TWC WEEK TWO.

At last! I finally made it to my first lesson of TWC. I was a little nervous before I entered class as I know i am not exactly the most tech-smart person so i was all ready to go into a panic attack if I was asked to come up with some world changing technology!

Thankfully, Technology World Change has nothing to do with that.

We started off the discussion about global dominance ( US vs China/India), learnt how to identify innovative leaders (rising star), dominant players and failures (falling star) and explored the different dimensions of human developments over the years.

I found the behavior model for identifying innovations leaders and dominant players very interesting and true. For one to succeed (rising star), we have to have an open perspective and  the hunger to learn and improve. Just like the example of Apple vs Nokia. Nokia phones were deemed the best handphones in my early teens but within a span of 3-5 years, Nokia became out of fashion and Iphone took over. It was because of Apple's creativity and crave to keep improving that led to a whole new definition to mobile phones. However, I think that these 3 dimensions is a cycle that every company will go through as there is a limit for innovation of ideas and soon the company may end up as a falling star. But of course, given time, a company can rise to be a star again.

Another interesting fact discussed in class was about the percentage of the world economy be region from 1AD projected all the way to 2050 AD.
I found it astonishing that it was India and China who was leading the economy in the first 1500 years by more than 50% while US and Europe made out about 20%. US and Europe only reigned after 1500AD to 2000AD.  Now, in 2011AD, it seems like  India and China is coming back into power while Europe and US falls again. Perhaps it is like what I mentioned previously, that dominance is a cycle where everyone will have its ups and its downs.

If I had to choose on one main takeaway from my first lesson, it would be having an open perspective to life and strive to learn and improve ourselves is the road to success. Not just relating to business context but also in our studies and making everyday decisions. Just like when one of our classmate asked us if we would agree to human cloning, I immediately disagreed and was convinced that I would not change my stand. However, Professor Shahi mentioned that the debates on cloning is similar to IVF which was considered as "cloning" some 10 years ago. Somehow, technology conquered and today IVF is a very common option to many couples. I was surprised at what he said and coming to think of it, these 2 are similar in a way whereby humans are playing "gods".  However, that is not my main concern, but instead the effects and problems of cloning people. Nonetheless, I will keep my mind open as I now know the astonishing wonders of technology.

Finally, I would like to thank Professor Shahi for making TWC so interesting. I give this lesson a 7/10.  The discussions were engaging and it has truly provided me with a wider prospective for the word "Technology". I now see how it really affects our everyday life be it socially, politically etc.
Can't wait for more!

Selene.

TWC WEEK ONE

Unfortunately, due to the crazily inflated bidding price for the TWC class, i only managed to secure a class in the middle of the first week of school hence missing the first lesson for this module.

Upon reviewing the lesson's slides, it seems like the class discussion was on the evolution of Earth and Men. It started right from the birth of the universe, the other stars and planets, first life form on Earth and only after five mass extinctions did the human race begin to grow. Then came the invention of fire, tools, speech, agriculture, urbanization, industrial revolution and many more.

After reading the timeline on World World.com, it then struck me that technology is not just about the gadgets like computers, iphones or even light bulbs. Instead, it consist of the evolution of the universe, the various planets and speech. In fact, from the timeline of Innovations, one would be able to see that our technology is advancing at an alarmingly increasingly fast rate, especially this the past 50 years. Could it be that our technology innovations is acting as a catalyst in creating more advancements? I am really curious about our future developments and wonder what our future way of life would become. Flyings cars and floating apartments anyone?

In my opinion, I think Earth and Men have come a really long way. We have gone through many revolutions in becoming such a well developed world. Technology can indeed create wonders! So much so that people are so dependent on it. It has been weaved into our daily lives that I believe the human race cannot live without. While i agree on the importance of technology and the need for continuous advancement so as improve our daily lives, I also think that this has become a threat. Our weak link. Because we are so overdependent on it, it also gives us problems. For example, with the industrial revolution, we are able to find a new means of transport, cars. This improved many peoples' lives. However, we are now concerned about pollution and the depleting ozone layer resulting in global warming and crazy weather! I guess there will never be a real solution to this but the best we could do is to focus more on sustainable technological developments.

As i have not attended the class, i will not give any ratings. Can't wait to start though! :)

Selene