Today, we were introduced to the different types of technology such as surveillance technologies, biometric technologies,artificial intelligence technologies and many more. Quote from Steve job: " Innovation distinguishes the leader from the follower", This once again emphasis on the need for someone to lead a change rather than to stay put and accept what we have currently. Ideas and products in present world are mostly created out from fantasy and imagination just like what Albert Einstein had said in the past, "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." Items such as smartphone and 3D visual presentation were thought to be ridiculous in the past. It is this special ability in us to imagine and moving away from the status quo which lead us to more inventions of products.
A YouTube video on Claytronic was shown in class which had intrigued me. It will be so amazing to be able to have such technology at our doorstep.Changing the colour of our car depending whenever we want, demonstrating live structures instantly such as creating a prototype instantly and modifying them whenever we have to. All these allow us to cut down on the wastage of time to source for resources and providing a more realistic model to the people. One of the presenters today presented on virtual reality immersion which i feel might be the next trend where people will venture into. To be able to use this technology and enter any world we want, allow those who are depressed to be able to stay cheerful and curing boredom.
However, i still feel that future technologies would definitely arise problems in the future which are showing currently. People will tend to be addicted to these awesome gadgets such that they might start to fall into the virtual world and forgetting that everything is faked. Hence, they will choose to stay at home resulting in smaller social networking, obesity as they tend to avoid exercising and worst of all, they might not want to work. Alot of social issues and health problems will start appearing. Taking a look at the presentation on iphone morph into "iwallet". Beside the security issues, there might be sight of increasing number of people going into debt because it has made spending so much more convenient. Children and students nowadays all have handphone with them thus they will be tempted to buy anything they can. Furthermore, phones have shorter battery lifespan now thus it will be a headache when the battery goes flat.
I forsee that in the future there will be alot of tremendous changes not only in our surrounding but the way human behaves. People will demand for more work to be done within a shorter span of time with the faster network we have. Stress level in our society will definitely increase too and many people will inevitably become more impatient when it comes to submission of work if the system is slower abit. The reliance on technology will be more significant as it is integrated into our life.
I will rate this week lesson a 8/10 because we have several good presenters today who provide good insight to the topics discussed today. Future aspect of technology will be an interesting issue to talk about as anything could be possible now. I look forward to seeing the changes that we will experience in future.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Week 9-- Energy and World Change
There are several types of energy which we can tap on to provide us alternatives to the over reliant on fossil fuel. They comprise of hydroelectric power, solar power, geothermal energy, wind energy, bio fuel and lastly, nuclear energy. All the above energy are believe to allow humans to shift towards more renewable form as fossil fuel are limited and at the rate we are using them, it will be a few decades down the road where it will be completely depleted.
Among all these renewable energy, solar energy is the most feasible. Since this form of energy is being obtain from the sun, there are abundant of them shining onto earth everyday day. It was estimated that the earth receives about 274 million gigawatt-years of solar energy, which translates to an astonishing 8.2 million “quads” of Btu energy per year.The entire human race currently uses about 400 quads of energy (in all forms) per year. Put another way, the solar energy hitting the earth exceeds the total energy consumed by humanity by a factor of over 20,000 times. Therefore, this source of energy is allow to provide us with the the amount of energy we require forever. However, the problem lies in how are we going to convert all this solar energy into usable energy in a cost efficient manner. Prof Shahi had mentioned in his lecture specifically that biotechnology will also be another field where new breakthrough would lead us to the discovery of more renewable source of energy. One example is the algae project that focus on using algae to produce hydrocarbon that could be a substitute to fossil fuel.
In one of the video, it shows that reducing the usage of fossil fuel would decrease the depletion of the forest and also reduce the slavery in the world. Furthermore, another video shows about how Germany is taking a huge step towards promoting renewable energy. The government uses the cash incentives method to entice companies or people to use solar energy through purchasing solar panels. For every kilowatt they provide for the electrical plant, they would get 50 cents and for the charge for electricity per kilowatt is 20 cents. This meant that there will be a profit of 30 cents earn. Hence, this method not only allow the country to reduce the usage of fossil fuel but also generating income for their people.
