There was discussion at length about how should the issue of sustainability be tackled. Apparently creating new "cyclical" business models compared to the traditional linear models would be one of the solutions. I would disagree. As long as sustainable energy sources is more expensive than our current energy sources, it would never be adopted be a significant number of people for it create any impact. USA's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol citing economic reasons and the exclusion of India and China from it is exactly the reason why the voluntary adopting of sustainable technology and development will fail. People are greedy are unlikely to be "gracious" and adopt sustainable practices. Still struggling to recover from its financial turmoil, and with China threatening to take its place as No.1 in the world, it is unlikely that the environment is on America's list of priorities. No need to waste time on exhorting countries and businesses on the importance of sustainability; it is only through the further development of harnessing sustainable energy sources and technology will the current situation be corrected.
It was mentioned in the slides about the key elements for successful innovation.The main foundation for it was successful/creative people, which was a topic addressed by Suherman. Indeed, the seeds for innovation is sowed through the education system and culture of society itself, where the children's mindset towards learning and the ability to think out of the box is either suppressed or nurtured. She mentioned about the culture of obedience towards authority and merit based systems which were one of the key suppressants of innovation in Singapore. The merit based system is what i feel holds back creativity and innovative ideas. Singapore rewards success, but those who fail get nothing - they have nothing to fall back on. Unlike in other countries where there are free healthcare and most important unemployment benefits, in Singapore if your idea or innovation ends up a flop you could very well lose everything. That said, creating an environment to foster creativity do come with certain costs. Relaxing the merit based system to foster creativity would come at the price of a dip in productivity.
Key takeaways from this lesson would be the importance of fostering environment for development in the future, 2 ways which would be through maintaining the resources needed for future development through the use of sustainable technology, as well as fostering a positive environment for such innovation and development to occur through modifications in the education system to encourage independent thinking and different schools of thought.
Further topics of discussion would be whether cyclical development is the only way for sustainable development, or are there other ways? Would space technology be a solution for sustainable development? Improving on our abilities to travel to outer space may allow us to harness materials and energy sources from outer space, and although that is not renewable per se, there are so much materials to be taken! Further discussion could be on the methods to foster innovation other than the education system itself.
i would rate the class 8/10 due to the interesting points presented and the topic of sustainable technology is one that is of interest to me.
It was mentioned in the slides about the key elements for successful innovation.The main foundation for it was successful/creative people, which was a topic addressed by Suherman. Indeed, the seeds for innovation is sowed through the education system and culture of society itself, where the children's mindset towards learning and the ability to think out of the box is either suppressed or nurtured. She mentioned about the culture of obedience towards authority and merit based systems which were one of the key suppressants of innovation in Singapore. The merit based system is what i feel holds back creativity and innovative ideas. Singapore rewards success, but those who fail get nothing - they have nothing to fall back on. Unlike in other countries where there are free healthcare and most important unemployment benefits, in Singapore if your idea or innovation ends up a flop you could very well lose everything. That said, creating an environment to foster creativity do come with certain costs. Relaxing the merit based system to foster creativity would come at the price of a dip in productivity.
Key takeaways from this lesson would be the importance of fostering environment for development in the future, 2 ways which would be through maintaining the resources needed for future development through the use of sustainable technology, as well as fostering a positive environment for such innovation and development to occur through modifications in the education system to encourage independent thinking and different schools of thought.
Further topics of discussion would be whether cyclical development is the only way for sustainable development, or are there other ways? Would space technology be a solution for sustainable development? Improving on our abilities to travel to outer space may allow us to harness materials and energy sources from outer space, and although that is not renewable per se, there are so much materials to be taken! Further discussion could be on the methods to foster innovation other than the education system itself.
i would rate the class 8/10 due to the interesting points presented and the topic of sustainable technology is one that is of interest to me.
