnt efficient. People couldn't see what was already done, and there would be overlaps of similar ideas, and hence a loss in productivity. The key point here is productivity. With cloud computing, many people actually can access the same document in the cloud, and edit something onto it. There wouldnt be overlaps, because people could see what is already being written. Essentially it is the same as doing the job face to face, but now its being done remotely. WOW. A very clear example of the cloud prevalence is the Google Docs platform. For those who already know, good for you. For those who do not, I wont spoil your surprise, but you really have to adopt this, and your life's convinience will never be the same!
One of the most thought provoking episodes of this session was the "capturing of the knowledge revolution" ICTs in our opinions have developed pretty advance systems for us to streamline our services and productions, however productivity has only gone up about 5 times as compared to agriculture and the industrial revolution 25X. WHY? The answer turned out to be the way of managing people. At that instant, it brought me back to the first few lessons when prof quoted tech is easy, men are difficult. Yes, its always a grey area when dealing with humans, because of emotions and uncertainty and risk appetites. Men are not easy to herd. You would need a great leader to lead them. However a great leader doesn't come all the time. So there are lapses in decision making etc, hence because we have done what we are dreaming of, what else then can we improve to reach a higher standard?
Another thing that enlightened me was the discussion on ICTs prevalence for the poor. A necessary tool for the poor to help break out of their middleman cycle,esp farmers. With their cellphones, there is no longer a need for corporations and governments to provide for fixed land lines, hence it will be a reduction in infrastructure costs. The society there can kind of skip the step of fixed land lines and jump straight to the modern ICTs, such as cellphones and the internet. I feel that this is indeed great, but however, infrastructure for the cellphone lines are still needed. And the poor will have to pay for their cellphone bills. Only if they have subsidies for the poor to afford and pay for a cellphone, can the widespread of their use prevail. And through this, countries can then have the poor not feel oppressed, because the opportunity for ICTs are available to them, and they will thus not be exploited due to the lack of information, and also too, there will be more competitiveness within these sectors, as with more information, market forces will be more apparent. Opportunities can then be made. The poor, if they are lucky can have the chance to be liberated!
ICT is indeed, without a doubt a driver of world change. And a powerful one that it! However its prevalence must be addressed, and education for their use must be taught and made available. With this, can alot more people have the chance to go up Maslow's hierarchy of needs!
8/10 for lesson. ICTs is one of my more favourate topics of technology. I did learn alot of new things in this lesson, and alot more thought experiments about this driver of change came from that! I would however like more exploration into the way ICTs make impacts on the less fortunate. After all, more than half the world's population live on less than a dollar a day.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Session 4
The lesson started about what we have learnt, or rather, what we have dwelled in for these past weeks. We recalled the Maslov state of self-actualization, the 3 barometers of measuring development; literacy rate; GDP per capita; life expectancy. We also remembered other forms of measurement of development, such as happiness, and things that are really integrated into the social fabric, such as crime and alcoholism rates.
We then discussed the drivers of world change. We noted many drivers of world change, such as technology, climate change, governance etc. The one that stood out was germs and diseases. Prof elaborated that it was this that was responsible for the dark ages (some others call it the middle ages), and the renaissance for the Europeans.
The eastern Roman Empire, in the 600s, brought back a disease, now called the bubonic plague. It came from the fleas of rats. With so many people dying, people started to live in isolated communities. The best scientists of that time were consulted, but they could do nothing about it. Science lost credibility, and there was a breakdown of society.
For about 600 years, Europe lived in these ages. Their age of enlightenment came after this. The renaissance period as it was called was due to help from the people of the Middle East. These people developed methods to prevent the spread of the plague. Europe hence opened its eyes once again and embraced science and development. The dark ages were over.
A modern retrospect to the events that happened then would be the Spanish flu, which killed millions worldwide. However with increasing globalization, we can share knowledge and technology with much more ease. Hence, this would prevent a second dark age. Closer to our times, we have had scares such as the H1n1 flu, and the 2003 SARS epidemic.
It is fascinating to learn that things naked to the eye are the fundamental reasons to what happened throughout man’s history. It makes me wonder then, are we really the masters of this world as we claim to be? Are we masters of our fate, or is there a higher calling.
I think that we should include more of these historical discussions during lesson. I find it really stimulating, as these discussions include stories, and the lessons within in. But that is just a thought.
We dwelled of course into the other drivers of world change. We discussed some drivers of change, that the idea itself was too minute to create a change. However when everyone embraced it, a movement formed and ultimately when joined by others, becomes a big change.
One such example would be the example of a social idea – communism. Not to digress, I totally agree that social ideas are one of the fundamental factors of change. Indeed change is mostly talked about what we can observe, however an idea is just as much able to materialize if we embrace it. Hence once communities embrace a social ideal, be it communism or capitalism, we can see that it affects everything else that the community will do. It will affect how the community spread of wealth will be. It affects what jobs the people in that community will do. It even decides how people will feel, for those who dislike equality and want to succeed, a feeling of stifling. For those who cannot afford the competition, being equal with everyone else would be better. Indeed I cannot agree more that the mere idea of a social ideal is indeed a very powerful driver of change within communities.
Other drivers of change include demographic change, where a change of mindset would be indulged in. People from the countryside move to cities to find higher paying jobs. Rather than farming, they would want better education so that they can be equipped with the skills to move up the food chain, rather than maintaining the status quo, and continue being country bumpkins.
Commercial innovation too is a massive driver of change in the world today. With new highly value added products being introduced into the market, people are finding their lives getting easier and easier. Now, with the internet, we can purchase items of halfway around the world with a click of a button, and not just that, we can even do it while we are outside of our comfort zones, using our phones.
With commercial innovation, comes the need for keeping costs low with many people wanting to jump onto the bandwagon and sell similar products. Hence competition arises. This too is a massive driver of change. With competition, corporations are always finding cheaper places for manufacture, more efficient machines etc. Hence, the whole demographic nature of production changes. With globalization, the ease of setting up factories and employing people who are satisfied with lower wages, due to their economy are ever present. Hence this changes other countries economies too. Therefore indeed, commercial innovation and competition are massive drivers of change too.
One cannot neglect however that these are not the only drivers of change that are so impactful around the world we live in. For example, environmental factors too are just as powerful in moulding surroundings, causing havoc to our chain processes. Changing expectations too are a driver of change. Demands for wants, and immediate services are now ever more accessible compared to a couple of decades ago, where life was a lot slower paced. People were not caught up in he rat race, and they did not demand immediate services. These drivers, though not apparent, are subtly changing the way we live our lives.
The presentations were really interactive. There was much debate for the first presentation where the topic was the premis of CO2 not being the main cause for global warming. It generated a very lively debate, however the conclusion was that it was never in the first place assumed for CO2 to be the cause of global warming in the first place. The second presentation was about new technologies coming up. The focus was on two new technologies, the universal translation, and the T-ray.
The former is as what its name states. It translates any language in the world. There was again much discussion about its applications. How 90% accuracy is not enough in the medical field etc. The T-ray is an x-ray without the harmfulness of it. Its application was not discussed thoroughly however, but nonetheless, bravo to Szecindyo the presenter!
We had our break afterwards.
