The Final Frontier

This weeks we have the remaining groups with their wix presentation on various topic. I realized that most of the groups used www.wix.com for their web report due to its interactivity and ease of use. One key lesson i took away from the 12 weeks of TWC class is that we should be open and embrace new technologies, and by adopting such initiatives, we are able to share our knowledge with the rest of the world through new media. The web report, this blog and individual oral presentation are focused at one thing - a deeper understanding of the changing world and sharing of the knowledge. 


One quote I really love is "The main purpose of acquiring knowledge is to give it away" - SMU banner.


Apart from the key takeaway, there are several other skills that we picked up from this course. One that leaves the deepest impression would be that change is constant, and that we have to learn how to adapt or innovate to keep up. You can be the forerunner of a innovative change, or be a follower of the initiative, but one thing is for sure - that if you failed to improve yourself by adopting such best practices, you will lose out. It is true that we live in exponential times, the information that is provided to each individual in a day exceeds the consolidation of all information in the past since the dawn of civilization. We should use all these knowledge and avoid reinventing the wheel, so that mankind could proceed forward. As Stephen Hawks says, the final frontier is in space. I believe that once human has unlocked all the secrets that are in the world, we will seek to answer the mysteries of space and time.


Everything has to come to and end - life, the sun, TWC classes. However, space doesn't end, neither will learning. So push on and ask more question, because when we challenge ourselves with "why cant I.." and other dream that seem unreachable, it gives us direction to an influx of ideas and innovations.

Water for the World

We had a very interesting presentation today, which is to provide water for people around the world. Should water be accessible to everyone? Should clean water be accessible to everyone? I think yes. I believe that everyone has the rights to basic necessities like water, food and shelter. 


As the world economy grow, the gap between the rich and poor gets wider and wider. The ability to satisfy people who has high purchasing power will have a limit. As there are only that amount of luxury in the world, and that same amount of time a person can spend, a person who has a total networth of 1 billion dollars and 5 billion dollars will probably differ by an insignificant degree in lifestyle. However a person on the lower spectrum, a person who lives for $1 a day and a person who lives for $10 a day differs a lot. And that is only a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars people have in excess, either lying in bank or making more money. 


Here is an inspiring video on a person who ask for donations as birthday presents, so instead of buying him a gift, you give him money for his birthday so that he can bring people water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rphhfy4qCfc

There are other technologies which countries such as Singapore use for getting water. One such is the Seawater desalination plant, which uses reverse osmosis. In short, it uses sea water as raw material, and the product is drinkable water. Although developing countries would not have the resources to build a water desalination plant now, such technologies should be accessible to them so that they are able to provide clean water for the masses. Developing countries should not make the mistakes that developed countries made, such as pollution and wastage or resources through trial and error, so the incentive for them is to share technologies. Water can also be used to drive turbines for produce electricity, such as those in those power plant that tap on hydroelectricity. However, i feel that Africa is a continent that should preserve it's natural habitat, and avoid too much urbanization and lose it touch with nature.

Another interesting thing from water is that Salt Water can actually fuel car or produce electricity. When a broadcast engineer focus a beam radio wave to salt water, it made the salt water burn and thus creating an alternative source of energy. As salt water is abundant, people could save precious resources such as coal and petrol, which are non-renewable fossil fuel for other uses. Right now, we are using very primitive method of using these fossil fuel, and we are just burning them to release energy. As a speaker Juan, from TED suggest, we should look at them not as chemical energy but as bioenergy. By combining fossil fuel with other organic compound, we are able to better utilize and produce energy.

Robotics & Technological Assessment

What I find most interesting in this week's lesson is also related to my individual topic review paper, which is Robotics. One that intrigues me is a video of a robot, that has brain cells of rats in it. The robot feeds information to the living cells that is kept alive, and the cells would give instructions to where the robot should move. Although simple, it is a clear demonstration of how biotechnology can be integrated with robotic engineering. 


It is interesting that how technology can be assessed in this way, such that an organisation will review through all the ideas generated to determine which is accepted or rejected. In some way, really good ideas will be buried deep in this system, where it will not see the light in shaping the future of the world we live in. The Japanese culture have a adoption rate of 60%, as compared to 10% in America. I feel that it is really healthy for automakers in Japan to take the suggestions of its workers as they are specialized in a single field, thus the suggestions that give are very valuable and have direct impact on the business. 


