Glad or not, we're approaching the end of Semester 1 in a few weeks' time! And life has been really tough..
Currently surviving on encouragement from friends around me. I want to enjoy school life! ARGH!
Ok anyway, shall start the actual blogpost or my rantings will just go on and on and on..
Just ended session 10 on Technology Assessment and Forecasting; Developing a Framework. I felt kind of lost during the lecture as it seems like a summary of the many topics we've gone through since week 1. However, this module really changed my way of thinking about possibilities. All I could say is that, I used to think that this world is filled with lots of impossibilities, especially with regards to technology but time and time again, I was proven wrong and in fact, many inventions have, no doubt, amazed me. Just simply awed by everything.
To progress well in this world, one has to have a forward-oriented perspective of things. And this means that we have to look ahead of our current situation and forecast our future; be able to see what we will be like many years down the road. As quoted from Winston Churchill, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
What it is trying to imply is that, if you can imagine it, then it can happen. Now, I'm really curious about teleportation, since this term has been mentioned several times during class, and even among peers. I would really like to see this happen some time soon. Imagining myself walking into a tiny little room, pressing a button and POOF! Gone and teleported to somewhere else! Seems too unreal or maybe I watched too much of Harry Potter kind of movies. Just so unconvinced that it can really happen. Also, I wonder what will the world come to if teleportation really exist because if that time really comes, it would mean that technology is far more advanced than anyone can think of. Life would be just like everything in the movies! Omg, too cool.
Back to reality now. We discussed the various drivers for technology assessment and forecasting, such as the exponential growth and significance of the changing world, the need to gain an understanding of the type of changes that new technology might bring; where and whether is it worth investing in them or not. There was another quote related to drivers of change is this: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay. Basically, it's trying to say that instead of being a victim of change, you have to drive the change.
As analysed, change is inevitable and that's extremely true. No matter how you want them to change. The only option is to ACCEPT and ADAPT. I liked the idea of the presenter in the youtube video. Here's the acronyms he used to represent the word F.U.T.U.R.E.:
Fast
Urban
Tribal (New tribes in the world; New interest)
Universal
Radical
Ethical (Ethics in business)
Those are the general factors about the future and true enough, we will also have insecurity in globalisation. As it advances, power will also be more diffused than before - Rising Power.
Prof also gave a simple analogy - A crumpled piece of paper VS a new creaseless paper. There are two approaches:
1. To start working from the current situation (resembled by the crumpled piece of paper)
2. To paint a new big picture on the creaseless paper; See what you want the future to be like.
We went on to discuss about Delphi Approach and the various foresight methodologies that are commonly used.
And this session has many many readings! Eight of them but I admit that I didn't really have the chance to read all of them as it has been a really hectic week for me (Been sleeping in the wee hours of the morning and waking up at 5.20am to prepare for projects, lessons and more)
Again, there were interesting and engaging presentations by classmates. The video on the hunter shooting the bear really caught my attention and I want to know how did the man in the video stick his hand out to get the correction tape! Here's the video to keep as reference!
Might not work here. Recommended to try it out in youtube itself. :)
Rating for this session: 8/10!
And that's all for now! 2 sessions remaining~
Monday 24 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
Session 9 - Future Technology: Making the impossible possible!
Currently in the rushing-to-complete-all-my-assignments mode!
I had a wonderful TWC session today, with great presentations by classmates, of which I suppose, the champion of TWC individual presentation has emerged, with an outstanding full 10marks from 30 students! (Y)
Anyway, back to the main topic. I guess this is the session with the most number of videos played, not counting those during presentations. From being able to shape a disintegrating 3D model (in the case of the video, would be the car), to nanotechnology, 3D printing, holograms and such.. Interesting videos, i would say. If only I could print my BMW car... ahhhhhh!
Oh well! Prof inserted several quotes by famous people and I thought they were nice. The very first one was:
"You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" "
And another,
" Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
I had a wonderful TWC session today, with great presentations by classmates, of which I suppose, the champion of TWC individual presentation has emerged, with an outstanding full 10marks from 30 students! (Y)
Anyway, back to the main topic. I guess this is the session with the most number of videos played, not counting those during presentations. From being able to shape a disintegrating 3D model (in the case of the video, would be the car), to nanotechnology, 3D printing, holograms and such.. Interesting videos, i would say. If only I could print my BMW car... ahhhhhh!