In the second session we discussed about change management and change leadership. This is a topic I would think that would be pretty close to my heart. Being preassigned into the course of Leadership and Teambuilding I am currently undergoing, it is necessary to apply what I have read up on leadership and management into the course. So discussing this during a different course, presented to me a different outline on change management and leadership. However as what I have noticed, the concepts stay the same.
What stuck me as a superb familiarity was that of the pessimism time curve. Indeed many of us start of a project with optimism, the feeling of how we are going to be successful and how our project will take the world by change. Then we realize that the job would have a lot of pitfalls. I myself have experienced this when I started my instrument rental company. I had to lower my expectations for success, but nonetheless, with changed expectations, one will not brood too much about failure. Luckily for me, this project is still surviving, and doing pretty ok, hence, the informed realism stage.
Completion for me would be like the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to experience it yet, but hopefully, I’ll get there someday! Kudos to this slide! Life is full of ups and downs, and we must tune ourselves to constantly change our focus to fit circumstances, or we would only fail!
A leader is one with a dream, a vision. A manager is the one who manages. Essentially, taking care of the nitty gritties. For any successful team, or in this case, we were discussing about corporations moving through with times, like a tree, a change management must be flexible otherwise if they stay ridgit, in the wind they will be broken upon. However flexibility provides the adaptability for this change. Hence again, remember Darwin’s quote, only the one that is the most adaptable will survive. It’s the same for species, the same for people, the same for organizations.
One thing that I learnt in the lesson was about making plans. We must be able to formulate plans that are flexible and reactive to change. If we were to follow the traditional concept of implementing changes with a deadline, and freeze ourselves to present circumstances, we would be voiding ourselves to the rest of the world, and not be able to react to the circumstances when it does not go our way. Also when we make our plans, we must factor in anticipations for the future. That is why, reports like what Professor asked us to read are for that reason.
The experts predict what will happen, see from current trends, what to expect for the future. For different experts, different measures. Some are experts in drivers of change, hence they see from the current situation, what is going to affect and create change. As managers and leaders, we must have a vision and a plan how to reach the end destination taking into account these changes.
This lesson was an interesting one for me, as it dwelled into a topic that is quite dear to my heart. Information flow was good, however I think we should actually dwell more into the mechanics, rather than just an overview which was what I felt was this week’s lesson. 8/10!
We then discussed the drivers of world change. We noted many drivers of world change, such as technology, climate change, governance etc. The one that stood out was germs and diseases. Prof elaborated that it was this that was responsible for the dark ages (some others call it the middle ages), and the renaissance for the Europeans.
The eastern Roman Empire, in the 600s, brought back a disease, now called the bubonic plague. It came from the fleas of rats. With so many people dying, people started to live in isolated communities. The best scientists of that time were consulted, but they could do nothing about it. Science lost credibility, and there was a breakdown of society.
For about 600 years, Europe lived in these ages. Their age of enlightenment came after this. The renaissance period as it was called was due to help from the people of the Middle East. These people developed methods to prevent the spread of the plague. Europe hence opened its eyes once again and embraced science and development. The dark ages were over.
A modern retrospect to the events that happened then would be the Spanish flu, which killed millions worldwide. However with increasing globalization, we can share knowledge and technology with much more ease. Hence, this would prevent a second dark age. Closer to our times, we have had scares such as the H1n1 flu, and the 2003 SARS epidemic.
It is fascinating to learn that things naked to the eye are the fundamental reasons to what happened throughout man’s history. It makes me wonder then, are we really the masters of this world as we claim to be? Are we masters of our fate, or is there a higher calling.
I think that we should include more of these historical discussions during lesson. I find it really stimulating, as these discussions include stories, and the lessons within in. But that is just a thought.
We dwelled of course into the other drivers of world change. We discussed some drivers of change, that the idea itself was too minute to create a change. However when everyone embraced it, a movement formed and ultimately when joined by others, becomes a big change.
One such example would be the example of a social idea – communism. Not to digress, I totally agree that social ideas are one of the fundamental factors of change. Indeed change is mostly talked about what we can observe, however an idea is just as much able to materialize if we embrace it. Hence once communities embrace a social ideal, be it communism or capitalism, we can see that it affects everything else that the community will do. It will affect how the community spread of wealth will be. It affects what jobs the people in that community will do. It even decides how people will feel, for those who dislike equality and want to succeed, a feeling of stifling. For those who cannot afford the competition, being equal with everyone else would be better. Indeed I cannot agree more that the mere idea of a social ideal is indeed a very powerful driver of change within communities.
Other drivers of change include demographic change, where a change of mindset would be indulged in. People from the countryside move to cities to find higher paying jobs. Rather than farming, they would want better education so that they can be equipped with the skills to move up the food chain, rather than maintaining the status quo, and continue being country bumpkins.
Commercial innovation too is a massive driver of change in the world today. With new highly value added products being introduced into the market, people are finding their lives getting easier and easier. Now, with the internet, we can purchase items of halfway around the world with a click of a button, and not just that, we can even do it while we are outside of our comfort zones, using our phones.
With commercial innovation, comes the need for keeping costs low with many people wanting to jump onto the bandwagon and sell similar products. Hence competition arises. This too is a massive driver of change. With competition, corporations are always finding cheaper places for manufacture, more efficient machines etc. Hence, the whole demographic nature of production changes. With globalization, the ease of setting up factories and employing people who are satisfied with lower wages, due to their economy are ever present. Hence this changes other countries economies too. Therefore indeed, commercial innovation and competition are massive drivers of change too.
One cannot neglect however that these are not the only drivers of change that are so impactful around the world we live in. For example, environmental factors too are just as powerful in moulding surroundings, causing havoc to our chain processes. Changing expectations too are a driver of change. Demands for wants, and immediate services are now ever more accessible compared to a couple of decades ago, where life was a lot slower paced. People were not caught up in he rat race, and they did not demand immediate services. These drivers, though not apparent, are subtly changing the way we live our lives.
The presentations were really interactive. There was much debate for the first presentation where the topic was the premis of CO2 not being the main cause for global warming. It generated a very lively debate, however the conclusion was that it was never in the first place assumed for CO2 to be the cause of global warming in the first place. The second presentation was about new technologies coming up. The focus was on two new technologies, the universal translation, and the T-ray.
The former is as what its name states. It translates any language in the world. There was again much discussion about its applications. How 90% accuracy is not enough in the medical field etc. The T-ray is an x-ray without the harmfulness of it. Its application was not discussed thoroughly however, but nonetheless, bravo to Szecindyo the presenter!
We had our break afterwards.
In the second session we discussed about change management and change leadership. This is a topic I would think that would be pretty close to my heart. Being preassigned into the course of Leadership and Teambuilding I am currently undergoing, it is necessary to apply what I have read up on leadership and management into the course. So discussing this during a different course, presented to me a different outline on change management and leadership. However as what I have noticed, the concepts stay the same.
What stuck me as a superb familiarity was that of the pessimism time curve. Indeed many of us start of a project with optimism, the feeling of how we are going to be successful and how our project will take the world by change. Then we realize that the job would have a lot of pitfalls. I myself have experienced this when I started my instrument rental company. I had to lower my expectations for success, but nonetheless, with changed expectations, one will not brood too much about failure. Luckily for me, this project is still surviving, and doing pretty ok, hence, the informed realism stage.
Completion for me would be like the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to experience it yet, but hopefully, I’ll get there someday! Kudos to this slide! Life is full of ups and downs, and we must tune ourselves to constantly change our focus to fit circumstances, or we would only fail!