There are a few concepts that are deployed to assess technology, such as:

1. Parliamentary TA
2. Expert TA
3. Participatory TA
4. Constructive TA 
5. Discursive TA or Argumentative TA:
6. Health TA 

More information of these various technology assessment can be found in wikipedia, however I feel that there should not be one fixed form of technological assessment that is able to fit everything. Instead, a matrix should be given, such that the various factors from each of the 6 concepts are addressed.


This brings me back to my original topic of robotics. The initial motivation of introducing robotics to achieve automation in performing tasks is going down, and humans are "making-do" with their current standards. The demand for robots are mainly in the more developed countries like Japan, and research on it is limited to the investments. As mentioned, nanotechnology can be integrated with robotics to form nanobots, automated robots that are microscopic in size. They could be deployed in many areas such as the medical field, travelling through bloodstreams to cure illnesses.


I feel that as technology advances, more and more studies will fuse and cross path. The study of robotics and artificial intelligence will study the blueprint of life in-depth, such that it replicated the cells of living tissues. Robots will then have specialised "cells" and self-replicating nanobots, forming an organism very much alike humans. 

Future Technology

Today in class, we started off with a video on Claytronic. It is a revolutionary idea, where nano-scale technology is fused with computer science to create programmable atoms. These "atoms" can receive information and model a 3D object. The amazing part is not about how futuristic this concept is, but it shows that we are able to manipulate matter at such a small scale. Manipulation of matter at such atomic scale opens up a possibilities that were previously unattainable. For example objects can be built atom by atom, right from scratch where there would be no wastage of resources. Then the used object could be reprogrammed to be recycled to something else, saving the environment by consuming less resources.

"In term of the development of application of new and emerging technology, we are limited only by our imagination - and, all too often, the lack thereof", a quote from our professor. I do agree that we are only limited by our imagination, and nothing is unattainable. As we are able to see for ourselves, science-fiction concepts and theories are being realized today as we are empowered by the development of technology. This century that we live in, has experienced more scientific breakthrough than the total number of breakthroughs in human civilization. As technology is intertwined, a discovery or invention in a specific field can open doors to another. Development in electronic engineering can enhance the circuitry in maybe particle physics, and even biotechnology. Knowledge is built upon each other, where sharing of information is now so easy. Thus, I believe that we are not far from anti-matter propulsion or space-time manipulation, just like in science fiction, and just like how Stephen Hawking suggests how the final frontier for human is space travel. It would be just a matter of time, probably in the next century where more sci-fi concepts gets realized as technology is advancing in an exponential rate.

Another video that captured my attention is Augmented Reality. It is basically using computer aid to enhance the visual reception of the real world. As my blog address suggests, we are Technosapiens - Homo Sapiens that integrate with their highly evolved tools. Things like augmented reality and "Sixth Sense" from TED is going towards the direction where human will integrate technology into our lives, where we can make sense of our environment much better by connection to a database of knowledge. The theory of evolution suggest that all life forms adapt and the fittest survives, and it is pretty much prevalent in our society. Those who are the most resourceful and ahead of others using any form of enhancement (i.e. tools, technology, genetic engineering, etc) would survive better than the rest.

I believe that the greatest development in the next few decades would be biotechnology due to its sustainability, and computer science, where the ability to make use of existing hardware is greatly enhanced. The hardware that are available now is being developed towards a saturation point, slowing down as compared to decades ago. It would be a large market for software developers to mix and match, integrating their software to create extremely valuable technology. Augmented Reality and Sixth Sense are such examples, where everyday things like camera and processors are used. However, it is the technology that make sense of it all, and sieve data into information, and information to knowledge. As software can be accessed and developed by many creative mind in the world, I believe that it would be a playground where many much more creation will sprout, and shared with the world.

Eternal Energy

The world's consumption for energy is growing rapidly and the earth is unable to support these activities as finite fossil fuels are being depleted. Millions of tonnes of coal and crude oil are examples of fuel which are harvested from mother nature to support human activities, and they non-renewable as it takes millions of years to form. What we human are able to do is to find a sustainable source of energy, which can be renewed easily and cause less environmental damage. We also need to look at the existing coal and crude oil as bioenergy, rather than stored chemical energy and to use them in such primitive ways.


