This week, we looked at emerging and future technologies which included that of robots and artificial intelligence, autonomous transportation, surveillance technologies, genetic engineering and nanotechnologies. We also understood what were the drivers of these technologies and how we could tap on these technologies to bring about change in our practices as well as understand how these technologies would be disruptive to our current practices which would enable us to use these technologies for our businesses.
Interesting Observations/Ideas
Another idea that I found interesting in the lesson was that of plastic electronics. These are plastic items which can electronic functions embedded into them.
An example of this would be the packaging of medicine which could have an electronic display to show when you have to take the medicine, how many times you have to take it and whether you have taken it at the stipulated times, if not it could post a reminder for you to take it.
Moving forward, the technology could be used for food packaging where the packaging could show the price electronically which could in turn be changed by a remote control and this would save menu costs.
Further into the future, this could be embedded into clothes which could calibrate your temperature and contact lenses which could reflect information such as the position of certain buildings away from one's current location, functioning as a virtual map and merging augmented reality technology into the lenses, something which Google glasses aims to achieve.
This is likely to be highly beneficial as this would significantly lower the costs of all the printing that we do currently when we try to change things like menus and it would be rather environmentally friendly as well as reduce the amount of paper wastage. Also with its introduction into more sectors, I feel that this is a technology that will change the ways things operate to allow it to operate in a more efficient and convenient manner.
A point raised against this in class which was rather relevant in my opinion was about how the world is trying to reduce the amount of plastic used, whereas a development in this manner would significantly increase the amount of plastic usage. Hence, like Prof pointed out, it would be important that this plastic would be produced of renewable resources and that the plastic would be biodegradable. As this a new product it would be a good opportunity to make sure that when this product is produced it is renewable. As this product would be of high demand, people would be willing to pay the higher costs to have it renewable which would contribute to the shift towards renewable resources.
Another interesting idea that was raised in class was that of augmented reality. The augmented reality as described in the video was that of one which you could use a phone or in the future the Google glasses to look at the world around you and there would be words above buildings that label them as well as a virtual reality map on how to get to the place you wanted.
However, we soon realised that there could be more serious implications of such a technology instead of being just merely a tool to help people access information when they needed it. Moving forward, the technology could be used to label people around you, even strangers that you meet for the first time, yes I am talking about that cute guy that meet at a party and this would allow you to know everything that you wanted to know about him even before you start speaking to him. This could have serious impacts on maintaining privacy and knowledge of the person's characteristics even before the person has the chance to meet him properly could affect one's treatment of the other and lead to discrimination, causing a breakdown in social relations.
That said, it could be used by countries to counter terrorism as the criminals would be able to be identified on sight.
Thirdly, Prof told us about artificial intelligence and how it is being used to power robots and may even one day take over human intelligence. I think this is entirely possible as the one of the earliest artificial intelligence computers, that of the Deep Blue computer which was originally created to play chess with a human opponent and predict its moves was later developed to the extent where it can now predict a significant number of moves ahead. As such it is only a matter of time before artificial intelligence will take over human intelligence. The question is when and how we are able to manage the artificial intelligence. We as humans have to manage artificial intelligence such that there will still be safeguards to protect humans when artificial intelligence starts to surpass human intelligence so that we will still be able to prevent it from getting out of control and dictating our actions instead.
Key Takeaways
One of my key takeaways was that of the 4 smarts that one has to have in order to have a successful business.
The 4 smarts include
- Smart People
- Smart Ideas
- Smart Money
- Smart alliances and partnerships
Another key takeaway I had from the lesson was how supply can create demand. It is often said that one has to do market research to find out what it is that the market wants and then create a product that fulfils that demand to capture the market. However, it may be wiser still to find out what people need but do not yet know that they want it and produce it hence using its presence to create a demand for it in the market. An example of this was the iPhone as well as the Sony Walkman which was later improved upon and developed into the iPod.
Before the Sony Walkman came about, no one had the concept about being able to carry around the music that they wanted to listen to around with them. At most, they toted a portable radio which in all practicality is not a very light item to bring around. Similarly, the iPhone introduced a new phone entirely as no one before the iPhone could imagine a phone with a single button or perhaps two technically and a volume control button with everything else operated on a touchscreen interface.
Here we can see that indeed these companies managed to think of what it was that people would want before they knew they wanted it and provided a supply for it, creating a niche market for themselves that would take a long time for their competitors to catch up with as their competitors were still doing market research and trying to find out what was the demand that they people were expressing at that point of time based on the products they knew to be in the market.
That said, I think that it is important to note that it may not be as easy as we think to find a want that the market has not realised for itself. Sometimes in trying to be ahead of the crowd, it may be likely that we fall behind and instead create a product that no one has a need for or that the market is not ready for yet and this may have adverse consequences. It is best to do market research to find out what the market wants as well as the problems that are faced with the current products to exists in the market to see how to change it or improve on it. Also, one should rely on producing some conventional products to ensure that they do have a certain level of market share to keep them afloat and fund their research whilst trying out one or two other products which are less conventional to get the edge in the market.
Issues for discussion
One issue that I thought could have been raised for discussion would be that of how we would be able to discern the future implications of any technologies that we want to implement. As the technology has not been designed yet, there is a need to see if there are any adverse implications such that they could be controlled or if the adverse implications outweigh the benefit of the item then the technology could be scrapped altogether before it is allowed on the market.
Another issue that could have been raised for discussion would be that of how we could manage the future implications that these technologies would bring about and whether moral and ethical concerns should be sacrificed in light of the improving technology.
Responses to the presentations
One of the questions that was raised in the presentations was whether jet packs would be a reality in the future and if the need to have it was justified.
Here I felt that jet packs were a rather unnecessary expense. If the public transport system was already sufficiently efficient there would be no need to hover over everyone else. Moreover in the jet pack that the presentation introduced to us, the jet pack had a pipe that had to be constantly pumping water from a water body to power it. This would make travel rather difficult except over sea where possibly a boat would be faster. However, I do think that hovercrafts are likely to be useful in the future because they are airborne and do not require any connection to the land.
Personal ratings for the session
I was quite intrigued by this lesson because it talked about some very interesting technology and the direction in which our world is heading. I have always liked to think of ways in which our world could advance technologically and this lesson showed a glimpse of the inventions that have been created or are in the making.
Indeed as Prof says, "We are living in exciting times!"
I would rate this session an 9/10.
Next week, we will be looking at how we can come up with a framework to predict what kind of technologies will come out in the future.
Cheers,
Amanda Tan
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