Week 10: Session 9

Today, we covered emerging technologies in class. It was really interesting to see how Google spearheads many technologies and has many niche areas. Mining space asteroids and google glass were once upon a time things that we only dreamt of, which serves to reinforce sayings that will probably never get old.

“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 –

There are many avenues and platforms today that help to incubate, develop and improve ideas though debating, discussion and more. TED.com  is one such example. Many brilliant ideas all around, yet many lack the resources, conviction or inspiration to execute them. There is a whole lot of potential in fields such as GRID computing

Technology is great, however since a long time ago, there has been inequality that exists. The poor do not get access to technology as readily as the rich who can afford more. The capitalist economic model, unfortunately, has to reward innovation and creativity. Patents serve that purpose, but stifle competitors from coming up with similar products. In fact, this might discourage innovation. Therefore, it can be seen that while we prioritise rewarding innovation, inequality comes in as the poor are unable to afford these technologies, and patents prevent other companies from producing cheaper forms of the same product.

Today, the photonic gel presentation sparked off a debate. Photonic gel helps us tell immediately if food is spoilt as it detects changes within an environment, changing its colour. Someone mentioned in class that people in poorer countries can get desperate and would therefore consume contaminated food and drinks. This renders photonic gel useless. Prof corrected that if we are able to inform these people of the bad conditions and show them how to solve the problem, there is no good reason why they would not listen to reason. That is a really sound argument, although we might face communicational problems etc. Sometimes, the world seems to function in a way that the life of a citizen in America is more valuable than the life of a citizen in Kenya, for example. The problems faced by a minority in the US might be an outrage, but the same conditions might be simply normal for living in Kenya. What I am saying is, the sanctity of life is being undermined here, and technology, while blazing ahead fast, might cause us to lose the human touch.

In our struggle to become efficient and utilise smarter gadgets more effectively, have we forgotten about our humanity? We are only human, after all.. That is something we hope to never lose.

On a separate note, several speakers today raised the point of education. They said that today, the education system that worked so well for industrialisation in still in place. It is becoming obsolete. That is true. It is more important that we learn to read discerningly now that information is everywhere. To sum it up, one might ask, "What is the source of your information?"

This chapter is different because we are talking about the future, which we cannot imagine. It is like talking about something that is not there, yet. Gives one a very different feeling. Many classmates focused on various implementation problems with technologies in class today. I get that. But I am starting to appreciate the beauty of the possibilities and how a gadget/ innovation can make a positive difference to us. That is, of course, if we use it suitably.

All in all, I give this class 8.5/10.