By the law of conservation, energy could not be created or destroyed. All source of energy comes from the sun, and naturally it would make sense if we harvest solar energy. However, it is still very difficult to harvest the sun's energy and switch it from our current way of providing energy to the masses due to financial and technological reasons. There are many alternative source of energy but the current "mine and burn coal" takes up the highest percentage because of existing processes and infrastructure. People would not spend extra money to produce the same amount of energy, it just doesn't make economic sense. However as people realise that fossil fuel will run out one day, and if we were to handle the situation later, the transition slope will be much steeper. 


The world's consumption of energy is less than 1,000 exajoules (EJ), with the primary energy usage at 487 EJ and electrical 56.7 EJ. Using the vast amount of resoruces made from selling fossil fuel, energy companies are investing into alternative energy which can tap on:
- Solar Energy (Sun produces 3,850k EJ of energy)
- Hydro / Tidal 
- Biomass (3k EJ)
- Wind (2.25k EJ)
- Geothermal 


One of the most radical ideas I came across is to have a satellite that concentrates solar energy and beam it to earth via microwave. However there are financial and technological issues to this source of energy. The next most viable and promising source of energy is biological. As I have covered during class, bioDiesel that are derived from algae are very promising because they are a renewable source of energy. The algae captures the sunlight during photosynthesis and reproduce, with no high-tech know-hows needed because nature does it work of producing energy.


Ethanol from corn are also using biotechnology. And because our planet is filled with abundance of plant life which are able to tap solar energy, biofuel can be farmed to large quantities to feed the need for fuel consumption. Another possible source of energy in development is using salt water. Salt water is also very abundant, and using this technology, we don't even have to grow our own fuel as it covers over 70% of Earth. Although we are able to find alternative source of energy, human should also make energy consumption as efficient as possible. By pushing the limit of how much distance a car can travel with the same amount of fuel makes energy consumption more efficient.

In conclusion, to make energy eternal, a viable source of energy must replace our current use of fossil fuel which is sustainable. We might find alternatives for portal fuel (petrol, gas) but the challenge still lies ahead with providing cities with huge amount of energy to power homes and industrial plants.

Sustainable Earth

Currently the world is depleting resources faster than it could be replenished. It is a very dangerous task as we are destroying the source of our resources, which might end up losing them forever. There is the normal scope of looking into non-renewable resources such as fossil fuel, but there is another field which is biodiversity. By selective breeding plants and animals, we risk those species by concentrating the gene pool. The entire species might be wiped out by diseases due to the small gene pool, which does not have the immunities from diversification. That is why we should focus on sustaining the bio diversification and the environment, so that natural habitats would not be destroyed for human activities.

As we know from Gun, Germs and Steel, food plays a crucial role in the development of science and technology. However, with the growing population, the earth might not be able to support the agricultural activities which need arable land for food as well as fuel. The world’s production of food might be enough for the world’s population, however there is disparity in the distribution; hence world hunger is still a problem. Plumpy’Nut, as presented in class by our guest lecturer, is a good way to nourish people who lives in poverty and has malnutrition. I find that this is just a temporal solution to the root problem, very much like putting a stopper on a leaking tap. To solve the root problem, economically strong countries should not take advantage of the products that is produced by such countries. There should be a price floor to protect their welfare, so that they would have accessibility to daily necessity like food, water and sanitation.

The idea of growing meat in laboratories is appealing, such that we are able to grow other body parts for replacement. However growing meat for human consumption just takes too much resource, as compared to breeding them in farms. I believe that if the lab meats are able to be grown using less resource than the normal farm bred meat, and then it would be a good substitute as it lowers the overall consumption on earth’s resource. As we know energy could not be created or destroyed, we should retain as much energy as possible to prevent wastage. However, before the lab meats can be used for consumption, test and trails must be made so that it remains in health and food regulations. Genetically engineering (GE) meat or plants should be accepted as they are isolating bad genes, and adding useful ones. The process of GE does not add any chemicals which most people have misconception. One day human can also be genetically modified to remove bad genes such as cancerous cells and diabetes.

On the issue of conservation of energy, the sun is the only provider. So in order to have a sustainable form of energy, sunlight must be harvested to add on to the “energy level” of the earth. And since animals are unable to convert light into food, plants must be used to produce energy through photosynthesis. I believe that using plants for fuel is a viable source of energy as it is renewable. I did a presentation on Algae Biodiesel, which explains the benefits of using such technology. It is able to produce more energy per acre of land than any other plants, thus giving a higher yield in biodiesel with enough arable land used for growing food. There isn’t a real clash in interest for growing food and fuel in this case, which benefits the entire earth as a whole. 

