Week 12

Our first round of group presentations started with Rebekah's group on Futuristic Buildings. Matthew and Prashant gave a comprehensive summary of building construction throughout history. I found their examples of Flying Houses, Underwater Living (the Water Discus hotel) and even Outer Space Living charming and interesting, yet understandably rather idealistic for now. Grace's website covered on the use of clean energy. The examples that their group raised were: Solar Energy, Biofuels, Hydroelectricity and Nuclear Energy. They gave an interesting explanation on the use of dams and tidal energy for hydroelectricity and nuclear fission for nuclear energy. However, I wished they elaborated longer on the specific details of nuclear waste disposal, because the inappropriate disposal of nuclear waste is certainly a controversial topic, and thus a strong argument against nuclear energy. For example, the Japanese government dumped thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive material into the Pacific Ocean on August 26, 2013 because of the Fukushima incident. See More

Following which, Jolene's group gave an interesting presentation on NanoTechnology, as well as delving into the various ways NanoTechnology can be applied for various uses. I felt that they gave a well thought-out explanation of the possible impacts of adoption of such technologies. One of the messages I felt I could take away from their presentation was from Wei Yang's explanation of the respirocyte that can function far more efficiently than a normal red blood cell. This could mean that the rich who can afford such technology can be biologically enhanced while the poor are left behind, further widening the social inequality. This can be further expanded into real-life examples and technologies today and one must keep in mind that humanity as a whole would benefit only when new beneficial technologies become cheap enough to be affordable to the poor as well.

Another takeaway message was that of the Technological Arms Race. Drawing parallels to the nuclear weapons arms race during the Cold War, they managed to show how a hypothetical NanoTechnology Arms Race may emerge in the future. I found the thought quite profound, since any revolutionary technology, especially one that can be easily used for military means can cause an arms race between the most powerful nations in the world today, such as USA, Russia and China.  While today's globalised world is more interdependent and indeed different from that of the Cold War, it is undeniable that geopolitics is still a powerful force in the world today.

I would rate today's session an overall 7 as I felt one of the groups could have delivered their content in a more concise and illustrative manner, and perhaps even make use of audience interaction, such as Jolene's group.