A leader is one with a dream, a vision. A manager is the one who manages. Essentially, taking care of the nitty gritties. For any successful team, or in this case, we were discussing about corporations moving through with times, like a tree, a change management must be flexible otherwise if they stay ridgit, in the wind they will be broken upon. However flexibility provides the adaptability for this change. Hence again, remember Darwin’s quote, only the one that is the most adaptable will survive. It’s the same for species, the same for people, the same for organizations.
One thing that I learnt in the lesson was about making plans. We must be able to formulate plans that are flexible and reactive to change. If we were to follow the traditional concept of implementing changes with a deadline, and freeze ourselves to present circumstances, we would be voiding ourselves to the rest of the world, and not be able to react to the circumstances when it does not go our way. Also when we make our plans, we must factor in anticipations for the future. That is why, reports like what Professor asked us to read are for that reason.
The experts predict what will happen, see from current trends, what to expect for the future. For different experts, different measures. Some are experts in drivers of change, hence they see from the current situation, what is going to affect and create change. As managers and leaders, we must have a vision and a plan how to reach the end destination taking into account these changes.
This lesson was an interesting one for me, as it dwelled into a topic that is quite dear to my heart. Information flow was good, however I think we should actually dwell more into the mechanics, rather than just an overview which was what I felt was this week’s lesson. 8/10!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Session 3
My format for writing this entry will be different from my previous posts. I found it hard to give individual sections what they deserve as a few of my points overlapped. I will thus integrate my thoughts with the flow of the events so as not to make the entry feel disjointed and segregated.
This session covered technology and industrial development towards sustainability and technology and innovation matters. In the first half, we were shown why as a country becomes more developed, their industries shift their focus from before, treating every unprofitable cause as an externality to sustainable development. Essentially, unlike previously done, sustainability requires a shift from linear thinking to circular thinking. What do I mean? It means that unlike the old industrial model, which focuses just on economic development and not caring for the environment's well being, the new model of sustainable industries are economic development and environmental well being.
As we went through this portion of the class, a question formed in my head. The question was why had the industries and governments decide to adopt the sustainable industrial model? It was at this point when a self realisation occurred. The realisation stemmed from the thought of global warming. How the polar ice caps are melting and how sea levels are rising. Possibly in the next 20 years, all the low lying ares on earth would disappear from the map.
As I thought more, although global warming was one of the major reasons that the developed industries are shifting to being more environmentally sustainable, it was not the only reasons. Other reasons I could think of was also pollutants being disposed off into rivers and seas. Being so polluted, it could not support the life that lived in it before. Whole ecosystems would be destroyed. People would fall sick drinking the polluted water.
Other reasons too played a part, like the excessive burning of fossil fuels to fuel man's industrial ambitions, or the reckless felling of trees, plants and killing of animals to their extinction? Now we have realised this, was the only reason why we are taking all the initiatives for sustainability. But, are we already too late?
Prof then showed us a Youtube video of a woman, most probably an environmental activist, giving a condensed history of how industrailisation came to be. She showed that, for the sake of economic development, governments are metaphorically "bowing down" to big corporations to to fund their economy. As the corporations grew bigger, they became more greedy. So to quench their thirst for greed, more and more natural resources were used up until what is being left today, where we are starting to feel the effects of a world too fast and too greedy to get rich. The effects are the change and shift in weather patterns, more hurricanes, floods, barren land, a warmer world.
What has made the world into its present state? Its the whim and fancy of rich developed nations that has caused this. While they have developed economically, the rest of the world lagged behind. Now that they have realised the consequences of a world running out of resources, they are actively promoting more environmentally sustainable projects. But will it work? It is the doings of the western nations because of their greedy corporations that got we are where we are in the first place. In fact, the US uses far more resources than anyone around the world. Their consumption for natural resources is in fact sixty times more than the average chinese or indian.
The lesson explained that with sustainable development, a new industrial plan must be drawn out. Without the consideration of the natural world, and only caring about profits, the industrial plan then was first to extract the resources, process it, manufacture it, then market it,finally selling it. But with the new sustainable measures in place, quotas could be set on how much new resources are taken up, whether it would be possible to reuse the materials, or even better, make the products from previously used material. Essentially the new model is now circular, where industries take into account the environmental consequences, otherwise it will come back to bite you in the backside.
We then took a dive into the readings. The first reading was about the European Union's plans for industry development and environmental sustainability. The article elaborated on the measures taken to reduce the levels of pollutants in their industries and also to reduce the carbon footprint of their industries to help a suffering world. However I did notice that perhaps the EU has been too ambitious in their figures. Perhaps, whether they can reach their goals, only time will tell.
There was a question of since much of the world's resources have been used up, how then can developing countries develop into developed economies? Reading 2, as briefed through in the lesson showed that it was possible to get developed without first going through the process of industrialisation. To me this was an eye opener, but I knew that this was possible.
This is because, taken to a local context, I know for a fact that Singapore has no natural resources, and we are too weak to colonise new territories. But we developed our economy first to be skilled and ultimately developing a service economy where the fundamental force of driving out economy is knowledge. New niche sectors are popping up ever so frequently in the country that I so love. We are to the whole world, an impeccable finance industry, the forth largest in the world for forex trade, a rising star in biotech and R&D, the regions best health hub etc. We didn't need to go through a face of processing natural resources and industry, but rather we went through the stage of skilled labour and then now having a knowledge based economy.
Also elaborated was how other countries, who are not yet developed can build on their niches. Being underdeveloped, as I understand, that these countries would have a more pristine and undestroyed natural environment. Hence they could capitalise on this niche of theirs, to build it into a sustainable tourism industry, considering factors of overcrowding etc.
The 3rd article was about the business models of many major companies. After studying through it, the truth is that most business models are unsustainable. The challenge then I think for us is the question on whether we can create a model that is sustainable. I believe that the business model that is sustainable is indeed very possible.
This is because, although cost is a factor, where sustainable technologies are indeed more expensive, if companies are willing to spend more for environmental sustainability rather than on producing obscene profit amounts, the advantages will far outweigh their initial costs.
People who have already converted to being green, will buy their products, they will have a whole new market of followers. The not too obvious advantages would be that perhaps our climate will revert back to how it was previously, like in the last 20yrs. Its a long call but it may be possible. Perhaps a multi step approach will make the transition less painful, or in this case, costful. One could first introduce sustainability gradually embracing the concept, slowly implement products that are greener, first on the drawing board, then finally implementing it with wholesale production. Perhaps governments who introduce legislation for adoption for this green technology can quicken the transition for businesses to draw their own environmentally sustainable business plans.
An example of a company that has embraced a environmental sustainable model is that of apple computer. Apple inc has made all its products with 100% recyclable materials, with zero mercury. In fact, its computers are the gold standard for the tech industry for environmental sustainability. Perhaps that has already gotten them more a market share, as we can already see the conversion of people to using a Mac.
Indeed it is true that when one is poor(referring to countries) he does not overfish. He is contented. As he gets into the next level of wealth building, he does not stop, for he has tried the luxury, and cannot rests till he can afford it. He kills nature around him to make his keep. Finally as he has made enough, he has nothing more to want, he takes alook around, and he realises what atrocities he has done. He is repentant as he tries to stat anew to regrow what he has killed. This observation is a very powerful one as we are now seeing the same with the developed countries. How they legislate so much into conserving the environment and also setting goals to keep themselves motivated.