BioTechnology

Bio technology is a really interesting topic; it covers everything that is living – from the microscopic cell inside your body to the bio diversity in the planet. We may never solve the mystery of how did life ever form on earth, be it a sheer chance of chemical compound in the sea in the ideal situation, panspermia , or  god’s creation, but we can study and improve on what we know.

We know that our health is a study of the human biology, and the lifespan of human is getting longer and longer. As technology in the medical field advances due to Research and Development as well as the availability of electronic products and information sharing, people get to enjoy the fast pace of medical marvels that was previously considered far-fetched. However, will this make humans grow reliant on such technology that they would adopt the “do what you want now, repair broken parts later” attitude? When times were difficult in the past, humans get by with what they have and work harder, leading a much healthier lives than our present desk workers. Right now, we are either too busy or lazy to maintain a proper diet and exercise regime that we grow so reliant when we fall sick.

It is a good thing that modern medical devices as discussed in class actually provide pre-emptive solution, as the saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure”. These devices monitor the person’s health, checking for tell-tale signs of the development of any diseases with its database of information. It will then update the hospital via the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. This way, people are able to lead a healthier life by doing more of what is good for their health and avoiding pitfalls. With that said the user must accept this system and use it on a regular basis for it to work. Technology is easy, humans are just plain lazy.

Another thing we discussed in class is Genetic Engineering. Chimpanzees is said to have 99% similarity (the figure has dropped to 96% ) in DNA and banana 50%. Then it occurs to me that since banana is 50%, I believe a large percentage of the genetic codes are information on life itself – like cell structure, multi-cellular organism, binary fission, etc. The remaining information would then determine your physical attribute, behavior, intelligence, etc. Although the codes of biotechnology are hard to break, scientists are working on it. Hopefully humans are able to decipher the genetic codes and give superhuman ability such as the regenerative tissue of plants.

One thing that really amazes me is the guest lecturing section where our classmate introduce us the formation of a synthetic beating heart from cells. Cells are put in a regular inkjet printer and start printing out a 3D heart. Amazingly, the heart works. With such technology, soon people are able to find body part replacements or even do cloning with the transfer of their conscious mind to the clone. Who knows what the future hold, technology is always changing. We might even live like other social creature in the future with telepathic/psychic abilities when we unlock and use more than the 10% of our brain – the physical manipulation with the mind. 

Digital Divide

Although there are 6 billion people in the world, only a third or 33% have access to the internet. (Sources from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm ) So why is there such a huge digital gap, where a country like Singapore of 5 million people has over 77% internet penetration and 4 billion people without? This is just an illustration of the digital divide, where other factors such as digital communication and mobile technology are limited or unavailable to people around the world. I feel that information technology is an important factor that helps a country to grow in terms of sharing of ideas and knowledge. However this is not an easy task for the people, if the government is unable to provide the infrastructure.

As we take information technology for granted, and organizations have to operate with it in order stay in competition with their rivals, information technology has become a common tool in our lives. As mention above, some countries that do not have the mean to provide information technology to their people will lose out, as they are unable to give them the basic tool for societal improvement. Libraries and school in such countries are either overcrowded or too expensive, leaving a large population without access to education. Education is the distribution of knowledge to the people and without knowledge; the people will be “stagnant” in their way of life and ideas, unable to improve. Information technology is a medium that aids is the distribution of knowledge as it can be cheap if the infrastructures are available. So in a way, I do agree with Prof. that “ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution”.

I do believe that ICT will bridge the gap between the rich and poor, however as the say goes, “a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”. Someone has to bring in ICT to them, because they don’t know what they don’t know. They do not know ICT exist, or have the means to bring it to the people. It is when organizations like One Laptop per Child (OLPC) aim to bring ICT to the people of third-world countries at a low cost. This will allow them to have access to vast knowledge around the world, where archives of science, mathematics, history, geography, bioscience and more information lie there waiting to be used. With the knowledge, the people can build windmill and generate electricity like a video I watched, or even power the village. It is these small steps that eventually move the country towards a change.

