lesson 12

This lesson marked the end of our TWC course.Before I go on to talk about my personal feelings for this course, i will just dwell on one presentation which i found particularly interesting, the presentation on legalizing drugs. It was indeed shocking to find out that drug lords would go to the extent of creating submersibles to evade detection to smuggle their drugs in. Although the group presenting the case was for some drugs to be legalized. I am still unconvinced by their arguments. They have failed to bring up the most crucial reason why drugs have been outlawed in most countries thus far; it's negative consequences to society.The crimes that drug addicts commit coupled with the physical it does to the drug addicts body coupled with the fact that it addiction will probably lower one's productivity ( while burning a hole in one's pocket)are factors that will really hurt society if such drugs are legalized. Hence I feel it would be safer for society to continue to outlaw such harmful drugs.
Overall, I would rate the last lesson an 8/10. Now unto my thoughts for TWC in general :

Of the Modules which I have taken in my first Semester in SMU, this the one I enjoyed the most. TWC, I believe, has brought me up to the state of current affairs ( in terms of technology and trends ) in the world and given me a deep insight of what is likely to be the drivers of change for tomorrow. The articles, discussions and presentations which we had about ICT, bio technology and energy systems in particular, opened my mind to entirely new aspects of these technologies which I never did  hear about before. More importantly, the whole concept of the  frameworks for change, change management and  the innovation process  which we are taught in this module is what is will be crucial to help us one  in making business decisions in the future. While the technologies we have been introduced to will give us areas to explore.As I intend to major in finance, I am genuinely able to appreciate such information. The ability to understand the change going throughout the world, draw out it's implication of such change and at the same time spot revolutionary technologies( and the companies associated with it ) is a skill which is vital for strategic investing. it will allow one to reap tremendous profits by hoping onto the bandwagon early in it's journey.Thus I am thankful that this TWC module has provided me with the basic foundations for my foray into the world of finance.

Signing off now, I hope to eventually revamp this blog during my holidays to create a forum where people can post their thoughts on current affairs through the world and it's implication on society and of course for investors in the long run . A "trend spotting" investing ideas blog I suppose. More details up soon.

Lesson 11

Lesson 11:

This second last TWC lesson featured a wide variety of group presentations which served to further widen my perspective of the world. The first presentation I would list, which I find rather controversial was the presentation on bio weapons. The group introduced us to the possibility of governments engaging in secret projects to develop bio weapons that could target people on race or ethnicity . To be frank, I find it highly unlikely that any government, even the most twisted ones present in our world today would dare try such a stint. The group failed to explore the consequences that would likely follow if any country dared to initiate a biological weapon attack on another country or ethnic group in an attempt to achieve ethnic cleansing. Such an act is firstly bound to be met by international outrage as such an act would be reminiscent to the acts which Germany performed on the Jews in WW2.Dpeending on the severity of the attack, retaliation against the culprit may even include the use of nuclear weapons. This is because bioweapons is considered a Weapon of  Mass destruction ( WMD ) and hence it’s usage may even justify a nuclear retaliation form other nuclear equipped countries .The WMD status of bio weapons alone is what I believe will deter any country form trying to develop it. A s we have seen in the past 10 years, the US has proven itself willing to sanction and even invade countries which are suspected of developing such weapons. HI believe that their group’s vision of bio weapons becoming a norm in the future is very much unrealistic. Apart from the retaliation that a country will face from its usage, any country caught red handed in developing such a weapon is very likely to be face harsh economic sanctions from the rest of the world as we have seen with Iran and Iraq (previously) therefore it is almost a certain no win situation for a country to develop such bio weapons. Furthermore the group did not focus of the ethics behind such a weapon, how would any country’s own civilian population react to leaked information that their government was developing bio weapons? Let alone, race/ ethnic targeting ones. Regardless of how evil their government can be, I believe that the civilian population would find such a revelation very much disturbing and rebuke such projects.Thus a point I wished we could have discussed further in class would be about the ethical issues of bio weapons.

Another Presentation that caught my attention was the Presentation on 3 D technology, mainly ecause it was similar to what our group was planning to share in next week’s lesson. Nevertheless I do share their views that 3 D technology is a technology that can and will impact our lives going into the future.I personally believe that 3D based entertainment will be THE main form of entertainment of the future. Just as coloured TV’s replaced the balck and white TV’s an revolutionized entertainment. 3D technology I believe will take entertainment to a whole new level. It present an entirely new method of immersing the viewer in content by further blurring the lines between the content and reality. In fact it’s ability to replace monitors  for  computers will enhance our virtual world, adding a 3 dimensional perspective to it would taking our virtural experiences to a whole new level. Just imagine being able to navigate through your desktop in 3 transforming it into an essentially “real” workspace., or being able to Skype with your friends in 3D. The potential applications of 3 D technology are limitless and far reaching, offering endless opportunities for the future. This is one avenue of technology all of us should keep our eyes on.

Below is a link to a teaser which gives a glimpse of 3D messaging in the future.http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1439451/holographic_text_messages/

class rating 7/10