#2

23 August 2011.

The second twc lesson!

The two main topics that were addressed in class today were technology's impact on global dominance as well as human development.

In the first half of the session, global dominance was discussed and I realized that dominance can be in different aspects for example, military, cultural and economic. One interesting point that Prof brought up was how sometimes trying to be dominant in one area will only cause other areas to be strained. This point was evidenced by the example of North Korea trying to be dominant in the military aspect yet causes their population to be starving and malnourished. Another interesting point was Prof Shahi's organizational behavior model for identifying innovation leaders and dominant players. It is interesting to note that it is those who maintain an open mind and not remain stagnant, that manage to become dominant in the industry. This is not just for companies! It is for countries as well, as how we identified China as a rising star. However, after one of the presentations about China's rising dominance, one classmate raised the point that China's rise over the United States is not a guarantee. This is because of the wide disparity in income, the corruption level, amongst several other reasons. I thought that this was a really interesting thought which have seemed to slipped the minds of many. It is for sure that China is a rising star, but for it maintain and not become a falling star still needs time to tell and I think that would be something to look out for.

In the second half of the session, we also examined how development comes in different dimensions. We watched two videos, one was Hans Rosling's "The Joy of Statistics" and the other about the 8 Millennium Goals. The first video was a true joy to watch with the amazing way the information was presented! Technology can be used to make teaching and learning a more fun and engaging experience (y) One main point that I observed from the video was the wide income gap in some countries, for example China. I think that this rich-poor disparity is an unhealthy sight. China's HDI as of 2010 was 0.663 but its Gini coefficient has reached that of 0.47 in 2010 which is past the recognized warning level of 0.4.

In an article I read about China's wealth divide, Li Shi, a professor on income distribution and poverty studies with the Beijing Normal University, said "the income of the top 10 percent of the richest Chinese was 23 times that of the bottom 10 percent in the country in 2007, as compared with 1998, when the gap was only 7.3 times."

It really makes one wonder how someone seeing his own countrymen without anything to eat, can still continue living an excessive lifestyle. I have previously told my parents that the world would be a better place if everyone just shared their wealth and everyone earned the same income, but their retort was that that is no difference from a communist state. So, I guess it really is hard trying to find that balance with regards to wealth divide.

The key phrase from the latter video was "What If" and indeed, what if we can all put aside our own personal agenda and work together to achieve those 8 goals? Surely, the world will be a better place to live in! Prof mentioned that in times of economic downturn, the contributions that go towards helping the third world countries go down. And this really emphasizes the fact that personal interest is really more important than helping those in need. I just can't help but wonder, which is worse, a first world country refusing to help a third world country so as to protect its own self interest, or a country with wide income disparity, seeing its own citizens starving and yet the rich still grow richer due to corruption. Also, in the first session prof mentioned that a computer that far exceeds the human's mental capabilities may be completed by 2049. This fact popped up as I was watching the video. Why are we spending so much resources on such technological advances, while we ignore the true needs of the people? Surely, the money would be better used in helping those in true need?

Due to the lack of time, one issue we were not able to discuss further was that of cloning. I personally am really quite interested in that topic. Speaking from my religion's point of view, cloning is against nature and should not be done. However, Prof mentioned that such arguments have been used against IVF, a practice that is so common nowadays. Thus it led me to wonder, will cloning also becoming something that so common in the future? The topic about cloning reminds me of this one movie that I watched awhile back(the title escapes me), whereby the people hide behind the clones of themselves and they control their clones to live their everyday life. The actual humans themselves are dissatisfied with the physical disability and appearance so they rely on their clones. In the end, people grew distant from each other,locked up in their own rooms controlling their clones, they grew unhealthy from the lack of activity and they lack confidence in their own appearance. Is that a society that we will become if we allow cloning to advance to such a stage? True, it was just a sci-fic movie but who can say that it would not happen in the future? I guess the main question is whether cloning is indeed necessary and what is the true purpose of cloning. If it is just to make scientific advances and new discoveries, I really do not think that cloning should be pursued based on such reasons. After all, the mistakes made during cloning may result in abnormalities and so what are we to do with these clones? Killing them would bring about a whole new ethics problem. There would be so many issues that will crop up both from a moral and legal point of perspective. This is similar to the drones technology that I brought up in my presentation and it strikes me that, with the evolving technology it really does seem that the laws will never be able to catch up.

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change

This quote from the song 'Man In The Mirror' by Michael Jackson is my key takeaway for Session 2; that for us to make the world a better place and to achieve the MDGs, we really have got to set aside our own personal interests and agendas.

I would rate this session a 8/10 due to the several interesting points that were brought up during class. Also loved the videos that we watched which were really thought-provoking and relevant to the context of the topic that day!