Session 10: Technology Assessment and Forecasting

Brief Overview/Summary:

Today session was our last formal session with Prof before presentations start off next week! We talked about technology assessment and forecasting. I thought this was a great way to end off the lectures as we look towards the future and what possibilities lie ahead. 

• I enjoyed today's session very much as there were many quotes that prof used which I feel was very relatable. These are a few which I liked!

“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” - Charles Kettering

“Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today” - African Proverb

“Look before, or you'll find yourself behind”  - Benjamin Franklin 

“It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.” -Voltaire  (the way this quote was phrased was a little disturbing though haha)

• I feel that these quotes, although short, were very powerful and carries a lot of meaning. Whether it is with regard to technology or life, these quotes are very inspirational for me especially in these few weeks of school when the going gets tough! As the saying goes when the going gets tough, the tough gets going!
• Prof also played a parody Microsoft video which was hilarious at the surface but has an underlying meaning to it which I will talk about later
• There was also another video which talked about future technology in the next 50 years. Some of the things that was touched on and also covered in class over the last 9 sessions include: Augmented Reality, IM, Exponential Revolution (singularity), Cloud computing, Smart roads/highways, Bionic (contact lenses, augmented reality), Robotic (AI), Energy (from electric car to hydrogen car  to water car, solar energy) and Environment 
• The second last video that caught my interest was the Tracking The Future - Global Trends one which the speaker spoke about what FUTURE stands for in terms of future technology. I thought it was an interesting perspective when looking at technology. Hence, FUTURE stands for Fast, Urban, Tribal (that there will be a new 'tribe' of people which would be the modern day people who uses the Internet), Universal, Radical and Ethical. 
• We also had 4 presentations which were on Moore's Law, Pre-natal DNA sequencing, Futurology and Techcast

Interesting Observation/Key points: 

• The parody of the Microsoft video was indeed a light hearted take on how technology will unfold itself in the future. There were some issues pointed out that I felt was reflecting rather badly on our future. For example "you could pay an extra $45 just to access Twitter to check on your child 37000 feet above ground" shows how dependent we are on technology that we have to rely on it even when we are travelling to do a task such as checking on our children, "we can have everything we want at the palm of our hands, kind of like an iPhone but with an extra piece we can loose" reflects again our dependability on technology and also our imperfections as human because of the way we handle our belongings and hence needing an extra piece of technology just so we can loose it as well as "our newspaper becomes so bad a** until it crashes or is infected by a virus" shows how technology can sometimes also fail us despite the other wonderful things it is able to do for us. 
• I feel that these issues are things that we have to take note when using technology as some of these serve as a warning on what could happen if we do not use technology the right way
• Prof also stated the importance of technology foresight through a video. It is about discovering future shifts in technology that companies cannot see. It will hence be the key to the growth of the company as it has the capacity to generate different ideas to determine a company's future. It is therefore important to have technology foresight as it is able to identify the gap between what is lacking and hence identify what a company should do to meet this gap.
• With regards to the above point, prof shared an analogy of a piece of crumpled paper and how it represents the obstacles that a company might face such as red tapes when wanting to implement a new technology/way of doing things. Should the organisation try to implement something new with the piece of crumpled paper aka getting too preoccupied with the reality of the present, then the organisation will not be able to progress. One should therefore take a fresh sheet of paper and envision the implementation without considering the restriction. This will be able to help the organisation become a more future oriented one rather than having a past driven view. It is easier to have a vision and consider the restrictions rather than coming up with an implementation with all the restrictions in mind. This is applicable even as individuals when conquering a somewhat difficult task at hand.
• Out of the 4 presentations, I really liked Joyce's presentation on pre-natal DNA sequencing as well as futurology. Joyce's presentation was on how we are able to forecast a person's DNA and how this will affect the future in terms of society and the healthcare industry's ability to cope with this change. It is an important aspect to consider as with technology progressing at such a rapid rate, I feel that people will immediately agree with wanting to know his child's DNA sequencing at any given chance. I guess this is because of human's innate curiosity as well as a sense of security. However, this can pose many challenges as well such as more extravagant health care needs and hence costs to cope with, insurance companies having to restructure their policies and fertility rate either sky rocketing or dipping (I feel that the latter is more likely than the former). 
• Next on futurology, which is a kind of methodology used to forecast the future. Madeline read an article which was on how Christmas would be celebrated in the future in these aspects: energy, transportation, hyper connectivity and privacy. I thought it was a fresh perspective to look at how technology would affect our future given our current circumstances by introducing a scenario. 

Ratings:

8.5/10

I really enjoyed this session due to the number of videos shown and quotes shown. I thought it made class very interesting and enjoyable. I also look forward to week 12 & week 13 where we have our presentations!