This final post will serve as a final review and summary of the content covered in the process of this course, which happens to be alot! Join me in taking a walk down memory lane :)
Session 1 (Guns, Germs and Steel)
In this session, we analysed parts of Guns, Germs and Steel and watched a short clip on it, which jerked me back to the very prominent question posed by Yali, a New Guinean politician, on why white men had the capacity to develop more cargo and introduce it to New Guinea, while the blacks were unable to emulate the act because they possessed so little cargo. This question on discrimination and inequality is one rooted in prehistoric times and one that is still omnipresent in the modern context, which provides a perfect lead-in to the need to assess the reasons behind it to seek greater understanding to a question that never seemed to find its full stop.
Besides this interesting read, another very memorable line that I will soon find repeated constantly by our professor, to ensure that our concept of it is clear and that there are no misunderstandings involved, is the definition of "technology". Technology is the application of science and knowledge. It is "knowing what to do, and how to do it". This is one of the biggest takeaway messages conveyed to me in the course of the module because it has altered the myopic view I had of this term. Initially, I perceived technology to be associated only with the Internet and the various electronic devices we possess but with the guidance of our professor, I have grasped the abstract concept of technology, which is useful in the preceding sessions.
Session 2 (Technology, Society and Global Dominance & Technology and Human Development)
This session introduced us to the Organisational Behavioural Model, which separated the Rising Stars, Falling Stars and the Dominant Player into three categories. It reminds us of the need to be open to new ideas to constantly innovate and create new developments in order to remain relevant in a world with perpetually evolving dynamics. To adopt a closed mindset that is resistant to changes and improvisation is to set oneself on the track to becoming a Falling Star, one whose competitive advantage will soon erode with time and changing contexts. On the other hand, a Dominant Player is one that displays leadership over the field, influencing and determining the rules and order to be followed. This brings us to a key message that can be linked back to Yali's question. Stagnant societies that are unwilling to spearhead a change to their current practices and their present predicament will find themselves in a similar or deteriorating situation. The only way to fight inequality and discrimination is to prove you are worth otherwise. Dominance and prosperity does not come without constant changes, adaptations, improvements and innovations being made, and this is what most societies especially the backward and less developed ones need to realise in order to catch up with the global powers.
The latter half of this session dwelled on the measurement of human development, a useful tool that provides us with the necessary yardsticks to evaluate the needs and shortcomings of a nation, which can help boost the country's standard of living (material and non-material) and aid in the achievement of world millennium goals drafted to increase the quality of life of every individual on this shared planet.
Session 3 (Technology and Industrial Development & Technology and Innovation Management)
This lesson highlighted the importance of industrial development, alerting us to the need to ensure that our processes are relevant in the present and can remain sustainable in the future. In light of the damage done to Earth as a result of environmental degradation from the use of a traditional linear approach to industrialisation, an awareness of our surroundings has called upon a change, where a move towards a cyclical approach is advocated instead to create a more sustainable future for Earth's children. Within this approach, opportunities are created to constantly innovate with the combination of technology and ideas.
The session also covered Technology and Innovation Management, where we were introduced to the Research-Development-Application (R-D-A) Translation Process, a three step process that is used to respond to market needs. In this way, ideas can be materialised with careful research and consistent development and be eventually sold as a new innovation in markets, corporations and enterprises, creating batches after batches of new products with greater diversity, productivity and efficiency. The value creation pipeline is also an interesting and useful process that marries science and technology with business and marketing to bring about rapid growth to the economy of concern.
Session 4 (Drivers of World Change & Change Management and Change Leadership
The key takeaway message in this session is that an active change needs to be generated towards achieving sustainable living. To do so, there needs to be a choice to change, willingness to act on this change and preparedness to execute the change. This can be achieved through the APDC cycle (Action -> Plan -> Do -> Change -> Action -> Plan…) that puts the plan into action, makes improvements and brings about transformations. In relation to Yali's question, while inequality cannot be completely eradicated in the near future especially with its roots tracing so far back and its current form entrenching deep within many societies, it is possible to change this step by step as a collective global effort. The lesson also enlightened us on the difference between evolutionary, revolutionary and disruptive change, where the distinction is crucial to ensure that the change is directed in the right direction.
