session 11

Session 11

Today’s lesson started off with an interesting video about Siemens, which talked about how Siemens identifies and solves the problems around the world. I did a bit of research on Siemens and to my surprise; Siemens is actually involving in my fields of technology ranging from oil to water and even medical instruments. I did some read up on water treatment by Siemens and I realized that Siemens has helped many regions to solve the problem of shortage of clean water. Each case is split according to its geographical location and a detailed report written about how Siemens solve the problems as well as challenges facing.

I want to comment on the video, which made fun or Microsoft advertisement. The point I want to discuss here is that if the technology really needs 400 years to become realistic? Honestly I do not think so. In my opinion, except for the concept phone, the rest of the technology should be able to appear in 10 – 20 years time. The only thing is that these technologies may not be able to become very popular in such a short period of time probably due to price and availability.

But I cannot deny that there is a possibility that such concept phone will become real in a decade’s time. I think for all these technologies, the key challenge is not whether or not we can build this or that but if everyone is able to afford it. I believe the technologies that involve in the concept phone will appear really soon but how long will it take before scientists can transform the technologies into something most of us are able to afford.

I think most of the time when we were discussing in class if this or that technology will appear soon, we often forget to discuss the point that when will this technology become popular. The discovery of electricity was way before the light bulb was invented. What I am trying to say here is that it is useless with the discovery of the technology without putting it into practical use. Hence even though we may be able to achieve many breakthroughs in various fields of technology, majority of the population will not be able to experience the benefits that those breakthroughs have brought.

In conclusion, I think the technologies we saw in the video will possibly become real in 10 years’ time but we need at least 40-50 years to be able to achieve the popularity of those technologies as shown in the video.

Today is the last lesson of the term and I think the atmosphere is really good and class participation is good as well. Today I will give the lesson 9/10.

Session 9

Session 9

During last week’s session, prof had already told us that today’s session was going to be one of the most interesting sessions in the entire semester. Indeed, today’s session is really interesting and engaging. Many eye-opening videos broadened our imagination.

My key take away from this session is that nothing is impossible to be invented and when we say something is impossible to happen, it merely means that we are not imaginative enough. For example, prof showed us a video on the 3D printer, which said that scientist had successfully printed out a well-functioned organ. Honestly speaking this idea never even cross my mind before and this further shows that our imagination is very limited and thus when we see or hear some interesting ideas, do not reject it instantly.

There is something I would like to address here. It is the topic discussed by one of the presenter. She talked about virtual world, which I think is a double-edged sword technology. It is true that this development has many advantages such as stress relief. However, the underlying social impact is something we cannot ignore. In the current days, computer game addiction among teenagers is following an increasing trend. More and more kids get drown in the virtual world where they can do almost anything they want. From a psychological point of view, it is true that the virtual world will provide us a place where we can relieve ourselves and do things that we cannot do in the real world. Many people also found their confidence through playing computer game. However, these factors contribute to the increasing trend of gaming addiction, which should be stopped. Therefore, if this technology becomes available, it will worsen the current situation by many folds. More and more kids will drop out from school and facing more serious problems than just addiction to computer game. They may refuse to live in the real world, as there are just too many things that are not going the way they want. Hence if government allows the development of this technology, a strict set of rule should be implemented to prevent these social problems from worsening.

Regarding the issue whether AI will overthrow human one day, I think that at least in the near future it is still something only happening in the science fiction. Of course I will not deny that one day this may happen to us. To me the problem is not whether this will happen or not but what are we going to do to prevent it from happening. Maybe a set of law should be implement on how much development the scientist can go in terms of AI technology. Maybe it is not feasible but it is just my opinion as it will be too late to regret when one day we are living in the once science fiction world.

Overall I rate this session 9.5 out of 10 as the session involves many interesting discussions and sharing. 

session 8

Today we had our 9^th session and the topic we discussed in class was Energy. It is a really interesting topic and I learnt many interesting facts through this lesson.

One of the points I think really interests me is the way Germany encourage the installation of solar panels. The government is trying to promote the use of solar power among its people by giving cash incentives.  Each household is allowed to sell the electricity to the grid at a higher price and then buy from them at a lower price when they need to use. Therefore not only electricity becoming free but also allows the residence to make a small profit out of it. I think this incentive is a very good way to promote solar energy. This makes me wonder why Singapore does not have any form of incentive for solar energy.  Geographically Singapore has its natural advantage, as there is sufficient sunshine throughout the year. By providing incentives, many private house owners will be willing to install the solar panel.  The only problem in Singapore is that most of our housing are high rise building so solar power is unable to provide enough energy for the residence however, the government still should promote this green technology. This technology is still not fully mature yet but I believe one day it will and it will be too late to start to raise the awareness among people by then. Therefore, I feel that our government should implement some policies to encourage solar power and raise the awareness of its people.

Towards the end of class, there is a discussion about whether country should be punished for causing severe pollution. In my opinion, the country should be punish because that is simply the best way to deter the country from polluting as well as setting a deterrence for other countries. The best way to punish the country I think is through economy sanction. It is true that it will be a tough decision as there is no proper guideline on the standard of pollution and also it is very hard to track the exact amount of pollution the country is emitting. Therefore a collaborative effort is needed within the region such as ASEAN.  When one country is been noticing for pollution problem, other neighbouring countries should warn the country for bring the matter to international court.

There are also interesting presentations near the end of the lesson. I think the idea of putting magic tricks into the presentation is a brilliant idea as it is able to catch the attention of the audience.

Overall I rate this lesson 9/10 due to the interesting topic as well as enthusiastic discussion and presentation.