Currently, electricity and water supply are all by the government. We do not have a choice in what kind of sources we want to use. I do not agree with what the government actually mentions. Looking and using renewable energy is different from conserving energy. We can definitely still conserve energy while using energy from wind, water or the sun. It does not make any sense when we have so many other better options available to us and we still choose to stick with the burning of petroleum to provide us with electricity. One of my classmates introduced the osmosis system which i find it very applicable in Singapore. Not only does it provide an alternative source of energy, it is quite useful in our region where there are abundant pressence of salt water.
I would rate this lesson 9/10 because i have witnessed and gain immerse knowledge on the possible substitution ideas for fossil fuel which makes me feel that there is still hope for us to save the earth. To allow our next generation to enjoy what we have now, building a sustainable environment and world for them to live in .
Among all these renewable energy, solar energy is the most feasible. Since this form of energy is being obtain from the sun, there are abundant of them shining onto earth everyday day. It was estimated that the earth receives about 274 million gigawatt-years of solar energy, which translates to an astonishing 8.2 million “quads” of Btu energy per year.The entire human race currently uses about 400 quads of energy (in all forms) per year. Put another way, the solar energy hitting the earth exceeds the total energy consumed by humanity by a factor of over 20,000 times. Therefore, this source of energy is allow to provide us with the the amount of energy we require forever. However, the problem lies in how are we going to convert all this solar energy into usable energy in a cost efficient manner. Prof Shahi had mentioned in his lecture specifically that biotechnology will also be another field where new breakthrough would lead us to the discovery of more renewable source of energy. One example is the algae project that focus on using algae to produce hydrocarbon that could be a substitute to fossil fuel.
In one of the video, it shows that reducing the usage of fossil fuel would decrease the depletion of the forest and also reduce the slavery in the world. Furthermore, another video shows about how Germany is taking a huge step towards promoting renewable energy. The government uses the cash incentives method to entice companies or people to use solar energy through purchasing solar panels. For every kilowatt they provide for the electrical plant, they would get 50 cents and for the charge for electricity per kilowatt is 20 cents. This meant that there will be a profit of 30 cents earn. Hence, this method not only allow the country to reduce the usage of fossil fuel but also generating income for their people.
Throughout the lesson, there was this hot topic which was raise up that is " Why Singapore government does not want to encourage singaporeans to change to cleaner technologies and also providing them to households?" Many arguments were stating that Singapore does not have the space to build infrastructure for renewable energies, the demand was not there for the government to provide and many others. However, i went to check out on this issue and realize that in actual fact Singapore government is not in favour of subsidies. This is a code by Mr David Tan, Deputy Chief Executive of the energy market authority: "
We do not subsidise energy. We believe in the right pricing of energy because by pricing energy correctly, that would drive certain behaviour in consumers. As a result of that behaviour, we believe consumers will learn to conserve energy. The government has no plans to implement feed-in tariffs."
I would rate this lesson 9/10 because i have witnessed and gain immerse knowledge on the possible substitution ideas for fossil fuel which makes me feel that there is still hope for us to save the earth. To allow our next generation to enjoy what we have now, building a sustainable environment and world for them to live in .
Friday, October 1, 2010
Week 7--Biobusiness Revolution 2
This is week 7 of the course and we have finally been halfway through the term. It has definitely been a big change from junior college to university with a two years break due to army, the transition from basically regurgitating what we had been taught in class to making our own decision with the aids of knowledge being pass on to us by the profs. It took me a few weeks to settle down and to get use to my next phase of life but i have undeniably, learn alot of precious knowledge throughout this short span of time.