Developing countries cannot afford the expensive green technology but they too need to develop. They are reflections of what the developed countries have been in the past. Perhaps, for the survival of humankind, we have to cross boarders to help one another. Developed countries should share their knowhow on green technology, so that the developing countries can too achieve economic growth in the environmentally sustainable way.
The presentations given were about aquaponics fish farming, and Israel's green technology. The presentations were pretty insightful, esprecially about the green technology Israel is developing. The country is a leader in green techonology development in the middle east and the world. Alot of money is being poured in for research for the development the green technology. In fact it shocked me that Israel has the highest university graduates penetration percentage. Thus they have the skilled labour for research to innovate and create the new green technology to give them a cutting edge to be a leader in the world in this field.
After this was a break before the start of session 3b.
Session 3b talked about technology and innovation management. About how an idea formulates into a product for consumption in the mass market, and its challenges. The session first went through the process of doing "stuff"(taken from a poen by Tom Peters" Essencially, if we want to succeed, we have to keep doing things at the forefront of making people's lives more convinient and meaningful. We should not enter opportunities that others have already taken and made big, jumping on the bandwagon. We build ideas, and from these ideas try to turn them into products that have new market possibilities and not just reinterating and reproducing what other successful people have done. Once we have succeeded, others too will follow us, hence we need to think up more on newer ideas that are just as good. Perhaps we think up of new ideas that are too futuristic, we could shelve them, and perhaps return to them when the appropriate time comes.
We have to innovate and to create the product or service that can shape people's lives. However, even thought much input has gone into research and development and understanding new things, still, alot of innovation is needed. In reality, the application process for these research and development (due to lack of ideas) are dismal. Those who succeed will make it big. The rate of innovation is highly disappointing, as compared to the rate of our informantion gathering. Finally, if a good idea has gone through, it will be developed and then finally released to the market for retailers to sell. Here we learn that ideas, are actually the key to building an innovative product to meet the market demands.
Following from the development of ideas, it is noted that these ideas form from a technology driven or market driven perspective. This means that, for market driven, it is how a young entrepreneur, without much money, finds a solution for an existing problem in the mass market and creates a product to solve it. Whereas, in a technology driven perspective, it is the creation of an entirely revolutionary product, with the backing of sufficient funds to create a product that attracts people and give them value added advantages that was not previously attainable before. An easier way to explain that is by saying that before apple created the iPhone, no one knew they could not live without one.
I found that thought really enlightening. But, as for a young entrepreneur to succeed, he must not only find a problem, he too must devise a solution that is stable and marketable. This is very unlike the Big corporations, where they can afford to make new value added products, employing teams just to think about the creation of a new mass market product that would serve as value addedness to a person. As we observe, alot of products in our market today are technology driven. So the question is, can we actually create anything to compete, without even hindering us in the first place? I'd think not.
We observe that to innovate is not an easy thing. It is the development process, by which the idea is the most fundamental. To apply current knowledge into creating a new product that people would see that they need. However the process of getting a service or product into the market does not end there. After all the application of the research and development for a product, and the creation of it, one must market it to ensure people will buy it. Hence we see that this is a shift of focus, from the scientific to the social science of management and business. It is, perhaps a good question to ask then, has technology really driven world change? or perhaps its the successful implementation by the marketing and advertising gurus that really has driven world change in the modern world.
Rating: 7/10
This session covered technology and industrial development towards sustainability and technology and innovation matters. In the first half, we were shown why as a country becomes more developed, their industries shift their focus from before, treating every unprofitable cause as an externality to sustainable development. Essentially, unlike previously done, sustainability requires a shift from linear thinking to circular thinking. What do I mean? It means that unlike the old industrial model, which focuses just on economic development and not caring for the environment's well being, the new model of sustainable industries are economic development and environmental well being.
As we went through this portion of the class, a question formed in my head. The question was why had the industries and governments decide to adopt the sustainable industrial model? It was at this point when a self realisation occurred. The realisation stemmed from the thought of global warming. How the polar ice caps are melting and how sea levels are rising. Possibly in the next 20 years, all the low lying ares on earth would disappear from the map.
As I thought more, although global warming was one of the major reasons that the developed industries are shifting to being more environmentally sustainable, it was not the only reasons. Other reasons I could think of was also pollutants being disposed off into rivers and seas. Being so polluted, it could not support the life that lived in it before. Whole ecosystems would be destroyed. People would fall sick drinking the polluted water.
Other reasons too played a part, like the excessive burning of fossil fuels to fuel man's industrial ambitions, or the reckless felling of trees, plants and killing of animals to their extinction? Now we have realised this, was the only reason why we are taking all the initiatives for sustainability. But, are we already too late?
Prof then showed us a Youtube video of a woman, most probably an environmental activist, giving a condensed history of how industrailisation came to be. She showed that, for the sake of economic development, governments are metaphorically "bowing down" to big corporations to to fund their economy. As the corporations grew bigger, they became more greedy. So to quench their thirst for greed, more and more natural resources were used up until what is being left today, where we are starting to feel the effects of a world too fast and too greedy to get rich. The effects are the change and shift in weather patterns, more hurricanes, floods, barren land, a warmer world.
What has made the world into its present state? Its the whim and fancy of rich developed nations that has caused this. While they have developed economically, the rest of the world lagged behind. Now that they have realised the consequences of a world running out of resources, they are actively promoting more environmentally sustainable projects. But will it work? It is the doings of the western nations because of their greedy corporations that got we are where we are in the first place. In fact, the US uses far more resources than anyone around the world. Their consumption for natural resources is in fact sixty times more than the average chinese or indian.
The lesson explained that with sustainable development, a new industrial plan must be drawn out. Without the consideration of the natural world, and only caring about profits, the industrial plan then was first to extract the resources, process it, manufacture it, then market it,finally selling it. But with the new sustainable measures in place, quotas could be set on how much new resources are taken up, whether it would be possible to reuse the materials, or even better, make the products from previously used material. Essentially the new model is now circular, where industries take into account the environmental consequences, otherwise it will come back to bite you in the backside.
We then took a dive into the readings. The first reading was about the European Union's plans for industry development and environmental sustainability. The article elaborated on the measures taken to reduce the levels of pollutants in their industries and also to reduce the carbon footprint of their industries to help a suffering world. However I did notice that perhaps the EU has been too ambitious in their figures. Perhaps, whether they can reach their goals, only time will tell.
There was a question of since much of the world's resources have been used up, how then can developing countries develop into developed economies? Reading 2, as briefed through in the lesson showed that it was possible to get developed without first going through the process of industrialisation. To me this was an eye opener, but I knew that this was possible.
This is because, taken to a local context, I know for a fact that Singapore has no natural resources, and we are too weak to colonise new territories. But we developed our economy first to be skilled and ultimately developing a service economy where the fundamental force of driving out economy is knowledge. New niche sectors are popping up ever so frequently in the country that I so love. We are to the whole world, an impeccable finance industry, the forth largest in the world for forex trade, a rising star in biotech and R&D, the regions best health hub etc. We didn't need to go through a face of processing natural resources and industry, but rather we went through the stage of skilled labour and then now having a knowledge based economy.