I find that as people chase the speed of processors, be it core 2 duo, quad core or i7, they are willing to pay more and more for faster technology. This makes me wonder why manufacturers can’t create another arm, and maintain the speed of these processors and bring down the price to make it cheaper and cheaper. Like this technology is more affordable to more people around the world, and crowd sourcing, a very interesting idea, would be more effective. Having the minds of 6 billion people around the world with access to the internet, the web will then be truly ubiquitous and harness the power of different culture, ideas and thinking.  

One article that wasn’t brought up in class is Reading 2. It intrigues me not because of the P2P (peer-to-peer) data sharing, or the merging of car wipers and GPS data to provide weather reports to news station. It is actually how machines are not beginning to “talk” to each other, with another machine. Previously, machines merely just obtain information like RFID tags, or make basic transaction. However, the article now suggests that future technology will allow machines to share information, and eventually learn from other machines. This brings automation and artificial intelligence to another level. Even though I m not like Will Smith in iRobot where he is in constant fear that robots will take over the world, I do think that if machines ever attain such intelligence and to “think” for themselves, the human population could be in danger in terms of jobs and lifestyle. 

The Ultimate Driver of Change

There are 3 ways to cope change as discussed in class as quoted by our Prof, namely:

• Making it happen.
• Respond when it happens.
• Be surprised.

Firstly “making it happen” is to lead the change, where leaders of tomorrow revolutionize the world we live in by bring change. Then there is those who “respond when it happens”, being the reactive ones. Finally for those who are surprised are the ones who don’t really care much about the changes in the world.

However I think there is another class of people, who falls in between the “Making it happen” and “Respond when it happens”, and they are the “I think this is going to happen”. I believe that there are people who embrace technology, keeping themselves open and constantly updating themselves about the changes in the world. Although they are proactive, they don’t lead the change and neither is they reactive and waits for things to happen. An example I can think of is people who are in the Green movement, where Global Warming is going to cause some damage to earth and they are taking the green approach before real damage is done. Yet they don’t lead any changes, just their own lifestyle.

It is interesting that the bubonic plague has cause people to turn to religion. I suppose when education and medical science are not so advance, people will turn to the next best thing that explains their situation. Human beings love to be in control, they want to know that they are able to explain things and either say it’s the wrath of god or there are witches amongst them. Science is the religion of today, even though people don’t really see it as a religion. It is the worship of modern marvels, and from science people can have many returns. It also seeks to explain the origin of the universe, and the way of life. By 1918, the Spanish flu claimed more than 50 million lives; hospitals and clinics rush to find a cure. It is then prayers gives way to modern medication where the world has changed after the age of enlightenment. 

When the class was having our guest lectures on drivers of change, I find that trade is more of a driver than water. Although it is true that water brings life and aids in the movement and transportation of human, trade drove those human to move. Water is merely just a medium, where trade drove people to travel far and wide in search of rare item from different world. If that is true, the true driver of the world is money. The desire to make more money drove people to search different places, so that they are powerful in their own homeland. That brings us back to dominance. To feel powerful and to have more purchasing power over your neighbours, you wage war and conquer their lands. You compete with them in the arms race. Ultimately, the drive of change boils down to one need, dominance. I believe that change is spurred by an individual idea, which is empowered by an organization. 

One Earth

When I read up on corporate responsibility, most text agrees that pollution and other impact on the environment are no longer considered externalities. As the human population grows to be more informed of our natural environment, we begin to be more responsible over the land we call home. This is more prevalent in developed countries where the industrial phase is at its optimal, unlike developing countries where boosting its economy is their priority. We have to take a circular thinking approach, where linear thinking has to be review over and over to refine the process. When the country decides on boosting the economy and go all out to do it, however when they take the circular approach, they would realize that there are externalities affected, and bring those into consideration.