The video that prof Shahi had shown to us was quite interesting regarding human being parasites that destroy the world and killing anything that comes by. The idea was expressed in an appealing manner with the animation of the earth turning black due to the cause of pollution. It is amazing to see that what we are enjoying now, are at the expense of destroying the world with the way we deplete the natural resources. With the second video showing us on usage of biotechnology to feed the increasing population of the world which is also an area that prof has put great emphasis on. This is linked to the "wheat genome breakthrough" idea that i had presented during this week. The idea of decoding the wheat genome will not only allow scientist to create different varieties of wheat to allow more food supply in the future. This could also allow scientists in the medical field to tap on the idea and use it to decode other organisms genome which could let us to understand them better. In addition, with better understanding, new vaccine or cures could be created to cure different virus strains or tackling other ailments. This is one example how biotechnology can contribute to other fields just like the discovery of using algae as an alternative energy source to petroleum.
With the world population believe to be hitting 9.4 billion by the year 2015 and people shifting from the rural area to the urban region, all these will definitely add pressure on the amount of food needed to support us. Hence, there is an urgent need for humans to come out with ideas to support this gargantuan population and to provide helps to this people who just move into the urban region. In class, we also talk about having an occupation as farmist in the future that aims to research on the amount of farming and passing the knowledge on to the farmers for them to produce better crops in the future. Something that the prof kept my mind thinking was the failure of how we deal with waste basically only digging a big hole and dump them in plus incineration of the rubbish. Large amount of land space was used to conduct this and why is the government always emphasizing on the need to fully utilise the land space we have when there is an obvious sight of inefficiency we are facing now. With materials like plastic being non-biodegradable and burning of it will only emit harmful gases into the atmosphere, we are only creating more problems we are facing now instead of solving them. In addition to that, even material or items that are biodegradable also takes millions of year before it can fully break down. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the usage of renewable item. Newater concept has actually proven to us that we can make anything possible now. It uses the concept of recycling and help of advance technology to treat the used water and turning it into drinkable ones. Therefore, maybe in the near future we might be able to witness a waste convertible machine that uses waste to generate electricity through the breaking down of the different part in them. This could in return give us a cleaner environment as everyone would try not to litter now.
On my way home, i wondered on how are all the skyscrapers being built and are they contributing to any form of pollution be it during construction or after that. Coincidentally, i realize one of the article in the twc book was talking about it. I find this very interesting and astonishing knowing that skyscrapers or building in the world consumes up to forty per cent of the world's energy. Admiring the high beams being shoot out in the dark sky by the marina bay sands resort and the bright new york city at night which seems to be in the day, we are actually consuming lots and lots of energy and damaging the ecosystem. Animals are believed to have been disrupted by all the lightings and thus developing weird habits which detriment to their survival. Hence, huge emphasis are being placed in the design of the buildings, such as 30 Mary St Axe(The Gherkin), London, Hearst Tower in New York, Bank Of America Tower in New york just to name some. The design for Gherkin breaks away from the traditional use of rectangular shape to maximize both the natural light and ventilation and hearst tower with its diamond shape was able to reduce on the construction material such as a decrease of 20 per cent of the steel required and 80 per cent of reycled steel were used. All these are fantastic example to show us how the world has been moving towards greener environment and how we as the people leeching on the resources of the world should play a part too through our daily lives mainly by reduce, reuse ,recycle. Basically, a simple gesture of using lesser paper would allow lesser trees to be chopped of or turning to wards recycled ones. Government is nonethless the best source to implement change or policies to promote the go-green habit. They could increase the taxation on paper and reduce that of recycled paper thus demand will be shifted towards recycling paper with companies using the economic of scale to increase production at a cheaper cost. Hence, not only do the consumer enjoy cheaper and better goods, the environment will have time to replenish what has been lost.
Overall, i would rate the lesson 8/10 as definitely biobusiness is something for us to look forward to but i still do hope that more recent discoveries and breakthrough can be discussed in class especially recent case on the research on keeping tissues and use them in the need of emergency which is close to heart. I do look forward to the next lesson after the short break.
