Session 12-8/11/2011

Here we are; me and you

Feeling lost and feeling blue.

~Happy New Year~

Nothing lasts forever. And the moment when everything is about to meet its end tends to invoke immense feelings from people. My TWC course is no exception. Today is the last day of my course, when all of the students in G11 gathered to listen to the last 4 group presentations. Everyone seemed to be very reminiscent of the whole course, as could be told from their emotional faces. Some were looking out windows at distance, while some were just sitting motionless with their eyes gazing at the ceiling. The chilling atmosphere was intensified by the cold wind coming out from the ventilation system.12 weeks passed like in an eye-blink. It was until this session that I completely grasped the true message that Prof wanted to impart on everyone students, which was that the world is being modified tremendously every day. Every moment can’t be captured should it already pass and hence, not only should one treasure every moment he is in so that he won’t be regretting them in the future, one should also get oneself ready and be updated with the continuously changing world so as to survive effectively.

Still, although saddened by that harsh fact, I had no choice but to crumble all of the sissy thoughts and ideals in my head to focus on my group presentation. Our group was a penultimate one in the order of presentation this session, so I had quite a large amount of time to redact the whole group website and condense my virtual script. The first group gave a presentation on music. Their presentation provided me a pretty deep insight into the development of music and the impact of technology on music. It was very informative and understandably presented. However, there was a minor error in their project. The Beatles and Michael Jackson were actually a band and performer respectively in the 20^th century, not the 19^th century. In general, the impact of Technology on music is indubitably large. Indeed, the size and weight of the mediums of keeping music have been greatly reduced, from heavy records dating back in the 18^th century to hand-size I-phones at present.

The second group presented about vaccines. It was pretty interesting a display of various types of vaccines and ways to make them. Their website was very impressive and comprehensible. Wix, again, was used, which resulted in their captivating layout and theme of their website. During their presentation, I found out that there have been a couple of forms of delivering vaccines into human body. The most astonishing one is edible vaccine. This newly invented form of vaccine will definitely be valued by children around the world, since they no longer have to endure the pains stemming from being injected with glaringly sharp needles. Additionally, such vaccines can be delivered to various places with ease since no strict requirement of the temperature or the fragility is to be followed. Some concerns about the detriments of vaccines were also raised since the vaccines in nature are deceased or deactivated hazardous organisms or processed products of them. Hence, they can still endanger highly insensitive injectees.

Our group, as the third group, touched on the realm of food. Technology has radically reshaped the food industry and the way humans consume food on the whole. Despite its vital importance not only to humans but also to any living-beings, finding foods was a daunting challenge in the past, specifically in the prehistoric age, to humankind. This was mainly because of the over-reliance of humans on temporal and unsubstantial methods of producing foods such as hunting or foraging. However, thanks to technology, foods have become widely available almost everywhere. In order to find out more about how technology has level up the food industry and the availability of food, just have a glance at our website. After my group presentation, I was so worried that I couldn’t focus on what the last group present about. Still, their website was beautifully constructed, which resulted from the contribution of three year 2 IS students in their group.

Seems like it’s time to say goodbye to my blog.12 blog entries are really something to me since I have never written that much in my Vnese blog. And time to say farewell to Prof Gurinder Shahi, the most industrious prof I have ever seen, moving from his workplace to SMU like a rocket. Thanks to your ardent passions, I have become more much more updated with the past, current and future technologies along with various concepts in numerous areas.

Goodbye!

P/s: Here is the link to the final products of the last four groups
1.Music:http://www.wix.com/keithngqq/twc_musicstorage
2.Vaccines: http://www.wix.com/twc2011/vaccinations
3.GM food:http://techandfood.weebly.com/
4.Crime Tracking:http://www.wix.com/jasmine_siew/g11-grouph

Session 11-31/10/2011

“Technology and world change” nearly reaches its end. Ten sessions have passed like a blink and now the burden of standing for hours in front of people lecturing is finally transferred from Prof to students. In session 11, which is the today session, and 12, each small group in the class will have a chance to introduce to the rest of the class their research on a particular topic and later substantiate it. And it is a whole new experience to me!