Another vital message that I took home with me at the end of this session is the difference between leadership and management. A leader is one who is visionary, looks into the future and explores the unknown while leaving a trail behind for his/her followers. A manager on the other hand adopts the existing route embarked on by the leader to assist in overseeing and enforcing the rules among the members of the organisation. Again, back to Yali's question, to drive world change towards greater equality be it between races, genders or nationalities, leadership is required to construct the framework for change (the direction, timeline and agenda) while managers are instrumental in facilitating the change spearheaded by the leader. Hence, the importance of the cooperation between both actors should not be undermined when seeking to drive a global change for a cause such as the achievement of equality or other millennium goals like alleviating world poverty for example.
Session 5 (ICT and World Change)
This session highlighted the impact of ICT in making a difference to the world. Indeed, we have witnessed how mass media, the Internet, social networking, crowd sourcing, gaming, wireless technologies, information systems, cloud computing and knowledge management have transformed the way we lead our lives. Many have grown so reliant on ICT that they are no longer masters of ICT but have instead allowed ICT to gain mastery over them, dictating their everyday lives. The world change is evident from the progress of an era of hunters to the domestication of animals and agriculture, before entering the phase of the Industrial Revolution and finally a transition into the ICT/Knowledge Revolution. While some (usually the more developed countries) have benefitted immensely from the Revolution and used it to harvest economic growth and national advancement, not all countries have successfully captured the potential of ICT. The presence of a digital divide remains and this is associated with Yali's question on inequality between the richer and poorer nations. As long as access to ICT and the benefits brought along with it is only limited to a select group of people with imposed barriers of entry to technology, ICT can never be used as a global driver of world change because of the fundamental inequality between those that wield the privilege to access it and those that lack it. Thus, a world change needs to be encouraged to bring ICT to every nation, developed or not. Following this, it is also important to ensure that knowledge on how to use the information acquired is disseminated before it can be applied effectively. Technology can be a very useful and beneficial tool in fulfilling our goals if it is used correctly, but it can also be harnessed to bring destruction and harm. Thus, it is prudent to remind ourselves that technology is not evil, but it is Man who manipulates and misuses it who is contemptible.
Session 6 (Biobusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences)
In this lesson, we learnt that within the bio-business landscape, there are summit, valley and cloud opportunities. The best approach highlighted by our professor is to embark on summit opportunities, which capture the value in existing propositions while simultaneously creating new areas of interest to develop into cloud opportunities. An example of an industry that capitalises on summit opportunities is the healthcare and biomedical sciences arena. The healthcare bio-medical sector involves the provision of biomedical processes and biomedical research. Healthcare is seen to be a growing sector in light of the rising affluence in many nations that have led to a spike in demand for higher quality and more frequent healthcare services. Nevertheless, the problem of inequality has greatly polarised the level of healthcare spending across different countries and this is alarming since healthcare is key in ensuring the sustainability of our population and hence, should be given as much emphasis in the less developed regions of the world as the richer nations. As a result, a change needs to be driven to increase the availability of healthcare and ensure that this basic requirement is brought to every person on this planet to make medicine, surgery and other forms of healthcare a necessity and not a privilege.
Session 7 (Biobusiness Revolution: Agribiology, Environmental Life Sciences and Industrial Biotechnology)
This session raised my awareness to the opportunity cost between growing food and growing energy resources and thus, one area that I felt was worth exploring in relation to this topic is the development of new innovations to manage the tradeoff between food and energy and ensure that mankind can reap the benefits of both simultaneously without sacrificing on one while consuming another. Currently, agriculture accounts for 2.6 trillion of the global biobusiness market, a huge amount relative to the other biobusiness sectors. Biobusiness capitalises on both biological knowledge and expertise in technology to create higher quality food and sustainable food, resulting in a range of genetically modified products with leaps and bounds made in genetic engineering. Selective breeding has also enhanced the yield of agricultural crop, increasing their productivity more than ever before. Through the improvement of agricultural practices, Man has been able to harness technology to produce more food for a growing world population such that we are not only self-sufficient now but also able to sustain ourselves in the future. This brings renewed faith into the possibility of alleviating world hunger and achieving a key world millennium goal in the process.
Biotechnology is the utilisation of bioprocesses and life systems to make a difference. While biotechnology only makes up a small portion of the global biobusiness market, it can definitely be seen as a summit opportunity in the biobusiness landscape because of its great potential in many areas. Biotechnology has diverse applications, be it marine biotechnology (GM salmon), food biotechnology (stem cells, production of burgers in labs), industrial biotechnology (biocatalysts such as enzymes that are used in washing machines) or environmental biotechnology (bioremediation that introduces nutrients to stimulate activity of existing bacteria or to create new bacteria that consumes waste materials so as to aid in waste management), revealing the potential of biotechnology in generating a change in the way we lead our lives.
