Session 2

The themes for session 2 were ‘Technology, society and global dominance’ and ‘Technology and Human Development’. Firstly, we discussed the dimensions of global dominance. Here we looked at examples of dominant or leading players in different fields and industries such as social, cultural, military, industrial and economical.  A key take away from this discussion was that leaders or dominant leaders in respective areas share the characteristics of being open minded and optimistic. To be successful, a company, society or an individual will have to be like ‘Rising Stars’- meaning they have to keep investing in new ideas or ways of doing things. I believe this is highly relevant to all of us.

Later, we looked at how colonialism has played a role in shaping world economies today. We saw how Europeans imposed not only economical but also cultural and political dominance over their colonies. The impact of colonialism in terms of exploitation and wealth was discussed and shown through a graph. I found the graph interesting as it visually explains how the world dominance has been changing. An almost cyclical pattern of change in transfer of dominance may be noticed with the changing times.

Furthermore, I also found the article about pop culture interesting as it highlights issues that are relevant to us today. Pop culture may be seen as one of the disadvantages of globalization as it is resulting in decline of traditional means of entertainment.  For example, the Hollywood movies are dominating over the other cultural movie industries such as French. Similarly, the rise in number of reality TV shows exemplifies the decline of television (creativity).

Then, I enjoyed the presentation on China gaining dominance in area of clean energy. From the presentation I learnt that China is the leading producer of low cost solar panels and wind turbines. I was intrigued by the fact that when China has been successful in producing clean energy at low cost, the other countries such as USA are criticizing China. This shows that perhaps, other nations are more worried about their economies as China becomes more competitive than the issues like global warming.

In the other half of the lecture, we looked at the link between technology and development. The different factors that may affect development of a country such as type of government, access to technology were discussed. It was realised how the Millennium Development Goals may be achieved using technology.

Something that I liked most about today’s lecture was the video by BBC. I loved the manner in which Hans Rosling allowed us to visualise the 200 years history of about 200 countries within 4 minutes as he linked the lifespan and income of people I respective times. A direct relation between income and lifespan of world population could be seen and the ways in which drastic events such as the two World wars affected the development of people.

I would rate this session 9/10. I wish we could have explored more the different factors that create differences in the extents to which a region is able to develop. 

Technology and World Change-Session 1

This week I had my first session in the course Technology and World Change. Technology has always intrigued me and amazed me. One of the many aspects of technology that interests me is its evolution. The fast pace at which technology is advancing is overwhelming. For instance there was a time when we were using floppy disks to save data, then came the CDs and today everything can be saved in small and compact thumb drives. Similarly, a phone is not a just a cell phone, it’s a SMART phone!

This week’s lecture began with introductions. Later, we looked at how technology has played a major role in development of civilisations. It was interesting to know how the difference between accessibility to new knowledge and technology helped European countries to develop more than other regions such as Guinea (West Africa). A short video made me understand how geography can determine the technology that a region has. We also learnt that in the past Middle East had advanced technology in areas such as architecture, mathematics and agriculture and how did technology transfer occur from Middle East to Europe in the past. 

I also found the ‘Timeline of Time’ very interesting as it chronologically displays the major discoveries and inventions by mankind and historical and geographical events. Furthermore, the timeline made me appreciate technology more than before. If the technology that we have today was not advanced enough, it would have been close to impossible to actually go back in time and understand our history, especially the pre-historic times. Hence, technology today is not only used to improve and change our world in present and the future but it has also allowed us to understand our past well.

Along with the timeline of past events, we also looked at Technology timeline which studies futurology. The timeline predicts various possible events/inventions in varied areas such as artificial intelligence, energy and medicine. According to the timeline regarding artificial intelligence, by 2016 electronic life form would be given basic rights and by 2020s we may have remote controlled devices in pets. Technology like these seems impossible, unbelievable and has both positive and negative consequences. I personally feel that having remote controlled devices in pets is not ethical. If it is proposed to give electronic life forms basic rights, then how can we forget the basic rights such as freedoms of animals for the sake of our convenience?

Another interesting aspect about my first session in TWC was the ‘Did you know?’ videos from YouTube. Through numbers in form of statistics, they allowed me to look at the seemingly familiar of world of social networking from a different perspective. Facts such as 1 out of 8 married couples in USA last year met online amazed me as I never realised that social networking sites can affect our lives to such large extents. Another unique observation that I feel is very relevant to students today is a fact concerning our education and technical information that is available to us. “The amount of technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first of year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.”  This tells us that there is strong need to stay updated with new technology and to embrace and appreciate it.

I think the first session was the apt introduction to the course technology and world change. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Though I wish everyone was more prepared and had a say in discussions. I would rate this session 9/10 J