Oh well! Prof inserted several quotes by famous people and I thought they were nice. The very first one was:
"You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" "
-Geroge Bernard Shaw-
And another,
" Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
-Albert Einstein-
Beautiful quotes. And what they are trying to say is that, we need to think out of the box and beyond the universe, beyond our horizon. It is through our wild imagination (then translating these ideas into reality) that technology can advance till the current stage we are at now. The major driver plays a crucial role in the future of technology. In order for that to happen, we have to solve a problem which people have yet to find a solution for. One might not even know that he/she needs it until the point where the person sees the thing.
Another quote by Prof's favourite icon stated in the slides:
" There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing."
-Kahlil Gibran-
Though simple, but it gets the message across well to readers that there is a gap between a man's dreams and visions as compared to what we actually have today. And it is the desire, passion and dedication that narrows this gap.
Overall, a short session indeed with 5 readings of which I've read one article from Reading 3. It was titled" Vibrating glove gives wearer superhuman touch powers.
Basically, it talked about people who wears the vibrating gloves could help to stimulate better sense of touch. And now that it has been successful, inventors are currently seeking to work on other parts of the body, besides the fingers. I feel that this glove isn't really much of a HUGE technology, given that such stuff is quite common nowadays, with all the massaging equipment, or some vibrating devices which could pass on little electricity into the body to stimulate blood circulation. And this glove seems to function the same way - meant for blood circulation. This could well be applicable to elderly who needs more circulation to prevent old age problems or problems which reduces their sense of touch. - Dexterity.
Now, moving on to the presentations, someone started off which introduction of transhumanism. It involves replacing our very own attached limbs with prosthetic/robotic ones. WHICH MEANS. you have to go through amputation! The first thing which came to my mind when this classmate posted the question for discussion on whether anyone would be willing to do this was: NO WAY. While it is true that the pictures look really cool and I think it would excellent to have it, but having to replace my own arm for that machine is madness. He raised the point regarding companies making it a requirement to have such robotic limbs in order to be hired. But I guess I would rather find another job. Imagine being born with well working limbs and such, but I destroyed myself by amputating them for fake arms which MAY be stronger (ignoring the fact that it might cause inconvenience / side effects).. Okay I guess you know what I'm trying to say, but no way am I going to do that.
And another presentation which I could remember was the future of Airbus. It shows how much one could imagine. If I have the money, I would like to gain the experience of being a passenger inside, enjoying every single minute of the flight. It would be nice to look to the side / ground and find that the materials of the plane is not opaque because you get to see through, with clouds just right beside you etc. But then again, I wonder if I could take the shock as I have extremely serious fear for heights. (Imagine how I would react if I say I don't even dare to look down from the 2nd floor of a shopping centre. That's how bad my fear is. But I do take roller coasters though. No idea what's wrong with me hahaha.)
It would be really costly to implement such a huge project and while many people think that such planes will exist in 2050, I feel that it would take a longer time. True that anything can happen over the next 39 years and I should remain optimistic about it, but most probably by 2050, only smaller scales technology might be implemented.
So much for my thoughts. I'll rate this session a 9 out of 10. Short yet interesting session which allows my mind to run wild and imagining the impossibilities happening. Cool indeed :)
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Session 8 - Depleting Energy Resources!
Back from the tiring recess week which didn't seem like one! After all the project meetingS and mugging for paperS, it's time to enter a blog entry today.
Session 8's main topic was on Energy and World Change, focusing on the history of it, the current situation today and what we expect in the future.