Sustainability is a worldwide issue, and it is not only reserved for the developed countries. At the rate of human development, it would need 3 to 5 Earth to sustain human activity (source from readings). We only have 1 Earth. The Earth and its inhabitant does not depend on Humans to survive, we depend on them. [video on Life without People] There are several ways in which the government can do its part to enforce some regulations (like the IPP Toolbox) to help sustain the environment, but it would be up to each and every individual organization to adhere to the rules. I believe that education is the most important investment in our time as resources are depleting. When the new generation of people take over, they would be armed with corporate responsibility, and sustaining the environment that we live in. When you teach something very detailed and long enough, the brain will register it and actions will be carried out. See Entry #5 on how memory works by repetition

It is interesting that Japan had always remained the top spot in Asia as a developed country and a technological hub. Previously western countries have always seen themselves superior to Asian countries, until Japan broke the psychological barrier by defeating the Russian in 1903. One of our readings on the “Advantages of Backwardness” by Adam Szirmai from the United Nation University gave an insight on how developing countries have an advantage over their neighbours who are innovation leaders. In class, we discussed on how industrialization by countries like Japan and Korea followed by Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia swept through Asia in different phases or waves. I feel that although backward countries gain from getting knowledge from developed countries without going through the trouble of huge investments, they still don’t stand to gain as much. The reason why it seems alright to be backward now is because the developed countries do not use their advance technologies against the backward countries, like how the conquistador used against the Native Americans. Being the forefront of innovation allows the countries to first use the technology and sell it to other countries, which they would make a break even or even more money they had invested in the first place. Backwardness will always be following, going to whatever direction the leaders pull them to and unable to lead on their own, thus either keeping up or face “elimination” in the economic race. So although being backward gives you some advantages, the benefits of being in the forefront are much more.

One the topic of “should developed countries provide lower class with green technology”, my view is a definite yes. Developed countries should provide the developing countries with green technology so that they have the option to use it or not. If the developing countries can compare from a range of technology they have and if find that the green tech is viable, they can apply it. Looking at the big picture of sustainability, no one gain or lose economically when green tech is given away “for free”, the whole Earth and its inhabitants stand to gain. However the situation is overly ideal (just like communism) and would work if we live in Utopia where free green technology researchers get funding. A solution I would suggest is that every country participating in the Shared Green Technology Program will have to contribute a certain amount from their GDP, and the fund would be used for research and development. Those countries in the program will stand to gain the technology.

Global Dominance: Money, War, Love

Money
China is definitely the world’s exporter of manufactured goods, from plastic ware to electronic gadgets, everything seem to be “Made in China”. This is only possible because of the cheap labour, favorable exchange rates, available amenities and technology, and even a relaxed regulation on pollution as the government prize exports over environment. I believe even if China did not have the most powerful economy as stated by the CIA Factbook, “The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world”, it is able to affect the world at the rate of its economic growth. An interesting article by The Washington Post on the Five myths about China's economy states that the GDP of the United States is $14 trillion, almost 3 times more than China’s $5 trillion economy in goods and services. Although true statistically, I believe that if China continues to have an open perspective and is hungry to boost its economy, it would overtake the US in the near future by judging how it grew from the 1970s till present day. There are other interesting topics on the website debating whether or not China is able to hold Washington hostage in economy negotiation with its vast holding of US treasury bonds. 


We also discussed on the Rising Star and Falling Star theory which I believe hold true in many circumstances. However, there are many other factors that contribute to the rise / fall of a nation which cannot be simply characterized by a few traits. For example, a student may be hardworking, and being hardworking is a trait that contributes to his grades. However he might still get an average grade due to other factors like studying the wrong topics for long hours, or another student who put in less hours studying but is intelligent, a faster learner or has prior knowledge might do better. Countries like Brunei might have the characteristics of a falling star, but they are doing well in terms of GDP per capita due to its oil exports.



War
Session 2 has several guest lecturer, and Dora touched on the topic of "US hegemony and transfer of guided missile to NATO during Cold War". I believe this is true in most societies, especially in the arms race where the United States has been in the lead for so long. In order to be established as a leader, US have to show that it is able to provide the rest of the followers with something they don't have,  the edge in technology that show its superiority. Although it may not be a wise move as the Soviet Union is able to obtain the technology from its spy network, it allows the US to have an influence over NATO. Setting the platform on the NATO countries will aid the US for future benefits. 


Love
The millennium development goal is a topic that branched of the Human Happiness Index (HHI). What is the Human Happiness Index? It's a study on the happiness of human in society with their lives. Personally, my goal in life is to reach out to society. As noble as it might sound, I do believe in this quote that I came across - What you do for yourself dies with you, what you do for others remain immortal". In a way, it would fulfill my quest for immortality, just like the pharaohs of Egypt that lived 5,000 years ago (might be seen more as selfish than noble now!). When I was very much younger I always wanted to have my own nature reserve that preserves and study wild life, and I still want to contribute to society up till now. I guess when people are able to attain their ultimate goals in life, they would be the truly happy people, with the HHI off the charts.