Also elaborated was how other countries, who are not yet developed can build on their niches. Being underdeveloped, as I understand, that these countries would have a more pristine and undestroyed natural environment. Hence they could capitalise on this niche of theirs, to build it into a sustainable tourism industry, considering factors of overcrowding etc.
The 3rd article was about the business models of many major companies. After studying through it, the truth is that most business models are unsustainable. The challenge then I think for us is the question on whether we can create a model that is sustainable. I believe that the business model that is sustainable is indeed very possible.
This is because, although cost is a factor, where sustainable technologies are indeed more expensive, if companies are willing to spend more for environmental sustainability rather than on producing obscene profit amounts, the advantages will far outweigh their initial costs.
People who have already converted to being green, will buy their products, they will have a whole new market of followers. The not too obvious advantages would be that perhaps our climate will revert back to how it was previously, like in the last 20yrs. Its a long call but it may be possible. Perhaps a multi step approach will make the transition less painful, or in this case, costful. One could first introduce sustainability gradually embracing the concept, slowly implement products that are greener, first on the drawing board, then finally implementing it with wholesale production. Perhaps governments who introduce legislation for adoption for this green technology can quicken the transition for businesses to draw their own environmentally sustainable business plans.
An example of a company that has embraced a environmental sustainable model is that of apple computer. Apple inc has made all its products with 100% recyclable materials, with zero mercury. In fact, its computers are the gold standard for the tech industry for environmental sustainability. Perhaps that has already gotten them more a market share, as we can already see the conversion of people to using a Mac.
Indeed it is true that when one is poor(referring to countries) he does not overfish. He is contented. As he gets into the next level of wealth building, he does not stop, for he has tried the luxury, and cannot rests till he can afford it. He kills nature around him to make his keep. Finally as he has made enough, he has nothing more to want, he takes alook around, and he realises what atrocities he has done. He is repentant as he tries to stat anew to regrow what he has killed. This observation is a very powerful one as we are now seeing the same with the developed countries. How they legislate so much into conserving the environment and also setting goals to keep themselves motivated.
Developing countries cannot afford the expensive green technology but they too need to develop. They are reflections of what the developed countries have been in the past. Perhaps, for the survival of humankind, we have to cross boarders to help one another. Developed countries should share their knowhow on green technology, so that the developing countries can too achieve economic growth in the environmentally sustainable way.
The presentations given were about aquaponics fish farming, and Israel's green technology. The presentations were pretty insightful, esprecially about the green technology Israel is developing. The country is a leader in green techonology development in the middle east and the world. Alot of money is being poured in for research for the development the green technology. In fact it shocked me that Israel has the highest university graduates penetration percentage. Thus they have the skilled labour for research to innovate and create the new green technology to give them a cutting edge to be a leader in the world in this field.
After this was a break before the start of session 3b.
Session 3b talked about technology and innovation management. About how an idea formulates into a product for consumption in the mass market, and its challenges. The session first went through the process of doing "stuff"(taken from a poen by Tom Peters" Essencially, if we want to succeed, we have to keep doing things at the forefront of making people's lives more convinient and meaningful. We should not enter opportunities that others have already taken and made big, jumping on the bandwagon. We build ideas, and from these ideas try to turn them into products that have new market possibilities and not just reinterating and reproducing what other successful people have done. Once we have succeeded, others too will follow us, hence we need to think up more on newer ideas that are just as good. Perhaps we think up of new ideas that are too futuristic, we could shelve them, and perhaps return to them when the appropriate time comes.
We have to innovate and to create the product or service that can shape people's lives. However, even thought much input has gone into research and development and understanding new things, still, alot of innovation is needed. In reality, the application process for these research and development (due to lack of ideas) are dismal. Those who succeed will make it big. The rate of innovation is highly disappointing, as compared to the rate of our informantion gathering. Finally, if a good idea has gone through, it will be developed and then finally released to the market for retailers to sell. Here we learn that ideas, are actually the key to building an innovative product to meet the market demands.
Following from the development of ideas, it is noted that these ideas form from a technology driven or market driven perspective. This means that, for market driven, it is how a young entrepreneur, without much money, finds a solution for an existing problem in the mass market and creates a product to solve it. Whereas, in a technology driven perspective, it is the creation of an entirely revolutionary product, with the backing of sufficient funds to create a product that attracts people and give them value added advantages that was not previously attainable before. An easier way to explain that is by saying that before apple created the iPhone, no one knew they could not live without one.
I found that thought really enlightening. But, as for a young entrepreneur to succeed, he must not only find a problem, he too must devise a solution that is stable and marketable. This is very unlike the Big corporations, where they can afford to make new value added products, employing teams just to think about the creation of a new mass market product that would serve as value addedness to a person. As we observe, alot of products in our market today are technology driven. So the question is, can we actually create anything to compete, without even hindering us in the first place? I'd think not.
We observe that to innovate is not an easy thing. It is the development process, by which the idea is the most fundamental. To apply current knowledge into creating a new product that people would see that they need. However the process of getting a service or product into the market does not end there. After all the application of the research and development for a product, and the creation of it, one must market it to ensure people will buy it. Hence we see that this is a shift of focus, from the scientific to the social science of management and business. It is, perhaps a good question to ask then, has technology really driven world change? or perhaps its the successful implementation by the marketing and advertising gurus that really has driven world change in the modern world.
Rating: 7/10
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Session 2
Brief overview/summery
The lesson was organized into 3 parts. The first was the introduction of the new students in the class (such as myself) as we only just got our bids for the class. The second componant was about technology and global dominance. The third was about human development.
During the first half of the lesson proper (excluding the introductions), we discussed about the different dimensions of global dominance. How different countries have different strongholds. Such like the US has indeed far superior military might than the rest of the world, or that China and India are currently the strongholds of industry and manufacturing. Or how North Korea has its forte on information censorship – (dis)informantion.
The first half also took us into investigating the rise and falls of a countries superiority. How the shifts of power are constantly taking place. When one rises to become the dominant player he must keep on improving himself. How one acts when he is a dominant player is key to when his downfall will come.
Essentially, the sequence of events would be first, the rising of the up and coming star, then he proceeds on to be the dominant player and then finally relinquishing his place to another who will surpass him, once he gets too complacent. (at this, it reminded me of the Chinese saying 一山更比一山高, which means there will be a high mountain.)
We were then shown an interesting video on a financial analyst’s view on the economic powershift that has already began. In the video, the analyst said that in terms of raw GDP (gross domestic product) he has already predicted China to be the dominant player, contrary to popular belief that the US still holds a major market share. This is because, he says, that the US GDP figures are inflated. Taking the produce from China, and selling it at a higher price. That’s the only reason why the US is still the dominant player. We then proceeded on with the oral presentations.
The first oral presentation of this segment was about social networking, and how businesses are already embracing it as a tool for networking. The presentation also dwelled into the lack of privacy social networking sites present us with. Kudos to Dickson for his entertaining presentation!
The second oral presentation was about the American’s military development. How so much money (708 bilion) has gone into military R&D, and how the Americans are currently developing a new weapons system to cut out any threat from around the world! A bit dry to my liking, but nonetheless it was really insightful for such a topic that is so foreign to me.
After that it was break.
