SESSION 1

BRIEF OVERVIEW


The first session was basically about the timeline of technological advancements from the primitive ages to the 21st century. In this timeline, we had the industrialization period and the rise of green tech.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


1) Man has indeed come a long way from gathering fruits for food in the stone ages to producing millions of crops in months. With the progress of technology, man's demand also increases exponentially,far beyond  
what we can produce. This gives me the idea that maybe man's desire could be the driving force behind our  
continual advancements in technology.

2) The last slide caught my eye with the fat guy being the final stop of our evolution. With everything at our fingertips, we do not have to worry about anything. Food,information,socializing are all within our grasp,all we have to do is just type and click (or there may be a day when we don't even have to do that). The outdoors or the outside world seem so distant to us and what we wanted from technology was just to make our lives easier and not rely on it entirely.

SUMMARY


Even though i missed the first session, my speculation would be that the past is as equally important as the future in the aspect of the effects of technology. Indeed the society is shifting away from being labour-intensive to one that emphasizes on knowledge and innovation. However, this shift in thinking should be one that complies with our eco-goals as we are using more than we should. 

My 1st lesson in TWC

MY FIRST THOUGHTS

So here I am, creating my first ever blog in my entire life. Honestly, I was not a fan of blogging as i feel that it's a waste of time. For me, if you are feeling down or have any problems, I feel that confiding in our friends is the best solution. However, this is the IT age where primary school students are using iPhones and iPads so I guess I better keep up with the times. When I first step into the class for the lesson, my initial thoughts were that it'll be a very one-way lesson where the prof will provide us with every aspect of effects that technology has on world change. I was totally wrong as being in this class requires a huge amount of knowledge of what's going on not only currently but also in the past. Not only that, the prof banked on our reliance on the internet to be interactive and share our views. This was really an eye-opener but i guess in SMU, we pride in doing things differently. 

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SESSION 2

The first part of the lesson was about dominance of companies or societies and their impacts. We also touched on the rising,falling and dominant players in the society. The second part of the lesson was about the relationship between technology and human development and the indicators of human development.

INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS AND IDEAS

1) Without a doubt, it has to be the 'Black Death'. Indeed it may not be that relevant to our syllabus, but the idea of a disease which easily took down an empire ironically led to the rise of another fascinates me. It shows how cruel irony truly is.

2) Can happiness truly be measured? That was one of the discussions in the 2nd half of the lesson and Prof brought up one particular 'indicator' which was suicide rates. Indeed man can never be satisfied (especially Singaporeans) with what they have, so how can we truly measure the level of happiness/satisfaction in a society?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1) The make-or-break factor for every company/society is their attitude, which determines the falling, rising and the dominant players. This struck me the most because it doesn't matter whether you start late as long as you are willing to catch up, that's what differentiates you from the pack. It also helps that the prof use EPL clubs as i can relate to them and i'm a huge MAN U FAN.

2) Despite the rapid advancement of the world, there is still people out there suffering due to the incompetence of their governments and societies. Millennium  Development Goals really open up my eyes to these heartbreaking cases. Even though these goals seem easily attainable, we are still a long way from accomplishing them due to our self-interest and lack of initiative. 

3) Technology did not just started 2 or 3 years ago but centuries ago and it is really one of the factors that make the world it is today. 

PERSONAL RATINGS

As this was my first lesson, information came in thick and fast so it was hard to absorb all at once especially when we touched on history. However, the videos helped a lot in easing me through. The readings were fairly broad in content and full of perceptions. Overall, I would give a rating of 7.5. Hopefully I can contribute more in the next lesson.