The first group discuss the traditional way businesses function and compare it to E-business. I have to admit that their website is indeed breath-taking. Truly amazing! The layout of the website is as captivating as all the flashy online clothing shopping websites, with all of the fanciful and colourful high-heels and dresses. Cool as it may seem as first, this kind of layout may offend or vex people in some cases in which those people are really seeking for some real online shopping sites. However, my overall impression on the site is pretty high. As regards the presenters, I think they are really well-prepared since all made a nearly flawless and fluent speech.  But what I find most interesting is the crux of their presentation – the content. Frankly, as an old-fashioned guy, I prefer the brick and mortar business, which is the conventional type of business, to the online one. Clearly, brick and mortar businesses provide customers a chance to test and check the goods, which is highly valued by buyers at large. There have been several cases in which online shoppers received goods which were far different in terms of quality. Also, it is more credible to hand in your money to the sellers and get the goods at the same. E-business, however fast and convenient it might be, definitely at times errs at it is conducted on-line and the online world, as is all known, is very insecure.

The second group, though only has 4 members, really awed the class with their website and presentation on online dating. Even though their website is not as technically sophisticated and well-designed as the previous group, it is very informative and illustrious. A lot of online-dating sites from various countries are pictured on the website, with the guideline on how each works and so on, which helps to substantiate and exemplify their view. All of the members really succeeded in voicing out their perspectives since their speeches were clearly made and significantly engaging. E-dating? I would say no. Even though it was touted by the group to help singles and loners to find their soul-mate with ease, E-dating was quite superficial I believe and unreliable. Moreover, as an old-schooled guy, I would rather waste ten hours shedding blood and tears to find my other half than spare ten minutes skimming through online dating websites. Not to mention the potential risks of losing personal information or money in these website, which are the problems that have been dissected as nauseum.   

For the last two groups, their presentation and websites were pretty detailed and catchy. Still have to hat off for the video of the GM-food group since it’s pretty entertaining and really mirrored the effort of the whole group. Also, our TA was quite valiant as he accepted the petition from that group to try rice in two boxes they brought along to the class to pinpoint which was boxes was containing GM rice. The result is quite foreseeable – He couldn’t tell, the rice from both boxes tasted exactly the same. Regarding GM food, so far there have been 2 groups presenting about this, one of which was the group presenting in this session and the other was mine. Based on what they have done so far, should I group not want to be  just a follower of their group, more effort made to better the website as well as the content.

Overall, the first presentation session went quite beyond my expect since all of the presentations were professionally carried out. All so, my knowledge was widened considerably after listening to their presentation. Hence, I would grade this session 9/10.      

Links to all the websites:

1. E-business: http://www.wix.com/klgan70/twc-ebusiness

2.E-dating: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41472439/Finding%20Love%20Online%20Website/Finding_Love_Online/Welcome.html

3.GM food: http://www.wix.com/twcgroupd/supermansdiet

4.Kinetic Tech: http://www.wix.com/jjwses/twc-2011

3.

Session 10-24/10/2011

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called present

~Kungfu Panda~

Two years has passed since I last watched this childishly interesting animation but that adage concluded by Oogway – The grandmaster still echoes in my mind. That’s right, the preciousness of life lies in every moment that we breathe, talk and so on. Don’t agonize or indulge oneself immersing in the past filled with memories since they are all over, and can’t be changed; or nervously try to foresee the future since “the only predictable thing about life is it unpredictability” (Ratatouille). Treasure every second you live in and happiness eventually comes to find you. Sounds like a perfect lifestyle, doesn’t it?