Considering the huge amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, it has brought about issues concerning rising global warming. This definitely isn't doing anyone any good. Since it would be quite impossible to totally eliminate carbon dioxide, one alternative would be to make full use of it by giving it a value. We went on to discuss about solar panels to capture energy. I particularly like this diagram:
And I think it makes sense. Surrounding us are so many sources of energy, yet we focus a great deal on tradeable ones such as coal, oil and gas. How about rays from the sun? Or wind and waves? Well, I know the rays given out by the sun seems unlimited and there is a lot of energy that can be captured from it. Imagine maximizing the generation of electricity in one day. How much energy would that be? Someone mentioned during class that the energy that the sun provides in an hour would be able to last us for year or more. No idea how true that is, but if it's so, I guess we really don't have to worry much about depleting sources anymore (Not until the sun is gone. hmm.)
How do we reduce the consumption of energy resources, fossil fuels and other perishable resources, yet still able to maintain or increase the GDP growth rate? - Renewable resources is the way to go. However, solar energy is still not being fully utilized in the right way at this stage. Prof showed us a video on how Germany was so successful in utilizing solar energy. - Cash Incentives given to people. They buy a unit of energy at a low cost and sell it off at a higher price, enabling them to make a little profit. Solar panels were displayed everywhere on the roofs of their houses. Wonder how it would be like to have every HDB block displaying panels like that too. Or perhaps, our windows! Now that would be making better use of the energy from the sun.
There was a powerpoint slide on the Reva - India's first electric car. Seems that it can be charged up through a power socket. With the stored energy, it acts as a portable battery which is able to power the car to last for many miles! That's so cool. Generating electricity from the sun --- used to power up cars alone --- We'll be able to save so much on fuels. It led me to brainstorm for some random ideas related to my group project on kinetic energy too.
Session seems short. We then moved on to the readings. And I agree with what was said about having a fixed but wrong mindset. People can save (anything) as much as they want but if they don't change their mindset to consume lesser, it wouldn't make any difference. In this case, again, it would probably be most applicable to the U.S., whose people are still consuming too much resources. And basically, it is really also up to individuals to decide for themselves. For example, owning a vehicle. One per family would definitely be sufficient but still, there are many households owning 2, 3 or even more vehicles. It is true that people do feel that they have the right to own them but now it would be more of consideration for the future as a whole? Government's attempts to persuade citizens to travel by public transport instead; Building so many MRT tracks everywhere, having bus stops almost everywhere too but the amount of cars on the roads are just increasing; People still willing to pay high prices for COEs.
However, one thing I would like to raise, as part of my own opinion is that, I could probably understand why some people are just dead set on getting a vehicle. I admit I was one of them (though lacking of funds of course), but the public transport is really horrible. JUST TODAY (Monday), i checked SBS website on my iPhone for the estimated arrival time of the next bus. Shockingly, it says "42 Mins". Totally shocked -.-lll. Isn't the first time I'm experiencing this but 42Mins is way to crazy. After the 42Mins would be 45Mins. LUCKILY, there's another bus stop in my estate where I could go to take another bus to Jurong East. Otherwise, I would only arrive for class at 1.30pm instead of 12noon. This is really bad. Depending on my luck, sometimes buses arrive fast (as in 3 buses in a row). Otherwise, there would be none, for at least half an hour. And the fares just rose like 2 days ago. Really feel irritated by the high price but bad service. Not worth at all! Complaints to them doesn't work either. Oh well!
Moving on to the presentations, I like the questions raised for discussions. It allows me to start thinking about alternative ways in which we can store energy. And one particular idea, also given by Suresh, was the hard-disk. Imagine being able to store energy in such a portable gadget, we could bring it anywhere we want to, just plug the cable in and start draining energy from it directly. one advantage of this would be where power points couldn't be found and people desperately needs electricity. I would want to own one of these ( Other than the non-environmental friendly batteries of course).
And so, I shall end off here saying that through this session, I learnt that there are indeed many ways in which we can fully utilize what we have but we are just not doing so. If we could start right now, with the right mindset, that's going to save us from lots of worries. Overall, i rate this session an 8.5 out of 10. :)
Just saw Yahoo's article on the most polluted cities:
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-World-Most-Polluted-cnbcwp-694354027.html?x=0
Session 8's main topic was on Energy and World Change, focusing on the history of it, the current situation today and what we expect in the future.
