The first Technology and World Change session kicked off
with a self-introduction by everyone. I was very happy to know that there are
students in the class who came from different hometowns and backgrounds such as
from India, Malaysia and China. This will definitely make future sessions more
enhancing, as we will be able to listen to our classmates share about their
experiences and knowledge about the advancement of technology and its impacts
from different point of views and from different parts of the world.
The second part of the first session saw the discussion on
the advancement of technology and its impacts on mankind, and important events
that shaped the behavior of man today. I also understood that the term technology is very often mistaken for ICT. Instead, technology
refers to the knowledge and usage of tools in our everyday lives, not just the
gadgets that we highly dependent on today.
Prof Shahi showed us a video called “Shift Happens” that
portrayed shocking numbers of how our world is rapidly changing even faster
than we imagined it to be. Ironically, China will very soon become the number one
English speaking country in the world and this will significantly affect US and
it’s role in global leadership.
The discussion of Guns, Germs and Steel (Jared Diamond,
2005) saw the different reasons for the disparity in terms of technology in
many parts of the world, particularly Europe as compared to Papua New Guinea. They
are such as:
1)
Differences in wealth of the countries.
2)
Differences in human development caused by
economic and political histories
3)
Social environment and educational opportunities
4)
Climate and Surroundings
The series of aforementioned factors worked in tandem to
result in the incompetency of Papua New Guinea’s state of technology vis-a-vis
the European states.
Prof Shahi also mentioned that the retired boss of IBM,
Thomas J. Watson, said that, “I think there is a world
market for maybe five computers”. He has clearly underestimated the
rapid growth and magnifying impact that technological advancement has on the
human race.
My takeaway from the discussion is that the world is
improving and advancing faster than we can imagine, and innovations and
inventions are occurring more often than ever.
• First Use of
Fire – about 100,000 years ago
• From
Hunter-Gatherers to Agriculture – about 11,000 years ago
• The Rise of
Urban Settlements – about 8,000 years ago
• Writing – about
4,000 years ago
• Gunpowder –
about 1,000 years ago
• Industrial
Revolution – about 150 years ago
• Agricultural
Revolution – about 50 years ago
• ICT Revolution
– started about 30 years ago, still on-going
• BioBusiness
Revolution – about 10 years ago, still relatively nascent
• GreenTech
Revolution – about 3-5 years ago, rapid innovation
Using this timeline shown by Prof Shahi during the lesson, we
can see that the dates of which new inventions are created are getting closer
and closer as compared to before, when it would require thousands of years
before a new advancement in technology. This can be due to the increase in
intensity of research and studies for new technology.
Finally, I give this lesson a 9/10. It was an eye opener and
I am now more interested to learn about the evolution of man and technology.
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