TWC Lesson 1

Brief Overview

Lesson officially began after professor presented his contract with us. This session was an introduction of Technology and World Change. Readings assigned are aligned with the origins of technologies. The videos took the stage of the class: 1) Shift Happens, 2) Guns, Germs and Steel, a documentary on the findings of Jared Diamond, but what caught my attention was the term: “Luddite”

Interesting Ideas

Although technology has the efficiency, the speed, the capacity to accomplish more, not all people embrace technology, especially the “Luddites”. A term introduced by Professor himself. Luddites are people who oppose mechanizing. With that I went a little further to find their origins of opposition over technology.

Do a little Google, and their origins of fear lie with worry about losing their livelihood over technology. A case where full automation occurs, eventually resulting in unemployment and large discontentment.

I am skeptical about this ‘fear’ raised by Luddites. In fact I believe technologies are productivity-enhancers, not just job-eating aliens. As an employee, the machinery alongside them can be more of a helpmate than a threat.  Employees have the intellect and experience over their field jobs, they can raise society values by thinking on areas to improve performance and we can never deny the fact that we need workers to oversee the operation ability of technology.

Key Take Away Points

Shift Happens was a wake-up call, it called my attention on the fast-moving pace of society and each and every individual should be on our toes for change is occurring rapidly with technology. We must adapt, or we will be left behind.

The class placed our focus back in time to understand why some nations tend to progress a little faster than others, based on Jared Diamond's research: Guns, Germs and Steel. The short clip, focus on the roots about human inequality, emphasizing that technological advancement is not uniform due to Geographical disadvantage, failure to learn from shortcomings and strengths of undeveloped societies.

Issues for Further Discussion

There was a discussion relating to the concepts of “technology”, “innovation” over the changes in timeline. However, I felt that more time could have been spent on the discussing the concept of “world change”. Could this disparity of technology be overcome by understanding geographical limitations and looking back at history to learn from experiences? Are there real life examples that we can learn from?

Rating

Overall lesson was enjoyable, I look forward to more in-depth discussion. I rate the lesson 7/10.