Change

I was reading cnn.com, economist.com, newsweek.com about the changes in our world, technological or otherwise and I came up with this mini reflection.

The world is truly changing. Societal norms are constantly being revised. Culture is updated more frequently that future generations will not have a culture to hold on to but a culture to modify. The gift of reminiscing will slowly fade away with time and people will struggle to find the time to truly ponder about the past and the good times that came with it.

We live in exponential times where change is not only constant but rapid. I fear we will one day lose the beauty of enjoying the moment because we now have the ability to do so much is such a short span of time. I’m not against the progress of society, far from. I am however pondering the fact that we may one day have this culture of rushing through life that we simply forget that the true wonders of life happen when we simply stop and absorb. We can’t fight the evolution of mankind. What we can do is to evolve rationally to fuze the old with the new, culture with modernity, love with infatuation.

While we are intelligent beings we are also simple ones. We can have everything is the world but we are driven by emotion and if we can’t satisfy them, everything else material would not matter.

Nicholas

Session 12

Today was officially the final day of our TWC course and I must say I will miss this class. I think I chose the right subject for the first semester of my university life because it thought me to be more open to change and progress. I used to think that if an input brings a negative output, then we should forgo the input. However with TWC, I learn to compromise. If the input brings in certain positive outputs along with the negative, we should find a way to eliminate the negative outputs so that we can enjoy the positive outputs rather then eradicating the input as a whole. We live in times where change happens constantly and at exponential rates and we as future change leaders should learn how to be at the forefront of this pattern.

One of the groups that presented today talked about the drug problem and how legalizing them would be a possible solution. However there are certain problems that may arise as a result of legalizing the drug. For example, when I was in Amsterdam, I visited coffee shops that sold marijuana legally. However these coffee shops were also illegally selling other times of drugs like cocaine as well. The problem with legalizing one drug to be sold is that it becomes a gateway to other forms of drugs. These coffee shops in Amsterdam now have a platform to sell other forms of drugs, which in the long run I feel does not really help solve the problem as a whole. Of course economically in the long run, revenue generated from taxation of these legalized drugs will benefit the governments but it does nothing to solve the social problems that come with drug use. When you think about it, the fight against drugs will always be a never- ending battle. What we can do is to develop new and better ways using technology to effectively catch drug smugglers and sellers. The main point I’m trying to make is that it is impossible to legalize marijuana and assume that other drugs would not become more easily accessible. It is like alcohol. There are no illegal forms of alcohol because they are essentially the same thing but in different degrees of potency. Therefore if you legalize or ban one, you have to do the same for the rest.

My groups project was on holograms and the future it brings as a form of visual technology. The main reason why we were so excited about it was because of the massive potential that is has it terms of changing the way we function. Can you imagine communicating with your loved one where he or she appears as a hologram? You might not need because it will soon be reality. Before starting University and this course, I was under the impression that technology such as holograms and augmented reality are distant possibilities because these are things you only really witness in sci-fi shows. However when we started on our group project, I came to find out that I was misinformed. The technology is here and almost ready to use. The question is how can we use it to help the masses? How can we use it as future change leaders? We all definitely have the ability to answer that.

In conclusion, TWC has thought me to be more confident. If there is something that needs to change or an idea worth exploring, do not hesitate or think twice. Be the person that steps up to the challenge.

Session 11

The start of the group presentations was truly intriguing. A few unique ideas were put forth making the future a very exciting prospect, from 3D animation to genetic warfare. However I thought it would be nice to present the other side of it.

What was particularly interesting was perhaps sports technology. It has really revolutionized the way sports are played today. Swimming with state of the art swim gear, is that a true test of your talent? And if you allow the wearing of this swimsuits, then what difference does it make, the fastest swimmer before will still be the fastest swimmer now if everyone wears it. The only difference is the time set. If I wanted to see who could reach such lighting speed timings, I would rather just race speedboats. Sometimes, the presence of technological advancements is redundant. Just because the can do it does not mean that it is necessary. Sport is about passion and determination. Yes if you can use technology to improve fine but Sports should be focused around the technological breakthroughs. I love playing soccer and sure it’s fine if they develop boots to make you run faster. However if they develop soccer boots that can eventually transmit virtual imaging of a scope so you can better aim and shoot the ball then it’ll defeat the purpose of soccer being a sport about skill. Sadly that is what I envision happening because we will have the capability to do it. While I appreciate the technological advancement I appreciate being human more.

Killing someone that has a certain genetic make-up. I can’t believe it has come to that. Yes it’s fantastic that with this we can minimize the collateral damage. However is this where we are going at as citizens of this world. Centuries of violence, disputes and disagreements and rather then learning to evolve into people of peace, we shift our focus on minimizing the damage to our friends but maximizing the damage to our enemies. I feel that they more we have the ability to create such weapons the harder it will be to search for peace. Perhaps these weapons will be like Nuclear weapons where we might never have to use it but the paranoia that results from having weapons like these in your arsenal can be just as dangerous.

I have many positive views as well. However I felt that maybe showing a little of the negative light would provide a more balance argument.

Overall it was an interesting lesson filled with thought provoking ideas. Hopefully we can carry it on into the next lesson.