TWC session 1

The class started off with each of us doing a short introduction of ourselves followed by a short video showing some staggering facts and figures pertaining to the future state of today's world which was then briefly followed up by a discussion of whether technology

Interesting Observations and Ideas (ideas and concepts that captured your attention) -
To me war has always been something which i associate with adversity, people suffering, people dying, poverty, national service and basically nothing good. Hence it came to me as a surprising revelation when it was mentioned in class that war is a driver of technology.

Some personal thoughts about the key points which i find useful :

1.Is technology a means to an end.
A picture was shown to us of a man's evolution from an ape to who we are now and then to a fatty. The message to us was that technology is a means to an end of human kind. I beg to differ as technology has been and always will be a tool for the evolution of man kind. Around ten million years ago, man has made use of stone to come out with tools to aid them in their daily activities such as hunting for wildlife, or simply just coming out with weapons. These tools were cutting-edge technology at that time and these technology soon allowed them to discover fire ( around 1-2 million years ago ) and subsequently the wheel at around 3500BCE. The advent of these technologies allowed mankind to develop and evolve to what it is today. Till today Technology is still pushing mankind to their fullest potential. Case in point, the timing for 100m sprinting has been going down steadily over the past few years with the emergence of atheletes like usain bolt, who is no doubt a benefactor of today's technology. Hence I believe that technology is no means to an end.


2.Technology is easy people are hard.
Humans and technology alike are both constantly evolving and both are highly sophisticated but what makes people hard when compared to technology? I believe that it is the ideology, mindset and intelligence of human beings which makes them "harder" than technology. Those attributes and features are precisely the reason why humans come out with technology instead of technology coming out with humans. That being said, although humans are the drivers of technology they are also the ones limiting the growth of technology at the same time. Case in point, nuclear power is one of the most abundant and infinite source of energy but why is it not being fully utilized even in the face of depleting natural oil resources. It boils down to the destructive nature of humans, and hence making it necessary for the UN to curb the development of nuclear energies lest countries develop nuclear armaments out of it. The technology is there for people but people are the limiting reagent to the growth of technology.


2.Why white men have so much cargo?
This question left most of us dumbfounded as most of the answers to this questions were thoroughly disputed by the prof. Examples are, class : due to them not having war. prof disputed : they had countless internal wars. Another answer : they were not receptive enough to the technology introduced to them . Prof disputed that : they were very receptive to the technology example of it can be seen from their spears and such.

It was actually because of the fact that they were not situated along any major trade routes. It suddenly dawned upon me that trade routes were integral to the development of any country and a perfect example would be Singapore. Our country started out as a fishing village and later transformed itself,due to her strategic location, to become a trading port along one of the busiest trading route in the 1900s. Evidently, a trading route does not solely bring about monetary benefits but also, the non-monetary yet priceless exchange of information, culture and most importantly technology. Not being along a trading route is definitely a disadvantage to any country as can be seen from the case of "why white men have more cargo". It is also disadvantageous if a country chooses to shut itself out of the world as can be seen from the case of China. However they have sensed the importance and benefits of being interconnected with the rest of the world and only time will tell if they indeed become the largest speaking english nation as predicted by the video : shift happens.


I feel that this session was quite an informative one as we were given the freedom to air out our thoughts. 7/10