TWC - Lesson 2 (Technology, Society, Global Dominance, Human Development)

Lesson 2 for this module... but sad to say that i missed this class as i was sick. Thus i could only post what I've understood from the slides given in eLearn and from the presenters' readings, as well as some of my thoughts from the resources.

Technology, Society and Global Dominance
I've found a news article from BBC News, which in year 2008, National Intelligence Council (NIC) had already predicted that US will decline in its global dominance in the next 2 decades. I think that there will always be strong reasons to support their prediction on this issue, which might be a case of US' change of role in global dominance (Using the model shown in the Session 2 slides). Although it was a dominant player in the area of military and economic, it has failed to dominate in these areas now. The main issue being here is that it might be going through the cycle of Rising Star, Dominany player, Falling Star. When US was in its peak, it advances in their innovation and hunger for new ideas. However, things will tend to change if there is no other areas of advancement, when their dominance has become stagnant, there comes the other rising stars competing for a piece of pie in the world, thus leading to a fall in the global dominance.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7741049.stm

TWC - Lesson 1 (Shift Happens!)

Lesson 1 has been an interesting class in introducing me to this module.

Thinking back on how technology has evolved through the years and how it has changed our lives, be it positive or negative, technology has indeed made a great impact on us. From the video that brings us about "Shift Happens", it is informative and amazing that things around us has been changing so rapidly without us knowing, until we compare it to the past.

MySpace was very popular then, but now facebook has been leading the world of social networking with millions and billions of facebook users online. Farmers who farm in FarmVille might even be larger than Singapore's population!
But who knows, maybe in a year or two, another kind of technology might just appear and lead the world.

Technology has helped us in our productivity and efficiency in managing things and nowadays. In the developing/developed countries, people can't live without the technology that they're currently using. People are just too reliant on the technologies mainly because it has really improves that lives of the people that we are just refuse to go back to the olden days of living as it'll bring back inconvenience.

In these few years, there has been lots of surveys revealing statistics on the percentage of surveyees who can't live without their phone. I feel that with the introduction of smart phones in the recent years, there'll be a larger number of people who can't live without their phone. Smart phones has helped in making things easier for the users. Users are able to work on-the-go through working online through phone, view their emails etc. That is the fantastic thing about technology!

Technology has also created a lot of possibilities. With technology, different kinds of jobs are created. With technology, people are able to see each other through online video chats, which was impossible in the olden days. With technology, i can make friends with people in another part of the world without me travelling.

Even though there might be some negative effects that technology might brings, i feel that without technology, we will be limited by current state of things around us, and not explore different ways or methods in making our lives much better than before.