TWELFTH THE END

Summary
1. Technology & The End + Preventive measures
2. Diseases & Tech Shababes Protecting the world from spreading knowledge & hope
3. Technology & Art
4. Technology & Women

Interesting Ideas
IT leading us to our death
Technology has always been thought to benefit Mankind, be it in terms of convenience or efficiency or simply leisure. It indeed a refreshing AND MORBID idea that technology, instead of bring a greater good, would actually lead us directly to our DEATH O.o

This was also a rather good wake up call... in the sense that I am reminded of how an over reliance on technology would indeed be rather dangerous >< These dangers are clearly portrayed even in today's context. Just look at the amount of monetary loss to a bank when it's online banking system crashes... Look at the amount of inconvenience caused and productivity loss when a public transport (technology in transport) breaks down. Or simple... think of the number of SMU students who are at their wits when the school email system crashed O.o

Obviously, even in today's context, there is already a clear trend of technology's users being heavily dependent and reliant on their gadgets and tools ><

Nonetheless, I believe that as long as the users understand and notice their over reliance on technology, they would be sane and practical enough to come up with contingency plans... JUST IN CASE their systems crash ><

Women are seen as IT noobs
I definitely, with ALL MY HEART, do NOT agree with this statement.

I am really quite a techie person... I love my laptop, I love my music player and I am TOTALLY IN LOVE with Mac.

I do not believe there is any unsolvable problem as long as I am in contact with Mr Google. So far, any problems which I encountered during the use of my gadgets has been dutifully and well answered by Mr Google. Simply by reading through forums and following the recommended steps properly, I have been able to solve my techie problems smoothly (SO FAR).

I also do not think that women are less competent in fixing their own electronic stuff... plugging cables into the correct holes behind televisions and setting up the wireless network at home... all these are simple instructional issues. I think the bigger issue is whether women view themselves as incompetent in these areas and hence rely on their male counterparts to help them, and not whether they have the mental capability to perform these tasks.

This would be especially true in today's modern context whereby information is so readily available. If a women wants to learn more about something, there is simply no reason to say that she does not know how to do so since she can always pick up the knowledge form somewhere.

Key Observations 
1. Today is the end of TWC ><

2. Being contented with the knowledge learnt is the end of a journey. The application of the knowledge learnt is the new beginning...

Great learning during these few weeks :)

I really hope all the knowledge I have learnt can be put into good use in the near future!!!

Thanks Prof and TA :D

7-ELEVEN

Brief Overview/Summary  

Time passed really fast today! Prof gave a briefing of the overview today and we went into a flux of group presentations which include:

Air Transport (My Group)

Space Junk

Land Conservation

Interesting Observations and Ideas 

All the interesting ideas came from the group presentations!

First up... Space Junk

Hmm... how interesting if we could throw all the rubbish into space and clear up space for more development on Earth! This saves space, saves money and could even be potentially environmentally because we need not incinerate the rubbish anymore! 

But given the greedy and exploitative nature of Mankind (unfortunately ><), we would be generating more rubbish than we should have simply because we think that no matter how much rubbish we create, there is always a venue to dispose it. 

However, I think there are still huge potential about the technoloigcal aspects of space junk because afterall, the outer space is still a huge unknown to Mankind!

We could potential build many floating structures in outer space and re-create another Earth! I've seen a lot of such speculations in fiction and if Mankind is really working towards such a goal... I foresee many other impossibilities being made real!cause they are potentially dangerous. 

Another interesting idea which is brought up during presentation is about land conservation! Ideas such as  multiple land use (E.g. verticle farming and wind farms), verticle farming is suitable for more developed country which faces the problem of land constraints, wind farming is suitable for countries such as China. Singapore is also using vertical farming to large extent, especially with regards to its hydroponics vegetation. 

I see much potential in this technology, especially in today's world where space is becoming increasing scarce due to massive and rapid development around the world.

Key Takeaways 

1. What standard formatting REALLY means

2. Technology is really magic which makes the impossibilities possible... 

Personal Rating

 7/10

Ten Tent Ten

Brief Overview/Summary
In today's session, we discussed about technology assessments and forecasting

We are often too focused on extrapolating that we forget that "working backwards" is often more effective than the opposite way! Some examples highlighted through the videos and discussions include trend analysis, technology roadmapping, simulation modelling. (Thanks Prof for explaining about technology roadmapping!)



Interesting Observations and Ideas
An interesting topic which was brought up is having GPS embedded in a person's shoes and even blood or body! Although this may seems very far fetched, looking at the current popularity of GPS among consumers and even developers, such a technology is actually rather possible to invent and implement. All it requires is a merger between biology and engineering, which is already an existing and also booming industry. Although having GPS stuck to a person 24/7 may seems to be a serious intrusion of personal privacy, it cannot be denied that this technology could potentially save lives in cases of emergencies (e.g. a kidnap case or missing person case).

One particular quote which caught my attention is "The present is pregnant with the future" by Voltarie. Perhaps it's due to a tiny motherly instinct in me? This quote really had an impact on me. I imagined the present to nurture and grow the future... just like how a baby grows within a mother's womb. And how the mother cares for the baby, through her diet and lifestyle, directly affects the growth of the foetus. Similar, how we take care of the environment now would directly impact the future, as the results of our actions would only surface in the future. And just as how there will still be a limitation to how a mother can predict and control the baby's growth (still depends on the genes and a little on fate), no matter how much we try to predict the future, there will still be unknowns and unexpected outcomes.

Key Takeaways
One key takeaway is definitely "work from the back if you don't know how to step forward!"
Sometimes, by taking a step back, the view is a lot clear. If one can, not only step back, but even "rewind" to back track from a particular expected outcome... it would make innovations and developments much easier to achieve!!!

Issues for Further Discussion 
I would love to have more air time to be given to the process of working from the future instead of towards it. Perhaps a particular mechanism could be used to discuss this issue in detail :)
 
Personal Ratings
7/10