Technology and World Change (Session 3)

Technology and World Change

Session 3

Brief Overview

During today’s lesson, we discussed about the sustainability of technology and industrial development and the implications of the current system we now adopt – the linear development. We delved into the environmental costs, social costs and more and the current actions taken to counter it. Then the second half of the lesson was about technology and innovation management. Innovation was defined as the process of translating your ideas into reality. We discussed the importance of innovation for future development.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

The Story About Stuff by Annie Leonard talked about the materials economy and how it is a system in crisis. The materials economy consists more than just the processes of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposable. The people and the environment that have suffered from this economy were not taken into account, two main aspects majority of us so conveniently forget. The video examines the underside of our production and consumption pattern. It calls for us to lead a more sustainable lifestyle by discussing more about the social and environmental challenges that stems from our current way of life. She mentioned that we are living in the world of finite resources and therefore cannot afford to function with the linear way of industrial development. We are already producing and consuming more than we are capable of. The implications of this are environmental degradation, which, more often than not, lead to health problems, rapid urbanization (forcing people out of the places that have sustained them for years to cities to make a living) and more.

Another interesting observation made was when we were discussing about in the paper “Sustainability for Tomorrow’s Consumers”, it was said that many consumers are actually aware of the issues of sustainability but are not too sure of the impact of their individual course of action. However, one sign that reveals the positive attitude toward change is that consumers are actually very supportive of “green” companies and products. However, more needs to be done to encourage more people to switch to such paths such as educating them. But the onus of sustainable markets should not just lie on consumers alone but on the producers as well. One good way to tackle with this is to encourage the spirit of collaborative innovation. The paper also talked about “copyleft” which gives everyone the right to copy and adapt a work as long as the result is bound by the same copyleft scheme. “ The sharing of information is for the greater good of its people for even faster development and realization.

Key Takeaways

The key takeaway for this session was the fact that for sustainability to occur, we have to coincide it with innovation. Innovation, as mentioned in class, is the process of translating ideas into reality. Innovation could potentially be the solution to many of the world’s problems. In the article, “U.S. TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION POLICIES: LESSONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE”, it was said that it was not a process to be done alone; rather it is a collective effort. For example, government policies could actually aid in this area. Policies encourage the development, and widespread reach of information on new technologies. Furthermore, in “Sustainability For Tomorrow’s Consumer” talked about the sharing of a common information pool which could potentially propel the process of innovation to even greater heights within a shorter period of time. People are able to work on the achievements on others and improve on it. This common information pool gives people the different perspectives that they may have lacked during their own research and development. And because the issue of sustainability is becoming even more pertinent, people would definitely have the same goal and motivation to solve this problem.

Issues for Further Discussion (Presentation)

With development taking place at a much greater speed than ‘green technology’ is being invented and applied, is sustainable development really achievable?

Even though development is taking place at a faster speed than ‘green technology’ is being invented and applied, sustainable is still achievable. Green technology alone is not enough to achieve sustainability. Though it could help us attain that goal, other measures can be adopted. Some measures to help curb this problem would be to encourage education because this creates awareness among the people. This in turn allows people to make informed decisions about their consumption pattern and maybe even inspire them to make a switch. The altered consumption pattern could then be a signal for production companies to seek an alternative within a shorter period of time. So I believe it is only with time that we can achieve sustainable development.

How innovative is Singapore’s population?

My own personal belief is that Singapore is not yet an innovative nation even though it is trying hard to attain that title. It all begins right down to the fundamentals – education.  One example that I can think of is rote learning where it is all about pure memorization and then regurgitation at examinations. However, Singapore has started to see that this may have worked decades ago but with the ever-increasing challenges of society and the world, things have to change. Schools have started to encourage critical thinking, analyzing, critiquing all in the hope that people would develop an independent mind that is needed for innovation to even begin. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat also urged more students to start reading to stimulate a more imaginative mind so that no one could be limited. It is often believed that conformity is always the “safe route” and then if there were any individuals who “stood out” they would be looked at with skeptical eyes. However, I believe that it is now when people need to be brave enough to be different, to be innovative.

Personal Ratings

I would rate this session an 8 out of 10 because I felt like it was an informative session. I felt like it was a topic that was very relatable to our current topic of sustainability that has become a hot topic in the past decade. Also, through the different articles, we were exposed to different perspectives and views on the situation, which was fresh and new. Some of the solutions that they suggested were very “out of the ordinary” too, my particular favorite was the sharing of a common information pool and the idea of “copyleft’.