#1

This shall be my first official post for twc. To begin things right, I shall just briefly state the original perceptions I had about twc before I first walked into class on Tuesday, 16 August 2011. Well, when I first bidded for this mod, the feedback that I heard was that twc is pretty dry, boring and somewhat useless. It was with these perceptions that I entered class for the first time that day.

Class began with the usual round of introductions and Prof then proceeded to give us an idea of what was in store for us for the lessons to come. The main topics that were addressed in Session 1 were:

1. The evolution of technology

- I felt that the video Prof showed us "did you know shift happens" was a very impactful video to start off the class with. I was surprised by the different statistics and I've got to admit, watching that video made me realize that twc was actually pretty interesting. We saw how technology has evolved such that we humans have formed a dependent relationship with it. The social networking statistics alone was enough to prove this very point. I am aware that social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as technology such as text messaging was widely used, but it never struck me that the people using these technologies would far surpass that of a country's population! This interesting observation would also have to be one of my key takeaway for the day; technology is very much interlinked to our day-to-day lives. I have to admit, I have always thought technology to be something foreign and IT-ish, so it is cool to realize that the websites that I frequent can be counted as technology!

When we were introducing ourselves at the start of the class, one of my fellow classmate mentioned that the evolution of technology has caused us to become more connected yet at the same time we were more ''disconnected''. This was an interesting observation that captured my attention because well, I am one of the 'victims' of this tech-savvy era. But would labelling myself as a 'victim' be appropriate? If I recall correctly, Prof seemed to have mentioned that technology is a result of our decisions. It is what we made it to be. So, even in the usuage of technology, we are the captains of our own ships, the decision makers. This made me ponder on yet another interesting idea from the video, that by 2049 there would be a computer that far exceeds the mental capabilities of the human population. Why would we choose to develop such technology that will only leave us even more so dependent on technology? Sure, technology is evolving but is the human population keeping up and evolving as well?

The apeman - man - fat man chart that Prof showed us in class seems to suggest otherwise. Technology has made life increasingly easy and we are growing soft around the tummy, I'm not sure if I want to grow soft in the brains as well.

2. The unequal technology development of different countries.

-"Why do white people have more cargo?" A thought-provoking question asked in the video "Guns, Germs and Steel". Like Jared Diamond, author of the book, I too initially thought that hey that question sounds simple enough. But as the video progressed, I found that to be a misconception. During the discussion, geographical factor popped up as a reason why the Europeans were more predisposed to developing faster than the New Guineans. I thought this was quite interesting because no one has any control over their geographical conditions. So is it really anyone's fault that New Guinea is far less developed a society than the Western countries? I would actually like to see this topic being more vividly discussed during class. Is it due to the the superior geographical factors of the European countries that led to the sharing of technology thus giving rise to technological advances, and from there the Industrialization age? But like in the video, Jared Diamond observed that the New Guineans are ingenious people and by no means, less intelligent than the Whites. So why is it that they are not able to come up with the technology that is comparable to that in the Western countries?

Researching for my class presentation next week as well as reading up for the topical review paper, I have read several articles regarding technology and its impact of society, and more often than not, the pros and cons of technology are equally matched. It really depends on how we use the technology that is available to us. The Western countries have used technology to their advantage to progress to a modern era but now the overuse of technology has resulted in their burgeoning size. Thus, the main takeaway for me is that technology can be used to our advantage, though the misuse or overuse of technology may lead to negative consequences. I guess this is the link between technology and world change; a change for the better or worse? That is for us to decide.

I would rate the first lesson a 7.5/10. It was a thought provoking first lesson and I realized that twc is actually really interesting! Loved the videos that were shown during class, and its cool that Prof showed us the video of the Big Bang theory song which was relevant to what we were learning! (y) Looking forward to having more discussions in class though! Gotta gather up the courage to speak up in class, but I guess since my presentation is next week, I'm gonna get that needed practice already. Yikes!