Technology and Global Dominance / Human Development

Prof kick-started Session 2 by listing down the different aspects of Global Dominance. As he mentioned, dominance can both be direct and indirect; some aspects include social, cultural and military dominance. We addressed the question as to why companies/societies could develop and become dominant players in their relevant markets as well. 

We also talked about how development could be positive and negative, and while human development involved maximising one's potential, it is also important that we practice sustainable development as well to help conserve our environment. 

I felt that the reading about colonialism proved to be an eye opener to me as I always had a positive take on colonialism and never knew about the harsh realities that existed all along. It is indeed a tragedy that many lost their lives and there is now a big question mark regarding the  native culture that could have been passed down if not for colonialism. Some might argue that this led to societies being more civilised and advanced. However, as the writer writes, these countries had already "achieved high levels of cultural and economic development". The rise of colonialism, to me, was a tragedy as not only were many lives lost, it also led to the lost of heritage and social identity of the people. 

Another take away point I have would be the discussion about rising stars, dominant players and falling stars. A rising star would be an organisation that is keen to look at the needs of the future as well as not staying inside its comfort zone. This will lead to it becoming a dominant player and if it becomes idle and complacent for too long, this might lead to the demise of the organisation. It is beneficial to know that this analogy can be applied to almost any organisation/ country! We talked about China and India becoming dominant players and taking the place of the Westerners who are in turn become falling stars in the current global economic situation. We also applied this to football teams in the Premier League but I believe that one's judgement could somehow be skewed in this case especially if he/she is a die-hard supporter of a certain football club. :)

This session also included presentations from my classmates and I must say that they have set the bar high. It was informative and it highlighted specific cases whereby I could identify global dominance / human development in real life scenarios today. 

I hoped that we could have discussed more in-depth about technology and human development and relate them to different countries so that I could have a better understanding of how much technology can affect the development of a human. I also wanted to explore the negative impacts of human development (if there are any more), besides the degradation of our Earth's natural resources. 

I would rate this lesson a 7/10.

Happy Holidays!

Lenard

An Introduction to TWC (16 AUG)

Prof Shahi started our very first lesson on TWC with an icebreaker which included an introduction of ourselves as well as what we knew about technology and world change. In my opinion, I know that changes and advances in technology usually brings about world change (good or bad). However, I shared that I wanted to know more about whether a change in the world would create a demand for a certain kind of technology to be researched upon, and subsequently created. During the session, prof did mention about the US military having a certain need for new technology in some areas and this resulted in new inventions by different R&D companies. One such example I feel could be the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) design that essentially incorporates a V shape hull for a military vehicle to greatly increase the survival rate of passengers in the vehicles when they are hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).


Our class discussion included a brief timeline of important inventions and what I felt was rather interesting was that science and technology progressed to a much higher level in the Middle East during the 7th century than in the West. Another interesting point would be that the Chinese invented Gunpowder but it was West who fully took advantage of this invention and used it in their quest for colonization.


I guess the question that Yali posed to Prof Jared Diamond is simple but not easy to answer.  "Why do white people have so much cargo, but we New Guineans have so little?" One of the reasons I feel could be possible is an access to natural resources. Food and water are the basics of human survival and on top of hunting or foraging for food, the Whites were able to grow crops and farm animals- which made gathering food a more easy process. The Whites were able to focus their attention on improving their quality of lives which led to technological advances and thus more supplies. 


One key invention that I feel that led to dominance of the West over New Guinea is the invention of airtight food preservation by Nicolas Appert, also known as canning. With canned food, the Westerners were not concerned about the lack of food supplies when they undertook long expeditions to discover new resources and supplies as the food was preserved and could still remain edible after long periods of time.


Moving forward, I would be still be looking out during future TWC discussions for more examples whereby world change would create a demand for new technology.


I would rate this session an 8 out of 10. The introduction was a good icebreaker and enabled me to know more about my classmates. (This was the only class I attended that had an introduction involving everyone in class). On top of that, I loved the way the lessons were interspersed with interesting and yet relevant videos. :)




Lenard