“Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
- Arthur C. Clarke -
This quote i feel is such an impactful one. The things that we have today, such as mobile phones and technology such as the touchpad and remote control would have scarcely been imagined by people 100 years ago. It would have been, as the quote says, magic to them. It shows the impossibility that technology is able to achieve. No doubt, we may now think that we know nearly all there is to know, with so many theories debunked and so many facts made known, But surely the people 100years before us must have felt the same? It just proves to us how much we have yet to learn. While reading the quote i remembered a figure mentioned before, about how 1hour of energy from the sun captured on the earth is able to sustain our energy needs for a year, or something along those lines. It just shows how much potential for growth we have, with all the unharnessed energy and vast unexplored universe around us!
There was also discussion on "the expanding concept on what it means to be human". Though the various innovations throughout the century have been truly revolutionary, we have naturally, but unfortunately, became reliant on it such that for many people the computer and the smartphone can be considered as an extension of themselves. As Daniel asked in his presentation, could we survive without the internet?
Another interesting point brought up in his presentation was the question of whether the access to the internet could be considered a human right. In my mind, access to the internet seemed more of a luxury and hardly could be considered a human right. Thus i was quite surprised when prof mentioned that such a stance had already been adopted by several countries such as finland (greece and france too, as i found out). However now that i think about it, in such an era where such vast amounts of information are available and where much of human communication now take place, by denying an individual access to the internet would be, by extension, denying the right of speech & thought (internet communication) and of education (through the inaccessibility of information on the internet which could educate and empower).
In jamie's presentation she discussed the use of ICTs (information & communications technology) in the education system in singapore, and how it could provide better means of education through providing means of allowing students to further their learning through their own research, as well as making education more interactive and engaging. While it seemed like a feasible plan in theory, class discussion brought up the fact that the use of ICTs has been rather poorly implemented. For example, secondary school students who were given laptops to use mainly used it for gaming in class instead of using it for studying and to source out information. I felt such an observation was hardly surprising. It is simplistic to think that teenagers would utilise laptops for educational purposes. Initiatives such as the "one laptop per child", as noble as it may seem, are based on the foolish assumption that the children will use it for the purposes that it was designed for. Im positive that the laptops and internet bandwidth have been used for other purposes such as gaming or pornography. As mentioned, it was only recently that the use of internet for social networking purposes have overtaken pornography. Despite the wealth of information that ICTs can provide to us, it requires a certain level of maturity to harness it properly.
There was a video shown describing the transition of the web from 1.0, where it primary gave information, to 2.0 where information was exchanged and provided for by the community and its current gradual transition into web 3.0. where computers are in many equipment and have a certain degree of automation and computers have personalized searches to suit our needs. It is interesting how the spread of information has changed, from "one-to-many" approach in web1.0 into a "many-to-many approach" in web2.0. Through this, the common man has been made more aware of his surroundings and the information we can obtain is more reliable given the many sources available. in web3.0 we will have a many-to-many-to-many approach where artificial intelligence is able to utilize our information and form one of the parties in the exchange of information.
other than the web, ICT has also brought to us benefits through the means of
-social networking, where people are able to share their information with greater numbers of people around the world, and also be able to network with a greater number of people through connections that were previously unknown. Content posted in social media also helps to bridge the digital divide as people who are networked together usually share common interests thus people would be able to access information and ideas they would otherwise have missed out on.
- crowd sourcing. The varying point of views and vast amount of ideas to be contributed by people from various walks of life has made information and ideas more well-rounded and insightful. Examples of crowd sourcing would include wikipedia, google answers, as well as discussion forums everywhere
- online gaming has been a common source of entertainment for many people worldwide and hence led to their interconnectedness. more importantly, the virtual reality aspect offers huge potential in terms of education and training as it allows people to be placed in many different scenarios.
- wireless technology have, by the elimination of the need of wires, reduced the capital required to provide internet connection and hence allowed poorer countries to enjoy the benefits of technology despite their lack of infrastructure. An example mentioned in class was how a poor city like bangladesh was able to be connected via phones as the development of wireless technology had gotten rid of the high set up costs of land lines and fibre optics. Wireless technology has made possible things such as laptops and smartphones greatly increased efficiency by allowing more people to stay interconnected on the go.
- cloud computing has allowed the access of information not on our devices as all the information and application have been made available in the "cloud". Besides increasing interconnectedness, it removed the need for expensive hardware because the information is stored online, and software because they can be readily available online.
As can be seen, many technologies resulting from ICTs do play a role in reducing inequality amongst countries.
Key takeaways from today's lesson was the vast impact the development of internet and its accompanying technologies it has on our lives and the need for its availability to facilitate information and communication between all users and aid in solving inequality by providing information to the disadvantaged groups that they did not have before. The many developments in ICT has also made the use of internet and computer applications much more efficient, cheaper, and productive than before. As our internet grows from web 2.0 to 3.0, its impact on our lives will continue to increase and thus the areas of ICTs are important fields which need to be developed continuously.
Issues for future discussion would be on methods today which are attempting to make web 3.0 possible, and the limitations that prevent them from doing so. Is the provision of internet access to the poor a naive solution by the rich to ease the problem of inequality? And if so, what more can be done to enhance such methods? Today's lesson was enriching as always but i will give it a 6/10 because the lack of controversial topics failed to spark my interest.