Part 2 of the class began. The session was gone through pretty fast, because of the lack of time. However it was still very much insightful nonetheless. We dwelled on topics such as the different dimensions of development; social; economic; technological; cultural etc. As I am writing this, I am reminded of the Prof Diamond and his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, where the main argument of why there are so many different variations the rate of human development is due to the earth’s unequal distribution of natural resources. During the class, Prof described a barometer for human development – The human development index or HDI for short. It is the brainchild of the United Nations development programme. It measures the human development in different countries using 3 factors considered - The standard of living, the life expectancy and the literacy rate. He went through the index, and we took a look at the ratings of different countries around the world. Unexpectedly, the African nations were at the bottom. The question of geography disparity again came into my mind. After discussion, we proceeded on again with 2 more oral presentations.
The 2 oral presentations challenged and enquired the view of modern technology integrating with our biology. For example the synthesis of new dugs to cure all the more deadly illnesses that plagues our sorry lives due to the excessive and unaccounted use of antibiotics that has led to the formation of many new superbugs. Also presented was a view of extremes optimism and pessimism, due to the ever-changing development of technology we face, about the future of humans.
Ultimately very unique perspectives were presented in class.
Interesting Observations/Ideas
I really liked the idea of the financial analyst pointing out how growth forcasts and figures for the US were inflated. The analyst explained the concept rather simply. Where the GDP of a country could be inflated, because of a better economic dollar. I buy it cheaply, and sell it more expensively. Essentially, I create value and the difference in value will be what I’m worth.
Also in the list of interesting observations was Dr Shahi’s view on how he gauges a rising industry, a dominant player, and a falling star. He, being trained as a physician, knows the pathognomonic signs of a disease. In a similar way, he looks at certain situations, factors in the signs, and comes out with a diagnosis for people and industries. It thus occurred to me that with just a little bit of creativity and flexibility one can apply the skills he learnt to a different context, and have a niche built out of it!
One of the biggest insights of the lesson was on the promotion of women’s education. This is because, when you educate a man, he thinks only of himself (most of the time!) However, when you educate a woman, she brings the whole family along with her. Hearing this, it opened up a world of insights in my head. Indeed, so many times it has been said that a mother would die for her child to survive. Biology has moulded her into behaving like that. With the promotion of women education, families can within a few generations improve their livelihood, and possibly break out of the poverty cycle. Indeed, for those cultures who have millions living like that, usually the women are deprived of education. Unless the men are selfless, the whole family still has no way to break out. Perhaps man is afraid of a feministic society? It is a radical thought? Perhaps it all boils down to our biology. Men have always been physically bigger than women, and it would be an embarrassment to be ruled by someone smaller/weaker? Perhaps it is this chauvinistic reason that we deprive women to an education.
Another interesting observation is the investment of China in Africa. The continent of Africa has long known to be exploited by the western nations. With the abundance of natural resources, it has become a lucrative place for investment outside of Africa. This means that the people of Africa do not be the economic benefit of the investments. However, now with the emergence of China, Africa has a glimmer of hope. China, on the grounds that it is a developing country, will build infrastructure connecting towns and cities in Africa for trading opportunities with the continent. Thus economic development can take place in Africa, with the rise of infrastructure within the country, and thus its natural resources are not all exploited. At least there are some tangible benefits.
Key Takeaway Points
The educating of women in the developing world is definitely a key takeaway point. With education for women, it will be a fast track for families to be educated. With education, comes a better life, better employment prospects etc. In reality this is very hard to implement as there would be clashes of culture. Cultures that traditionally do not send women to be educated may feel a threat to their culture. This brings us to my second point under this section.
Technology used to simplify and convenient life have given rise to the need for education and the use of implementation of new technology. However, as previously considered, technology has 2 sides. It could be a help or hindrance. With technology, health standards have improved. With globalization, going places are no problem. In fact with technology, we can create a lot more wealth than though previously. We are investing in foreign markets and doing more and more business overseas. However with technology, comes the downside. With the industrial revolution, man did not care about his ecosystem. He only cared about the economic benefits he reaped from his produce. Rivers were polluted, sea life died. On a more subtle note, processed food and globalised fast food restaurants have conquered the diets of modern man. Along with the pollutants of cars, airplanes, and other industrial devices, we have released a lot of carcinogenic materials into the air.
Technology has infiltrated the minds of the young and restless and open new horizons to them. The widespread availability of gambling and pornographic websites seem to convey a message that they have accomplished their mission for the corruption of souls. Our morals may have been compromised when we want to know more about all these. All in all, perhaps on the surface level, the development of technology has seen to create more convenience in our lives. But the ultimate underlying question is whether we have already taken technology a step to far, and it has affected already the way we think. Technological influences to our brains is nothing but subtle. The nightmare and visons of moral degrading for the future is real. Technology has helped glorify that. Lures of monies and riches make eager minds succumb to that same fate of gamblers and philanderers. The future is now.
Issues for further discussion
I would like to dwell into the issue of lack of women education. How and why in the first place was female education neglected. Since we have seen the reasons how advantageous female education is, how come we did not see this earlier? Are men really that chauvinistic? Perhaps we are.
Rating
Bravo! Information flow was excellent. There were many good points introduced and elaborated. However lack of time (blame it on people like myself who were not at the first session) and the rush to the finish line takes away some points! Verdict: 7.5/10
The lesson was organized into 3 parts. The first was the introduction of the new students in the class (such as myself) as we only just got our bids for the class. The second componant was about technology and global dominance. The third was about human development.
During the first half of the lesson proper (excluding the introductions), we discussed about the different dimensions of global dominance. How different countries have different strongholds. Such like the US has indeed far superior military might than the rest of the world, or that China and India are currently the strongholds of industry and manufacturing. Or how North Korea has its forte on information censorship – (dis)informantion.
The first half also took us into investigating the rise and falls of a countries superiority. How the shifts of power are constantly taking place. When one rises to become the dominant player he must keep on improving himself. How one acts when he is a dominant player is key to when his downfall will come.
Essentially, the sequence of events would be first, the rising of the up and coming star, then he proceeds on to be the dominant player and then finally relinquishing his place to another who will surpass him, once he gets too complacent. (at this, it reminded me of the Chinese saying 一山更比一山高, which means there will be a high mountain.)
We were then shown an interesting video on a financial analyst’s view on the economic powershift that has already began. In the video, the analyst said that in terms of raw GDP (gross domestic product) he has already predicted China to be the dominant player, contrary to popular belief that the US still holds a major market share. This is because, he says, that the US GDP figures are inflated. Taking the produce from China, and selling it at a higher price. That’s the only reason why the US is still the dominant player. We then proceeded on with the oral presentations.
The first oral presentation of this segment was about social networking, and how businesses are already embracing it as a tool for networking. The presentation also dwelled into the lack of privacy social networking sites present us with. Kudos to Dickson for his entertaining presentation!
The second oral presentation was about the American’s military development. How so much money (708 bilion) has gone into military R&D, and how the Americans are currently developing a new weapons system to cut out any threat from around the world! A bit dry to my liking, but nonetheless it was really insightful for such a topic that is so foreign to me.
After that it was break.
