The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human”
-John Naisbitt –
In my opinion, this is rather true. Considering the video we watched about Project Natal, future technology would most probably involve us interacting with avatars that are not in the real world. The challenge that this form of technology would face would be the question about ethics. What does it mean to be a human? Would society accept the virtual avatars that could possibly make our lives more convenient? I know this sounds weird, but what if we fall in love with our avatars?
Personally, I feel that the idea of virtual avatars in our daily lives is still rather avant-garde and only time will tell if society accepts it. For now, I am only comfortable with interacting with them in a game but not in my daily life.
We also talked about how mass media has developed over time. It is essentially, media that reaches the masses. From smoke signals in the ancient days to the news and social media, we have come a long way. There is a wealth of information available in the media and our sources of media have moved from "one to many" to "many to many" with the introduction of sites like Twitter and Facebook.
There is now real time updating of information and there is much more response from the masses! I do not have to search the internet if I want to find out the results of the latest soccer match. By logging in to my Facebook account and monitoring my news feed, I am able to get real time information from my die hard soccer friends out there.
The Internet has been rapidly developing from Web 1.0, where static information was given out, to Web 2.0 where the users generate the content, to Web 3.0 where the computer generates information for us. As spoken by prof, Web 3.0 would make our lives simpler in an unobtrusive way. I am very excited by what capabilities Web 3.0 possess and can't wait for the full potential of it to be unleashed!
With the invention of the internet, cloud computing has become readily accessible to everyone. Little do we realise that we have been cloud users all this while! When we open our email, access the schools e learning website and use dropbox, on our various devices, we are constant tapping onto the cloud system of shared information. I learnt that cloud computing reduces the start up costs of business, and this would increase competition as more businesses are available and customers have more products and services to choose from.
Companies now have chief knowledge officers to manage knowledge in the company. We first acquire information from data that makes sense, and knowledge refers to the application of information in the company and working environment that we are in. There is an increasing need to manage intellectual property, and it is important for companies to claim their know how, know what, and know who. It would be unwise to leave the entire knowledge of the company to a few key individuals as ones loyalty can never be trusted.
Along with the advantages of ICT come disadvantages as well. With the vast network and far reaching effects of ICT, espionage and invasion of privacy is highly possible in our society. It is therefore important that we learn to privatize the content we upload and share on the internet. Hackers have also used technology to their advantage, with the recent phone hacking scandal by News of the World, which is the most famous case of hacking we know today. There is also a danger of exposure to corrupting influences and unsuspecting users of the internet might fall prey to online fraud as well as pornography addiction. In my opinion, one of the solutions that we can use to counter this problem is to educate the public to increase their awareness of these issues and raise up avenues to cure addiction to online vices.
Andrea shared about the use of social media in times of social unrest, and highlighted that riots were exacerbated by the rioters use of social media as a means of communication to create more unrest. In the discussion, I felt that it was necessary for the government to step in to censor media in times of success. One might argue that this is taking away our rights and affecting our social lives but I feel that it is for the benefit of the whole society to censor media when the need arises and monitor media to safeguard the peace and stability of our country.
Rebecca shared about the rise of e books such as Amazon's Kindle and a very comprehensive discussion followed. Would e books replace conventional books completely in the near future? In my opinion, there still remains a need for conventional books, like cookbooks! Conventional books to me would serve as a better keepsake then e books, though i don't discount the fact that e books have many benefits. It is less bulky, and definitely more energy saving! With e books, forests are saved as there are less trees being cut down, and energy is saved as there are less transport costs! I am waiting to see how much a role e books will play in our society in the future!
I felt that we could have discussed more about future communication technologies- the super computer, 3 in 1 devices combining the television, computer and handphone into a single device, or maybe communication to other people through the projections of holograms. Overall, this session was very thought provoking and the discussions were in depth. I would rate this lesson a 9/10.
Lenard
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