This week’s TWC lesson was so rich in the amount of promising technologies for the near or far future and general insights with regards to these Future and Emerging technologies (FETs)! It truly impressed upon me how much the wheels of technology is pushing towards change at every single moment, and how fun and useful it is for us to look at all these possibilities to make human life better.
Firstly, the famous quotes that prof mentioned to us in class were insightful and made me think a lot about them:
“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
I get what Einstein was trying to put across- that the power of imagination is immense; without it, knowledgeable people will be stunted and cannot progress themselves or the world. This I agree with fully, and am growing to appreciate and admire the creative pioneers who are pushing at the forefront of technology today. That being said, I’m still sceptical about Einstein’s quote, as I believe knowledge is just as important as imagination, rather than less important. Without knowledge, it would be extremely difficult for individuals to put their imaginative ideas into words or actions. Knowledge allows us to gauge how much our imaginations would work in the real world, decide on which projects to undertake that would reap the most success, and think up ways to realise our imaginations and overcome obstacles in the process. To me, knowledge is very often essential for us to make real change for the world or community.
“Innovation distinguishes the leader from the follower”- Steve Jobs
What Steve Jobs said was powerful to me. A follower works within a paradigm, whereas a leader works to push beyond it, and shift other’s paradigms. It made me think about the kind of worker I wanted to be when I graduated. It goes without saying that we all want to be leaders. But saying that is easy, whereas being bold, innovative, flexible and open is another thing altogether. I will work towards cultivating these attitudes within me.
A most interesting idea that was brought up in class was that of human-robot romantic relationships. The idea simply appalled me! How can we fall in love with something that isn’t even alive?! We deem it wrong to love animals or plants in that way, what more machines?
Some points that were brought up that could possibly propose the idea would be that robots are becoming more human-like, whilst humans are becoming more robot-like. Lisa, “the perfect woman” looks very much like a woman (albeit her actions are still more robotic), has an IQ of 130 which means she is capable of intellectual conversation, and can do housework, massages, and prepare meals. In essence, she is able to do all the chores a housewife does, and better- she doesn’t argue, is completely subservient and agreeable. Does this mean she is better than human? To me, to be married or be in love with a machine that does not have the same emotional capacity to love me back is simply lonesome and undesirable. It’s sad that the inventors of Lisa or men who want to buy Lisa would think that a slave-robot is someone they could love. What does it say about their values?
On the other hand, prof brought to our attention that humans already have things like prosthetic legs, metal chips within them, even antibodies etcetera. Since we already have metal within our bodies, what of metals and more advanced devices being implanted into our brains or other parts of the body to enhance our quality of life? In reading 4, Mike Adams states a very interesting belief that we are all walking museums; outdated hardware that was meant for the stone ages, since we still share 98% of our genetic make-up with apes. His idea is that our human bodies are not suited for the environment of the 21st century, and that genetic engineering could become a major area in healthcare in the future.
If we extrapolate the above 2 trends, does this mean robots and humans will eventually be similar? This might be talking too far into the future, but philosophically, this is wrong. Healthcare and genetic engineering should not extend human life to that of robotic status, which means that we extend life to an extreme extent of over a 110 years. We must also ensure that robots do not go out of human control, and start controlling us. This highlights what can be said of many cutting-edge technologies in development today- the potential for benefits are immense, but so are the possibilities for misuse or abuse that lead to catastrophic consequences. I believe that scientists and researchers have to keep this in mind and thread with caution.
Lastly, the idea that technology does not just involve higher level science, but also many other ideas and observations from the world around us was reiterated in the discussion about “the placebo effect” which Mike Adams categorises under vibrational medicine in his paper. The placebo effect refers to the belief of the mind that the body has undergone treatment (drugs and surgery) when it hasn’t, and this belief alone leads to a 30% success rate of recovery for patients. What I’ve learnt is that we cannot always be caught up in high science and cutting edge technology, but simple ideas and truths, such as the mind being an integral part of our well-being, are important forms of technology as well.
During the last part of our class discussion, Dylan’s presentation brought out the point about whether the iWallet will become a big thing that everyone will use in the future. This has made me wonder: is predicting the most promising FETs a game of luck; a method of trial and error? I shall leave this question for next week’s assessment and forecasting lesson!
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