The millennium development goal is also for a noble cause, aiding the human population with basic necessities and closing the gap between the rich and the poor. I find that human has a trait that acts like a double edge sword - competitive. Although human thrived by being competitive, always improving themselves for the better, it also has a side effect which is selfishness. Constantly improving ourselves with the main motive of being better than the rest, we are not willing to share our technology (or land or wealth or anything else) with others, and thus the big gap in society. If only the leaders of the world see themselves as a united human population, with no borders to separate, with no different language and currencies, we would all be able to lay down our arms and channel all the military budget to R&D to improve the human population as a whole and providing aids for our fellow people. The goal is by 2015, i guess we need time extension.


Final Note
I was a little disappointed when our readings were not actively discussed in class. Reading 2 has an interesting insight on human and technology, stating that advancement in technology is only in the area where it is applied for the creation of wealth. For example development of phone, automobile and other machines can not only help our daily lives but also make money in the process. However i disagree with that, even it is more prevalent now in our present society. In the past astronomers and scientist do what they does in the name of science, but now R&D is only in fields where it has the most returns. Our present day, there are still scientist doing research in the name of science, like NASA where huge amount of money is pumped in to study the universe. They would have commercialize or privatize space travel if there were to make money from it. Even launching satellites for commercial use doesn't make NASA a big money spinner, it's mostly funded by the government. Other areas like paleontology and study of plants and animals are also for the quest of knowledge. I still believe that science is not all about money making and commercialized.  

Primordial Soup

I wouldn't consider myself much of a thinker, but I have always been fascinated by Science and Technology. I have always wondered how man ever converted sand to skyscrapers, ore to objects and taking flight without wings. We are, after all just one of the species the animal kingdom. 

I do admit that I have heard about TWC but much of those preconceptions have vanished after this first session. I truly enjoyed the first lesson, accompanied by our professor, Dr. Gurinder Shahi who is both knowledgeable and humorous. I hope the workload is not too heavy considering Prof is a physician with training in molecular biochemistry (if I am not wrong); he is going scrutinize my work. And that’s no rocket science.

There was a video on Shift Happens, and it’s basically statistics on issues around the world, skewing towards technology and human trends. We are indeed living in exponential times, and I have realized that a while ago. Here is an interesting story: I was on vacation in Hong Kong travelling to China to visit the Great Wall, where I was hospitalized for suspect of H1N1 as I had a fever. During my stay, I requested for an English book to read, and the only book they had was an old geography text, published in 1938. One piece of information that really caught my attention is that it says “the world’s population is 3 billion”. Then I wondered to myself, for the past 2 millennia the world’s population grew to 3 billion, and within the next 60 years, it doubled. It is more prevalent in technology, as new ones are built upon the old, doubling every few months. With the current equipment, information sharing is made easier worldwide; giving men the ability gain access to information they would otherwise need time to develop on their own.

There was another video on Gun, Germs and Steel. Immediately I thought of the Spanish Conquistador that swept the natives of America. I played games like Civilization and Age of Empire, and I have always emphasis heavily on research, because I always believe in the saying “knowledge is power” and power is, dominance. Why do white men have so much cargo? I believe that is only applicable to the New Guineans, where they are isolated from new ideas and information. In many ways, trade and war has pushed research to all time high by countries that are connected by their geographic location. New ideas and technologies are shared during trade (reverse engineering for China), and developed in times of war to have the edge over the enemy. In a way the New Guineans didn’t develop much from the past with their closed doors and comfortable lifestyle, getting little of what their land can offer. Without either competition or trade, there are low demands for a change or innovation to produce the “cargo” that white men possessed.

“Technology is easy, people is hard”. I agree that people is hard, however technology is never easy. We have come a long way till today’s technology and it seem easy only because comparatively from the past, technology seem to develop at a faster pace. I believe the phrase is referring to technology is easier to implement as to having people to adopt it. Technology is like fire, which can help or hurt you. People will adopt or abandon it depending on the benefits they get. Even if an organization were to adopt a new technology, change is always difficult with people. To have the employees stepping out of their comfort zone and learn a new skill, doing things out of the normal routine, training, people tend to only see their immediate benefits rather than for the whole organization, the big picture.