Summary:
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This week, we were introduced to 2 news way of viewing technology. Firstly, we saw technology's impact on global dominance, and secondly, its impact on human development.
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Starting with global dominace, we discussed about the different dimensions of global dominance such as social, cultural, economical, industrial, military, and what I find increasingly influential today, information or disinformation. We were also introduced to a simple principle which could describe and explain the rising and falling powers of today. A rising star is a firm or even an entire nation that has an open perspective and was always open to new ideas while the falling star was quite the opposite and was mainly arrogant. These different attitudes towards new technologies could explain the disparity of power and influence in today's society.
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Regarding technology and human development, there are also multiple point of views that we can take to further break down this large concept. We examined the issue from social, economical, industrial, cultural and sustainability perspectives. Human development is generally seen a progress in a positive direction. However it might also bring about negative implications and hence, it is essential to do an economical/social impact assessment to determine if we should continue to use technology to undergo human development.
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Interesting observations:
- To me, I feel that information will become one of the largest factors in global dominance. This is observed as information is increasingly becoming a "necessity" in the lives of many. I use the inverted commas as though it is not as essential as food and water, having sufficient knowledge is still a major factor for one's livelihood if one is to stay competitive in the global market. Further more, due to technological advances, these firms are not bounded by their country's territories but are able to broadcast their information globally. Major news agencies such as CNN and BBC are now global and many across the world turn to it for information. Web giants such as wikipedia and google are sources of information or search engines that provide the assessibility of information. These huge firms determine what information is presented to the public, and thus have a huge impact of the lives of people all over the world.
- My next observation is related to both global dominance and human development. History tells us of the countless times humans have used their superior technology in an attempt to exert their authority over others. From the European countries colonising the African or Asian communites, to World War 1 & 2, and the most recent invasion of Iraq, we have seen the destruction and devastation of communities. Many lifes have been lost. However, have we humans learnt from these lessons? Have we become better as humans in that we care more for one another now? Certainly technology allows us to have greater life expectancy and improves our standard of living, but it has not made us better humans. Of course this view is rather extreme considering the collective efforts of the UN in trying to eliminate poverty, and only the future will decide if we have really become better humans.
Key takeaways
- Firstly, like the video about the 8 Millenium Goals that we watched, I really believe that we could make the word a better place for all to live if we all worked together as a global community. That involves us putting aside our personal interests and putting the needs of others first. This is probably the biggest hurdle that we have to overcome before we can realise these 8 Millenium Goals.
- Secondly, I feel that the key principles that determine a rising star and falling player is very applicable to both firms and us individually. Just as a firm is able to gain power and influence in the market if it is open to new ideas and positive, we can also grow and learn much more if we follow these same attitudes. This will greatly increase our knowledge and widen our perspective of the current world.
Issues
Due to time constraints, we did not have a chance to really go in-depth into technology and human development. While we have talked much about improving the mechnical human (capabilities), we did not have much a chance to discuss about improving the software (thinking) of humans. Education certainly has a large hand to play in improving the software of humans and knowing both aspects would give us a better all-rounded view of human development.
Rating
I would rate the class as 8/10 as the lessons learnt during the class are very applicable to our daily lives. Furthermore, we have discussed issues such as global dominance more in-depthly whereas normally we would just view it as something that is part of the status quo.