The video that prof Shahi had shown to us was quite interesting regarding human being parasites that destroy the world and killing anything that comes by. The idea was expressed in an appealing manner with the animation of the earth turning black due to the cause of pollution. It is amazing to see that what we are enjoying now, are at the expense of destroying the world with the way we deplete the natural resources. With the second video showing us on usage of biotechnology to feed the increasing population of the world which is also an area that prof has put great emphasis on. This is linked to the "wheat genome breakthrough" idea that i had presented during this week. The idea of decoding the wheat genome will not only allow scientist to create different varieties of wheat to allow more food supply in the future. This could also allow scientists in the medical field to tap on the idea and use it to decode other organisms genome which could let us to understand them better. In addition, with better understanding, new vaccine or cures could be created to cure different virus strains or tackling other ailments. This is one example how biotechnology can contribute to other fields just like the discovery of using algae as an alternative energy source to petroleum.
With the world population believe to be hitting 9.4 billion by the year 2015 and people shifting from the rural area to the urban region, all these will definitely add pressure on the amount of food needed to support us. Hence, there is an urgent need for humans to come out with ideas to support this gargantuan population and to provide helps to this people who just move into the urban region. In class, we also talk about having an occupation as farmist in the future that aims to research on the amount of farming and passing the knowledge on to the farmers for them to produce better crops in the future. Something that the prof kept my mind thinking was the failure of how we deal with waste basically only digging a big hole and dump them in plus incineration of the rubbish. Large amount of land space was used to conduct this and why is the government always emphasizing on the need to fully utilise the land space we have when there is an obvious sight of inefficiency we are facing now. With materials like plastic being non-biodegradable and burning of it will only emit harmful gases into the atmosphere, we are only creating more problems we are facing now instead of solving them. In addition to that, even material or items that are biodegradable also takes millions of year before it can fully break down. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the usage of renewable item. Newater concept has actually proven to us that we can make anything possible now. It uses the concept of recycling and help of advance technology to treat the used water and turning it into drinkable ones. Therefore, maybe in the near future we might be able to witness a waste convertible machine that uses waste to generate electricity through the breaking down of the different part in them. This could in return give us a cleaner environment as everyone would try not to litter now.
On my way home, i wondered on how are all the skyscrapers being built and are they contributing to any form of pollution be it during construction or after that. Coincidentally, i realize one of the article in the twc book was talking about it. I find this very interesting and astonishing knowing that skyscrapers or building in the world consumes up to forty per cent of the world's energy. Admiring the high beams being shoot out in the dark sky by the marina bay sands resort and the bright new york city at night which seems to be in the day, we are actually consuming lots and lots of energy and damaging the ecosystem. Animals are believed to have been disrupted by all the lightings and thus developing weird habits which detriment to their survival. Hence, huge emphasis are being placed in the design of the buildings, such as 30 Mary St Axe(The Gherkin), London, Hearst Tower in New York, Bank Of America Tower in New york just to name some. The design for Gherkin breaks away from the traditional use of rectangular shape to maximize both the natural light and ventilation and hearst tower with its diamond shape was able to reduce on the construction material such as a decrease of 20 per cent of the steel required and 80 per cent of reycled steel were used. All these are fantastic example to show us how the world has been moving towards greener environment and how we as the people leeching on the resources of the world should play a part too through our daily lives mainly by reduce, reuse ,recycle. Basically, a simple gesture of using lesser paper would allow lesser trees to be chopped of or turning to wards recycled ones. Government is nonethless the best source to implement change or policies to promote the go-green habit. They could increase the taxation on paper and reduce that of recycled paper thus demand will be shifted towards recycling paper with companies using the economic of scale to increase production at a cheaper cost. Hence, not only do the consumer enjoy cheaper and better goods, the environment will have time to replenish what has been lost.
Overall, i would rate the lesson 8/10 as definitely biobusiness is something for us to look forward to but i still do hope that more recent discoveries and breakthrough can be discussed in class especially recent case on the research on keeping tissues and use them in the need of emergency which is close to heart. I do look forward to the next lesson after the short break.
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