Technology and World Change Lesson 11 (Group Presentations 1)

"You know more than you think you know just as you know less than you want to know."-Oscar Wilde

This quote by the famous author was an interesting starting point as we launched into the two weeks that were dedicated to group presentations this week. It suggested that we actually have more knowledge than we think we do but yet at the same time we only know as much as we allow ourselves to know. This was a pertinent reminder as we hurtled through the world's future, looking at ideas ranging from futuristic buildings to virtual reality and it was humbling to see the amount of information that my classmates had amasssed on the different topics and their analysis of its implications. Their webpages gave me a taste of the possibility of knowledge that exists out there untapped and also gave me a lot of insight and left me in wonder about the world in the future and how we might solve any problems that might be surface due to these technological developments.

The groups presented on

1. Futuristic Buildings
2. Renewable Energy
3. Nanotechnology

Futuristic Buildings
Presentation

This was the first group to present and they literally started with a bang when they popped a popper to add effect to their revealing of their model of a futuristic building. I must commend them on the effort that they put in to build their model of what they wanted out of a futuristic building because it was very detailed complete with real fish swimming in a makeshift sea which was meant to show how their building was adaptable under water and in times of disasters.

Content

I found their presentation to be rather  thought-provoking because it started me thinking about what I would want in my future home. I would definitely like a smart home like they suggested where everything is preprogrammed with your preferences such as the environment being pre-set to a certain temperature. One thing that I would like to equip my home with would be the ability to transport. One day I would like to make my home able to fly so that I would be able to just lift off and move when I wanted to travel. This could have rather severe consequences on land ownership and much legislation relating to land law would have to be adapted and changed if such a home was really to be created. This law could look into the effects on whether movable objects could still have ownership over the land that they were placed if they spent most of the time stationary.

This would also have environmental implications as much energy would be needed to power such houses and the transport of such houses. There may also not be sufficient space for the houses to pilot around whether it would be air space or otherwise and this may lead to congestion and a considerable number of accidents. There may also be effects on the stability of such housing.

Also, logistically it would be quite impossible because any building would then be able to move off at any one time as and when they wished with complete disregard for the interests of the people inside and the people who want to enter the building. Imagine if the university could suddenly fly off to another country at will, it would make attending classes a nightmare. In the interests of sensibility, it would be wise to have some limits on the timings at which the buildings could move, where they could move to and who could be allowed to pilot them.

In the future, there may even be a need for a building transportation licence to be able to pilot your own house and everyone would need to have a personal teleportation device to be able to get to school on time. Learning across borders indeed! 

Renewable Energy
Presentation
I found that their website was rather wordy and a bit devoid of photos but it was rather nicely laid out which was somewhat easy to read.

Content
I found their content to be very comprehensive and liked how they looked at the case studies of the uses of renewable energy of the countries around the world but felt that they could have organised their content better such as by putting clear headings as it was rather confusing after a while.

Nanotechnology
Presentation
I liked the presentation of this website the best compared to all the other websites that I had seen and would see subsequently as I am writing this blogpost in retrospect and not in real time. The photos were well chosen and some of them were animated so they moved as you read the text. I felt that their 3D image of the microscopic view of nanotechnology was very realistic and added an added touch of professionalism to their website as well as drew the viewer in to explore the other parts of their website.
Moreover, their cover picture that could turn around and split itself into different parts when clicked reflected the divisible nature of nanotechnology and really impressed me when I visited their website.

Content
I felt their analysis of the implications to be very in depth and thorough and that gave me a lot of insight into the uses of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology can be used in contact lenses to enable it to have the same functions as the Google Glass and be able to have the function of virtual reality. Another use of nanotechnology could be its introduction in everything from nuts and bolts to bottle caps which could see the shift of even the simplest of devices to becoming intelligent and smart. For example, a bottle cap could unscrew itself when heat from a person's hand is applied to it for a stipulated period of time. This could lead to the automisation of our whole world as we know it. However, this may lead to items acting of their own free will and may not  be able to be controlled if their machinery is spoilt which may have harmful consequences.

I will be looking at the next 5 group presentations in the next blogpost.

Cheers,
Amanda Tan