Part 2 of the class began. The session was gone through pretty fast, because of the lack of time. However it was still very much insightful nonetheless. We dwelled on topics such as the different dimensions of development; social; economic; technological; cultural etc. As I am writing this, I am reminded of the Prof Diamond and his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, where the main argument of why there are so many different variations the rate of human development is due to the earth’s unequal distribution of natural resources. During the class, Prof described a barometer for human development – The human development index or HDI for short. It is the brainchild of the United Nations development programme. It measures the human development in different countries using 3 factors considered - The standard of living, the life expectancy and the literacy rate. He went through the index, and we took a look at the ratings of different countries around the world. Unexpectedly, the African nations were at the bottom. The question of geography disparity again came into my mind. After discussion, we proceeded on again with 2 more oral presentations.
The 2 oral presentations challenged and enquired the view of modern technology integrating with our biology. For example the synthesis of new dugs to cure all the more deadly illnesses that plagues our sorry lives due to the excessive and unaccounted use of antibiotics that has led to the formation of many new superbugs. Also presented was a view of extremes optimism and pessimism, due to the ever-changing development of technology we face, about the future of humans.
Ultimately very unique perspectives were presented in class.
Interesting Observations/Ideas
I really liked the idea of the financial analyst pointing out how growth forcasts and figures for the US were inflated. The analyst explained the concept rather simply. Where the GDP of a country could be inflated, because of a better economic dollar. I buy it cheaply, and sell it more expensively. Essentially, I create value and the difference in value will be what I’m worth.
Also in the list of interesting observations was Dr Shahi’s view on how he gauges a rising industry, a dominant player, and a falling star. He, being trained as a physician, knows the pathognomonic signs of a disease. In a similar way, he looks at certain situations, factors in the signs, and comes out with a diagnosis for people and industries. It thus occurred to me that with just a little bit of creativity and flexibility one can apply the skills he learnt to a different context, and have a niche built out of it!
One of the biggest insights of the lesson was on the promotion of women’s education. This is because, when you educate a man, he thinks only of himself (most of the time!) However, when you educate a woman, she brings the whole family along with her. Hearing this, it opened up a world of insights in my head. Indeed, so many times it has been said that a mother would die for her child to survive. Biology has moulded her into behaving like that. With the promotion of women education, families can within a few generations improve their livelihood, and possibly break out of the poverty cycle. Indeed, for those cultures who have millions living like that, usually the women are deprived of education. Unless the men are selfless, the whole family still has no way to break out. Perhaps man is afraid of a feministic society? It is a radical thought? Perhaps it all boils down to our biology. Men have always been physically bigger than women, and it would be an embarrassment to be ruled by someone smaller/weaker? Perhaps it is this chauvinistic reason that we deprive women to an education.
Another interesting observation is the investment of China in Africa. The continent of Africa has long known to be exploited by the western nations. With the abundance of natural resources, it has become a lucrative place for investment outside of Africa. This means that the people of Africa do not be the economic benefit of the investments. However, now with the emergence of China, Africa has a glimmer of hope. China, on the grounds that it is a developing country, will build infrastructure connecting towns and cities in Africa for trading opportunities with the continent. Thus economic development can take place in Africa, with the rise of infrastructure within the country, and thus its natural resources are not all exploited. At least there are some tangible benefits.
Key Takeaway Points
The educating of women in the developing world is definitely a key takeaway point. With education for women, it will be a fast track for families to be educated. With education, comes a better life, better employment prospects etc. In reality this is very hard to implement as there would be clashes of culture. Cultures that traditionally do not send women to be educated may feel a threat to their culture. This brings us to my second point under this section.
Technology used to simplify and convenient life have given rise to the need for education and the use of implementation of new technology. However, as previously considered, technology has 2 sides. It could be a help or hindrance. With technology, health standards have improved. With globalization, going places are no problem. In fact with technology, we can create a lot more wealth than though previously. We are investing in foreign markets and doing more and more business overseas. However with technology, comes the downside. With the industrial revolution, man did not care about his ecosystem. He only cared about the economic benefits he reaped from his produce. Rivers were polluted, sea life died. On a more subtle note, processed food and globalised fast food restaurants have conquered the diets of modern man. Along with the pollutants of cars, airplanes, and other industrial devices, we have released a lot of carcinogenic materials into the air.
Technology has infiltrated the minds of the young and restless and open new horizons to them. The widespread availability of gambling and pornographic websites seem to convey a message that they have accomplished their mission for the corruption of souls. Our morals may have been compromised when we want to know more about all these. All in all, perhaps on the surface level, the development of technology has seen to create more convenience in our lives. But the ultimate underlying question is whether we have already taken technology a step to far, and it has affected already the way we think. Technological influences to our brains is nothing but subtle. The nightmare and visons of moral degrading for the future is real. Technology has helped glorify that. Lures of monies and riches make eager minds succumb to that same fate of gamblers and philanderers. The future is now.
Issues for further discussion
I would like to dwell into the issue of lack of women education. How and why in the first place was female education neglected. Since we have seen the reasons how advantageous female education is, how come we did not see this earlier? Are men really that chauvinistic? Perhaps we are.
Rating
Bravo! Information flow was excellent. There were many good points introduced and elaborated. However lack of time (blame it on people like myself who were not at the first session) and the rush to the finish line takes away some points! Verdict: 7.5/10
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sesson 1
I have missed the first session of TWC. Hence this blog entry will be my opinions on the readings and slides.
Brief Overview/Summery
Technology development has indeed reshaped the world. The main argument by Professor J. Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel is that the different rates of technological development of many civilisations at any particular given time is due te the disparity of geographical advantage. In the book, many examples are given, one of the more prominent examples was of how the Europeans came to be so dominant during their renessance periods. Essentially, he argues, early human history started with hunting and gathering. However, when people found that they could grow the correct type of plants and crops suitable for civilisation sustainability, large populations flourished. Aided with animals for farming(such as horses, sheep, goat etc)whom they have already learnt how to domesticate,(through trial and error)productivity would rise. Hence there would be surpluses. With many other people in the population not farmers, these people could go and learn different skills. For civilisations without the geographical advantage of the correct crops to plant or without the animals native to the area to domesticate to help farming, they would have to work harder for their food. They would not be so productive, and hence the people of that civilisation would lag behind in terms of technological development.
Robert Guisepi's article too, concurs with the timeline that Professor Diamond. The flow of how civilisations came to farm is provided too in his article. Firstly hunters and gatherers, then people learning how to grow crops and domesticating animals native to a region. He describes the varience in crops in different areas
around the world during a similar peroid of time - The Neolithic Revolution
The article about technological development in the middle east gives the reader a short history of the development of maths and science during the middle east. How it was a powerhouse for technological development in the past. Especially advanced in the art of medicine, it was to lead the Europeans out the the dark ages. The article then shows how complacency and the lack of drive of going forward was to be their downfall. The persian and ottoman empire's leaders were very satisfied with the status quo, and so the West surged on and ultimately it was the West that had to supply the middle east with the technological knowhow to build their infrastucture. However, now the middle east has grown to adapt modern technology and they are a leader in the development of water resources. This is due to the fact that they are located in a particularly arid area and that they have natural resources of oil that can fund their research. The use of mobile phones are a common sight in hard to reach areas as the technological development of communications infrasturcture has bee developed.
Interesting Observations and Ideas
As I read through the articles, it came to mind that it was actually man's need to survive that made him ingenious. His adaptability, in this sense, to survive the harshest of conditions was what fuelled his ingenuity. Man's ability to observe what nature has put in front of him and to carve it out to his own advantage. This can be seen when the earliest farmers realised that they could cultivate the crops that grew natively in their areas and domesticate the animals to help him with productivity. Closer to our times, I see that the middle east, needing to survive the arid conditions, use their wealth in oil to fund their water research.
