Session 9:

I looked forward to today’s session mainly because of the topic: Emerging and Future Technologies. This is something that each and everyone of us are waiting for. To see what new technologies are being produced out there to make our life easier as well as to make it more entertaining. Just take for example SIRI from iphone 4S. SIRI is not only a helpful tool but it also provides us with much entertainment. This can be seen from the millions of messages posted online based on it.

With that in my mind, the session started with two very interesting quotes:

1.      “You see things; and you say, 'Why?'

But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

- George Bernard Shaw -

2.       “Imagination is more important than knowledge.

For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein –

The first quote is interesting in the sense that it shows how different people think. It is because of the people who pursue their dreams that we are now able to enjoy so many new technologies. Without such thinkers, we would still have been life like the nomads. Even then there were people who dreamt that they could kill a wild animal and thus came up with tools from wood and stones.

The second quote tells us that imaginative people have more potential than the ones who have all the knowledge. But without knowledge we may not be able to make the imagination a success. Yet, when we combine knowledge with imagination, we can get much more out of ourselves. So we should strive for a balance.

With that in mind, we moved on to look at the drivers for emerging and future technologies. Some of them are: unmet market opportunity and need, supply driven markets, making new technologies because of growing body of scientific and technological know-how and mass media. There is also because of the 4 Smarts: Smart people, smart ideas, smart money and smart alliances and partnerships.

Then we saw the video of the lady robot. It was an amusing as well as scary video for me. Amusing because the robot can speak, move around like any other human being. It is scary to see how people love this idea of robot as a company. In my opinion, no matter how realistic the robot is, it will still be a machine. It cannot feel what we feel and thus it cannot really understand us. The horrifying part will come when people come to depend on these robots and think of them as their companion. This can lead to many problems as people may not be able to communicate with each other because they will likely be comfortable with how a robot works rather than a human. I have this scary vision that if we continue to produce such robots for consumer use, soon there will be a world with only robots!

The augmented reality video that followed was very interesting. It would be very cool when such devices become a common product. When we go travelling on our won, we will get to know everything about a place without having to refer to a book or ask a person. It is like getting knowledge on road. Although this is already in place in many smartphones, having it on glasses or contacts can make life so much easier. Yet, as with all positives, there will also be negative impacts of such innovations. With augmented reality on our glasses, it can lead to many problems too. What if you are driving when suddenly information appears on your contacts or glasses? You may become distracted and it can cause accident. Hence, it is important that safety systems should be installed and augmented vision only come on when prompted by the user.

Then prof went through many different emerging technologies. One interesting discussion was on robotics. It will be true that when robots take over the working industry, we will be out of jobs. So how do we survive? The prof gave a very interesting solution: pay everyone in the society a minimum wage but those who work, they will earn higher. This will mean that children will feel that there is no need to be educated as they get the money with or without a job. Furthermore, this situation seems like communism whereby everyone gets equal proportion regardless of who they are. The big question however is: Will people who are now used to such extensive competition be ready to accept such a situation?

Today’s lesson lived up to my expectation about emerging and future technologies. There are so many things to look forward to such as smart homes! But we also have to be apprehensive of them and ensure that it does not end up whereby instead of we controlling the machines, the machines start controlling us!

I would rate today’s session: 9/10