Technology and World Change Week 5

We are week 5 of TWC and yet the lesson is still as interesting as ever. What really catches my attention today is the ability of the technology now in the current world. When the video of Project Natal is being shown, I must say it is really an eye opener for me. I have seen tons of role- playing games, the ability to create a virtual person (The Sims) but I have never came across anything like Milo. He is the first virtual character that I know who is able to communicate with humans literally, interpret emotions and even show his own. The awesome part is which it felt so real that I almost believe that someone is literally living behind the machine! However, the thought that came to my mind after being amazed is such that if technology were to go towards this direction and having this ability to create virtual self that is so real, is it even healthy to our growth mentally and physically? With the presence of such virtual character, the time that we used to spent at home will be increased and it might be even possible that Milo will being treated exactly the same as humans.

On the other hand, I feel that cloud computing is really beneficial to us. With cloud computing, files can be easily shared across our peers and the space that we were given enable us to save money on buying gadgets which costs a lot. Even though this new technology has brought us a lot of convenience, but I felt that is might be misused by people as well. With the ability to download movies and songs through the internet or online music and video stores, all these video files can be passed around easily to our friends. This in turn will then impact the media and entertainment industry to a very large extent. So this is one of the cons of the cloud computing.

Moving on, after looking at the presentations I felt that there is really a very high possibility that one day all paper products (newspaper, books, notes) will eventually become history. This is definitely good in the eyes of the environmentalist whereby all tress will be spared by then. Although paper products are being replaced by future digital technology, but does it mean it will be really saving the environment? I am sure some other kinds of energy that needs to be used to power the new technology might cause more global warming. Imagine electricity bills are tripled by the next few years. How can the country provide this high amount of energy to each of the household? Do we have to adopt the strategy of Masdar City (having the technology by solely using solar power) in order to sustain longer?

Overall, I rate this session 7/ 10 because it is really thought provoking on how the future technology can turn into as well as how we are going to sustain/ maintain these new creation when it comes.