Man must also remain adaptable and open to change to remain competitive. The ottoman and persian empire were happy to be in the status quo, because at that time they were leaders in the fields of technology. However their decision to dwell in their comfort zone was to be their downfall. Their decision would come to haunt their people many generations later, when the West was called in to build the middle east's infrastructure because of their lack of technical know how.
Looking through the timeline of significant technological revolutions, it came to my mind that our current age, we take alot of things for granted. Our advance in the biomedical sector, in the telecommunications sector, the industral revolution etc are all no small milestones. However, many of us have integrated technology into our lives that we simply cannot live without it. Imagine the lack of internet access, or computers for that matter, such that countries like Finland have made 1Mbps internet access a human right! On the matter of human life expectancy, people can expect to live longer because of biomedical development. Vaccines, drugs all have been created to make us live a better life. People receive vaccinations for diseases that have killed millions in the past, and for the most majority of us, we barely bat an eyelid for how much human know how that has gone into that development.
However there are downsides to developments. People use the internet for pornography, they abuse drugs, which are detrimental to their health and development in countries for weapons superiority has also created a black market for which terrorist can tap. Oh the horror, if terrorists ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb!
Key Takeaways
Man has indeed made much progress in the past for the sake of comfort for future generations. I feel that through this self reflction, much of me has gone on to be more appreciative of what I have and what I eat. It has also led me to believe that with the ingenuity of humans for technologica; advancement, we must also be accountable for the detrimental externalities that we unknowingly cause. We must err on the side of caution and make sure that dangerous technologies are not exploited by people. With technological development also comes ethical issues. Common ethical issues encountered , for example in the biomedical sector would be "is euthenesia correct?" in the weapons sector, "is creating a bomb being able to kill millions of people at a time right?" Technology development is reshaping the world. Everyday, many new innovations to make out lives more convinient are being developed, but, everyday too, these innovations, when in the hands of a determined extreamist, could prove the fatal for that unlucky few. It is thus up to ourselves to safeguard and implement the guidelines that will make the world a safer place, and it will not be easy!
Issues for further discussion
Ethics in the biomedical sector, especially on more religiously sensitive issues, such as gender selection for babies, euthenesia etc
More dwelling into Prof Diamond's argument, and how we can actually study the fundamentals and win against nature!
Personal Rating
I cannot give a rating as I did not attend the class. However I look forward to participate in the next class!
Brief Overview/Summery
Technology development has indeed reshaped the world. The main argument by Professor J. Diamond in his book Guns, Germs and Steel is that the different rates of technological development of many civilisations at any particular given time is due te the disparity of geographical advantage. In the book, many examples are given, one of the more prominent examples was of how the Europeans came to be so dominant during their renessance periods. Essentially, he argues, early human history started with hunting and gathering. However, when people found that they could grow the correct type of plants and crops suitable for civilisation sustainability, large populations flourished. Aided with animals for farming(such as horses, sheep, goat etc)whom they have already learnt how to domesticate,(through trial and error)productivity would rise. Hence there would be surpluses. With many other people in the population not farmers, these people could go and learn different skills. For civilisations without the geographical advantage of the correct crops to plant or without the animals native to the area to domesticate to help farming, they would have to work harder for their food. They would not be so productive, and hence the people of that civilisation would lag behind in terms of technological development.
Robert Guisepi's article too, concurs with the timeline that Professor Diamond. The flow of how civilisations came to farm is provided too in his article. Firstly hunters and gatherers, then people learning how to grow crops and domesticating animals native to a region. He describes the varience in crops in different areas
around the world during a similar peroid of time - The Neolithic Revolution
The article about technological development in the middle east gives the reader a short history of the development of maths and science during the middle east. How it was a powerhouse for technological development in the past. Especially advanced in the art of medicine, it was to lead the Europeans out the the dark ages. The article then shows how complacency and the lack of drive of going forward was to be their downfall. The persian and ottoman empire's leaders were very satisfied with the status quo, and so the West surged on and ultimately it was the West that had to supply the middle east with the technological knowhow to build their infrastucture. However, now the middle east has grown to adapt modern technology and they are a leader in the development of water resources. This is due to the fact that they are located in a particularly arid area and that they have natural resources of oil that can fund their research. The use of mobile phones are a common sight in hard to reach areas as the technological development of communications infrasturcture has bee developed.
Interesting Observations and Ideas
As I read through the articles, it came to mind that it was actually man's need to survive that made him ingenious. His adaptability, in this sense, to survive the harshest of conditions was what fuelled his ingenuity. Man's ability to observe what nature has put in front of him and to carve it out to his own advantage. This can be seen when the earliest farmers realised that they could cultivate the crops that grew natively in their areas and domesticate the animals to help him with productivity. Closer to our times, I see that the middle east, needing to survive the arid conditions, use their wealth in oil to fund their water research.
Man must also remain adaptable and open to change to remain competitive. The ottoman and persian empire were happy to be in the status quo, because at that time they were leaders in the fields of technology. However their decision to dwell in their comfort zone was to be their downfall. Their decision would come to haunt their people many generations later, when the West was called in to build the middle east's infrastructure because of their lack of technical know how.
Looking through the timeline of significant technological revolutions, it came to my mind that our current age, we take alot of things for granted. Our advance in the biomedical sector, in the telecommunications sector, the industral revolution etc are all no small milestones. However, many of us have integrated technology into our lives that we simply cannot live without it. Imagine the lack of internet access, or computers for that matter, such that countries like Finland have made 1Mbps internet access a human right! On the matter of human life expectancy, people can expect to live longer because of biomedical development. Vaccines, drugs all have been created to make us live a better life. People receive vaccinations for diseases that have killed millions in the past, and for the most majority of us, we barely bat an eyelid for how much human know how that has gone into that development.
However there are downsides to developments. People use the internet for pornography, they abuse drugs, which are detrimental to their health and development in countries for weapons superiority has also created a black market for which terrorist can tap. Oh the horror, if terrorists ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb!
Key Takeaways
Man has indeed made much progress in the past for the sake of comfort for future generations. I feel that through this self reflction, much of me has gone on to be more appreciative of what I have and what I eat. It has also led me to believe that with the ingenuity of humans for technologica; advancement, we must also be accountable for the detrimental externalities that we unknowingly cause. We must err on the side of caution and make sure that dangerous technologies are not exploited by people. With technological development also comes ethical issues. Common ethical issues encountered , for example in the biomedical sector would be "is euthenesia correct?" in the weapons sector, "is creating a bomb being able to kill millions of people at a time right?" Technology development is reshaping the world. Everyday, many new innovations to make out lives more convinient are being developed, but, everyday too, these innovations, when in the hands of a determined extreamist, could prove the fatal for that unlucky few. It is thus up to ourselves to safeguard and implement the guidelines that will make the world a safer place, and it will not be easy!
Issues for further discussion
Ethics in the biomedical sector, especially on more religiously sensitive issues, such as gender selection for babies, euthenesia etc
More dwelling into Prof Diamond's argument, and how we can actually study the fundamentals and win against nature!
Personal Rating
I cannot give a rating as I did not attend the class. However I look forward to participate in the next class!
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