Lesson 9 (18 Oct 2011)

Emerging & future technology


Technology knows no boundaries. With strong desires, wild imagination can be converted into reality through technology. This is nicely summarized by a quote from Kahlil Gibran, “There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing”. Indeed, who would have thought that phones are now able to interact with humans through SIRI, a software that was developed by Apple and made available in iPhone 4S?


The readings for this lesson mentioned some rather interesting emerging technologies like the vibrating gloves that give the wearer superhuman touch powers and the possibility of the transparent phone. Both innovations actually draw reference to the popular movie Iron Man. Clearly, this illustrates that the development of technology can be brought about by mass media which changes the perception of what humans actually want and need.


Other upcoming technologies include things like robotics, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies etc. An interesting emerging technology that was brought up in 2 separate presentations was the brain computer interface technology. It involves the controlling of an external device by using the brain. In other words, thoughts are transmitted as a form of signal to the device. It may sound fictitious or something that will only occur in the movies, however, it has in fact been in practice to assist the diseased. Regardless of how cool it may seem, there is always the morality issue that will be raised by some individuals. Some religions may be against this form of technology as it alters the original creation of human beings. Furthermore, this technology may be exploited for use in acts of terrorism, which further endangers the world. Personally, I think that this is an interesting issue and provides scope for more discussions in class.


It is unknown as to what the future holds for us. However, as of present, a critical problem would be that of erratic climate change. It not only threatens our food stability, but also increases the occurrence of natural disasters like flood around the world. Thus, I feel that an important aspect that the future technology should focus on will be the protection of ecology. Ecotechnology has been found to be able to contribute significantly in the mitigation of climate change as it can reduce the carbon footprints in human activities. As such, I think that more efforts should be made in developing ecotechnology.


On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate today’s session 8 out of 10. It is fascinating to see what the up and coming technologies are and how they can benefit human lives. However, I feel that there could be further discussions on the possible implications that these technologies might have on us. Nevertheless, it was still an interesting session for me.