We also discussed about food security, which refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. Everyone has the right to adequate food and bearing this in mind, we should aim to provide food to everyone on the planet so that the poor can be freed from problems like food shortages, malnutrition and starvation. This relates back to Yali's question on inequality and the need to address it to ensure that everyone has sufficient food supply, a basic entitlement that should be granted to every individual.
Session 8 (Energy and World Change)
In this session, it can be understood that sustainable energy sources need to be developed as alternatives to the finite and depleting supply of non-renewable fossil fuels. Apart from addressing environmental concerns (Carbon dioxide emissions as a result of the burning of fossil fuels), this shift aimed at driving world energy change can also ensure energy security. Energy security is achieved when we are equipped with sufficient energy resources such that different countries around the globe depend on different sources of energy (fossil fuels; renewables: hydro, solar; biomass) and as a collective effort, minimise the possibility of having to deal with the problem of excessive consumption of a certain source of energy that can lead to the shortage of it in meeting the growing demands and needs of Man. However, it is apt to recognise other factors such as price and cost that need to be taken into consideration since the effort towards world energy change can be severely crippled by this major determinant that influences human behaviour and prevent them from choosing more expensive but greener alternatives over its cheaper counterparts - fossil fuels (Exchanging long term sustainability for instant gratification).
Session 9 (Emerging and Future Technologies)
This lesson opened us up to interesting possibilities in the future with the help of more advanced technologies that make underwater living, driverless cars and jetpacks more than just a figment of human imagination. Indeed, we are living in exciting times with much to expect in the upcoming years as science and technology work their magic on us. This carries hope to finally addressing Yali's question on the presence of inequality and discrimination with the aid of these emerging and future technologies. This is because plastic electronics for example, can change the lives of communities in less developed countries since the lower cost of production involved in the creation of these plastic electronics will translate into higher affordability that allows everyone on the globe, rich or poor, to have access to the Internet with cheaper gadgets. As a result, this can serve to address the essential problem of inequity between developed and less developed nations, allowing the poor to enjoy the same benefits (increased connectivity, improved knowledge etc.) as the rest, eliminating feelings of unfairness and discrimination.
However, it also occurred to me that futuristic technologies like robotics that are capable of creating drones for warfare and spy activities will lead to the unwanted exploitation and bullying of smaller nations, which can serve to aggravate inequality rather than alleviate it. Thus, this reinforces the potential for technology to become a double-edged sword and emphasizes the need to utilise it carefully to maximise its benefits and reduce the problems that can arise as a result of these emerging and future technologies.
Session 10 (Technology assessment and forecasting)
In this last session, we aimed to develop a framework for what comes next by assessing technologies and forecasting future developments. My key takeaway message is that it is important to look into the future to speculate what we need and prepare for it in order to create a sustainable future that is viable and desirable. Forecasting allows us to be prepared for the possibility of future disasters, in which case knowledge about the disaster and ways that we can undertake to manage it will be useful in ensuring the survival of mankind. An assessment of technologies on the other hand, allows us to be aware of past mistakes to ensure that we will not repeat them in the future. With the combination of both sets of skills, we are thus more able to postulate future trends, trace changes and assess the technologies required to cope with the upcoming challenges. This lesson provided a holistic wrap up to the extensive course content covered for the past 9 sessions, where the various foresight methodologies helped in evaluating our current actions and predicting their consequences to help build a collective and sustainable future for all.
Last but not least, apart from regular sessions, student-initiated learning was also encouraged during the course of the module and I managed to gain much insights from the individual oral presentation and group presentation components, in which we were given the freedom to decide on the topic, scope and mode of our presentations. This made learning more interactive, fun and limitless. It has been a very fruitful three months and I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process of learning about TWC. I am confident that the knowledge and skills imparted from this course will carry on with me as I proceed to undertake other undergraduate courses and pursue my career in the future. I am especially grateful to have had such supportive group mates and a dedicated professor, who have made this experience such a fulfilling and unforgettable one. Thank you prof and all for this memorable first semester, it has been an honour(: I would rate this course a 10/10.
Love,
Glenda
P.S This is the last post. I promise ;)
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