Oh no!Wake up! I am not in a la-la-land anymore. Ten years have blown since the turn of the second millennium banged our door with the Y2K problem, and the world now is becoming more and more predictable than ever. It’s not a puff, seriously, for Alan Kay opined that “The only way to predict the future is to invent it”. I am capable shape our own future, and in order not to mould it into an alien figure, I’d better abstain from fussing around and spend more time keep myself updated with my surrounding world. Changes are happening everywhere in every field, and most of them are fuelled by technologies. As technology are surging forward at rocket speed and thus revolutionarily changing the world, it’s crucial to throw more attention to the current development of technology and foretell the upcoming technologies so as to better shape the world according to our will. R&D of technology must be further invested in so as to give better goals and direction to the development of technology.

One of the videos Prof showed today decoded the word “future” in a new and intriguing light. Future is an acronym:

Fast. Undeniably, the landscape and essence of our world is changing so fast. Everyday new things come out, be it a new invention or a new company or even a trend. In every second, something in some places becomes different.

Urban. The urbanization is sweeping through various areas around the world. To illustrate, many countryside areas in Vietnam have been converted into elementary cities, with the existence of high-rise and numerous services.

Tribal. It’s now about tribes whose people live in bungalows and on hunting. Tribes here are actually groups of people that have something in common, be it liking a certain kind of sport or idolizing a singer.

Universal. As the world is becoming more and more flattened, changes and trends can easily spread throughout the world. In this information era, virtually every beings and areas are interconnected.

Radical. The world is being turned upside-down. Something holds true today may not in tomorrow

Ethical. Society is being distorted profoundly by the upsurge of technology development. As I mentioned in my previous post, currently, the growth of human philosophy and social norms is being lagged behind from the rocket-paced advance of technology. The gap between the rich and the poor within a country, as well as between developed and undeveloped country will be dramatically extended and may incite certain unpredictable incidents such as riots or even wars. Also, as life can only get better as time flow, humans will eventually be freed from certain burdens and tasks which consequently give them more time to spare and enjoy life. But having more time in one’s pocket isn’t always a good thing

During this session, there was a question raised about the sustainability of current jobs and some predictions on future jobs. Numerous existing jobs, most of which are labour-intensive and manual ones, will eventually disappear since the world economy is transforming to a knowledge-based one, which calls for the attendees of such economy to have a strong “brain”, not arm. For example, the term “janitor” will only be found in the future encyclopaedia since there are currently numerous machines that can be manned to clean and wipe the floor and those machines, with time, will definitely be upgraded into better versions which can completely execute such task automatically.

Wen Cong’s presentation somehow stood out from the crowd since he pinpointed the difference between prediction and forecasting. Though the definitions of these two words are initially quite different from one another, they are still used interchangeably in some cases, which is not correct. Predicting is just merely guessing what may happen without any ground, whereas forecasting can only be done based on current statistics and information. At present, what must be done is not predicting, an easy job that anyone can do and has been done for years, but foretelling the future based the current situation. The world at large will be severely de-orbited if we fail to speculate what its future will be like and make proper adjustments and take meaningful actions to steer it towards the forecasted future. At the end of his presentation, Wen Cong made a conclusion that is still now lingering in my mind:

“The goal of forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to take meaning action in the present.”

My TWC course is going to meet its end soon. It’s quite hard to believe that more ten weeks has passed since I attended my first class in SMU. Memories with this course may be something too far-fetched, but what I gain in terms of knowledge is abundant. Thanks to this course, I have chances to keep myself updated with various hard-hitting political, economic and technology news, mostly via Facebook; to voice out my opinions on such news and on top of that, the dynamic world I live in with its aspects that is kept being reformed by the hands of technology. Still, as I believe, the world is always under human control and its shape depends on our will. Envisaging how the world will be like in the future and daring to actualize such visions not only aid one in moulding the world according to his desire but also earn him social recognition and wealth in the end, with one of the most promising field to execute such thing is technology. And that’s the hidden “moral’’ of this session I assert.

Personal rating: 7/10. Though this session did provide some insights into the future of our world as well as the development of technology, I found it not as engaging and captivating as the previous sessions.