Session 9- Emerging and future technologies

I felt that this session was very open ended and there were many interesting ideas discussed. I realised that the only thing that limits the level of technology in the future would be our own imagination. As Albert Einstein says, " imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand" We might have a lot of knowledge, but we all need a sense of imagination to apply the knowledge and take technology to greater heights. Children are always bursting with imagination. They want to fly, go to the moon, or even live under the sea. They believe that all this is possible as there is no limit to the imagination that they have. However, as time goes by, children grow up and they go to school in a bid to increase their knowledge. They learn the norms of society and know that it is not possible to fly or that it is very expensive to travel in space. Most of us are now limited by the knowledge that we have, and we are afraid to think big as we are afraid of failure. If we still viewed issues with child like imagination, I believe our world would have been a very different place by now.

We were introduced to the concept of plastic electronics. Imagine if electronics could become flexible, if they could be bent and manipulated in whatever way we wanted. We could have ipads and laptops that could be fold-able and be put into a small bag. This would revolutionize the entire electronic industry.

In the future, e readers such as the one pictured can be folded like a conventional newspaper and brought where ever we go!

The kind of technology that will be developed in the world would depend on the different drivers of world change. These drivers can be market driven (summit opportunities) and there is a current demand for a certain technology to be created. Emerging companies are encouraged to invest in developing these kind of technology as there is a guaranteed market for that form of technology. On the other hand, scientific research and development can create technology driven industries, and these are called cloud opportunities. Companies with sufficient capital can choose to invest in these as there is a possibility of a strong market for these technologies. We also know that sometimes, technology can defy the laws of economics. Supply can sometimes create demand when society is introduced to a form of technology that they are convinced they need. For example, the world never knew the need for tablet technology, but when Apple released the iPads, it was an instant hit with the masses. People realised that the device helped to make lives more convenient and had many benefits to the user. 

Robots and machines would be changing our way of life in the future. During the session, Prof shared with us about the concept of creating a "perfect" woman". There are men in society who have not been able to get attached as they are unable to find the perfect partner to suit their character, style, and personality. Researchers have come out and designed a "perfect woman" to be a perfect companion. Personally, I find this rather queer because i cannot imagine a human falling in love with a robot. A robot is not a person as everything has been pre-programmed. This is only a short term solution of filling up the empty space in the heart of a man. Furthurmore, I think that it would be very tough for society to accept the idea of humans falling in love with machines and even marrying and starting a family with them. This is a good example of technology being limited by society's concerns. 

As the rate at which technology is improving is constantly increasing, there exists an idea called technology singularity. Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. (Wikipedia 2011) In layman terms, this refers to the future whereby technology is so advanced till we ourselves are unable to comprehend and control technology. Possible causes of this singularity would include artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement or brain-computer interfaces.  (Wikipedia 2011) There is no known solution if this idea of singularity becomes a real problem for us to solve in the future. It is therefore important that mankind takes the effort to regulate the growth of technology and ensure that we are always one step ahead and able to control the technology we have. The advancement of technology might have negative impacts on society as well. Imagine if the development of artificial intelligence might result in robot workers in the future. This would eliminate the need for human workers in the factory line and all these workers would be out of job. It is therefore a challenge to deal with the transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy.

The presentations during this session was a real eye opener. I realised that there is actually a possibility of developing a cure for AIDS. Yunting shared that a man diagnosed with both HIV and leukemia survived as he received bone marrow from a donor that had a resistance to HIV. Imagine if scientists could replicate the properties of the bone marrow, it would be likely that we might see a cure in 10-20 years time. 

Overall, this was a very informative session as I learnt that the future has no possibilities and is limited only by our imagination. Then again, it is important to control the rate at which technology advances to prevent a world that is ruled by technology in the future. However, I felt that we could discuss more about avant-garde technology like invisibility, time travel, teleportation, having an avartar for everyone, and even being able to fly. Are these just figments of our imagination or are they possible in the future? I would rate this lesson an 8/10.

Lenard