Considering the huge amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, it has brought about issues concerning rising global warming. This definitely isn't doing anyone any good. Since it would be quite impossible to totally eliminate carbon dioxide, one alternative would be to make full use of it by giving it a value. We went on to discuss about solar panels to capture energy. I particularly like this diagram:
And I think it makes sense. Surrounding us are so many sources of energy, yet we focus a great deal on tradeable ones such as coal, oil and gas. How about rays from the sun? Or wind and waves? Well, I know the rays given out by the sun seems unlimited and there is a lot of energy that can be captured from it. Imagine maximizing the generation of electricity in one day. How much energy would that be? Someone mentioned during class that the energy that the sun provides in an hour would be able to last us for year or more. No idea how true that is, but if it's so, I guess we really don't have to worry much about depleting sources anymore (Not until the sun is gone. hmm.)
How do we reduce the consumption of energy resources, fossil fuels and other perishable resources, yet still able to maintain or increase the GDP growth rate? - Renewable resources is the way to go. However, solar energy is still not being fully utilized in the right way at this stage. Prof showed us a video on how Germany was so successful in utilizing solar energy. - Cash Incentives given to people. They buy a unit of energy at a low cost and sell it off at a higher price, enabling them to make a little profit. Solar panels were displayed everywhere on the roofs of their houses. Wonder how it would be like to have every HDB block displaying panels like that too. Or perhaps, our windows! Now that would be making better use of the energy from the sun.
There was a powerpoint slide on the Reva - India's first electric car. Seems that it can be charged up through a power socket. With the stored energy, it acts as a portable battery which is able to power the car to last for many miles! That's so cool. Generating electricity from the sun --- used to power up cars alone --- We'll be able to save so much on fuels. It led me to brainstorm for some random ideas related to my group project on kinetic energy too.
Session seems short. We then moved on to the readings. And I agree with what was said about having a fixed but wrong mindset. People can save (anything) as much as they want but if they don't change their mindset to consume lesser, it wouldn't make any difference. In this case, again, it would probably be most applicable to the U.S., whose people are still consuming too much resources. And basically, it is really also up to individuals to decide for themselves. For example, owning a vehicle. One per family would definitely be sufficient but still, there are many households owning 2, 3 or even more vehicles. It is true that people do feel that they have the right to own them but now it would be more of consideration for the future as a whole? Government's attempts to persuade citizens to travel by public transport instead; Building so many MRT tracks everywhere, having bus stops almost everywhere too but the amount of cars on the roads are just increasing; People still willing to pay high prices for COEs.
However, one thing I would like to raise, as part of my own opinion is that, I could probably understand why some people are just dead set on getting a vehicle. I admit I was one of them (though lacking of funds of course), but the public transport is really horrible. JUST TODAY (Monday), i checked SBS website on my iPhone for the estimated arrival time of the next bus. Shockingly, it says "42 Mins". Totally shocked -.-lll. Isn't the first time I'm experiencing this but 42Mins is way to crazy. After the 42Mins would be 45Mins. LUCKILY, there's another bus stop in my estate where I could go to take another bus to Jurong East. Otherwise, I would only arrive for class at 1.30pm instead of 12noon. This is really bad. Depending on my luck, sometimes buses arrive fast (as in 3 buses in a row). Otherwise, there would be none, for at least half an hour. And the fares just rose like 2 days ago. Really feel irritated by the high price but bad service. Not worth at all! Complaints to them doesn't work either. Oh well!
Moving on to the presentations, I like the questions raised for discussions. It allows me to start thinking about alternative ways in which we can store energy. And one particular idea, also given by Suresh, was the hard-disk. Imagine being able to store energy in such a portable gadget, we could bring it anywhere we want to, just plug the cable in and start draining energy from it directly. one advantage of this would be where power points couldn't be found and people desperately needs electricity. I would want to own one of these ( Other than the non-environmental friendly batteries of course).
And so, I shall end off here saying that through this session, I learnt that there are indeed many ways in which we can fully utilize what we have but we are just not doing so. If we could start right now, with the right mindset, that's going to save us from lots of worries. Overall, i rate this session an 8.5 out of 10. :)
Just saw Yahoo's article on the most polluted cities:
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-World-Most-Polluted-cnbcwp-694354027.html?x=0
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)