Lesson 3 - 29 Aug 2011

his lesson came as a surprise, prof didn't know about the arrangement!

Technology and industrial development: Moving towards sustainable development

My knowledge about industrialisation :

Industrial revolution has certainly brought great changes to our lives. Economic growth was exponential when it first started. People were so focused on the fact that it has increased standard of living, not until the harmful effects were felt : pollution. By the time we realised this, we cannot halt all industrial activities as the benefits were widespread.

When government stepped in, those who were penalised had to internalise the costs, whereas the others went scot-free.

Then came a time we realised that there are dwindling supply of resources (trees and fossil fuels for example), there was little effect. The immediate monetary benefit outweighs the worries that they may face in the future. When things have gotten more serious, more attention was given to it.

Alternative resources came out. Some of them are still non-renewable, some are more sustainable, but most of them proved to be more costly to use. So people carried on using up "endangered" resources. For example, 100% recycled paper are still more costly than those made from trees. Reverse osmosis treated water are more expensive than treated water from reservoirs. Green cars are more expensive than those powered by fuels.

Many articles remained optimistic about the future, with developments to alternative resources coming up now and then, while critics think that the developments are not as fast as the rate we use up resources, given that the population around the world is increasing at a increasing rate, development trend must follow too.

My opinion is with the critics that we are heading for disaster unless we do something really drastic. Leaders have to really look at what is supposed to be well-spent on. I quote figures (from http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04b.html) that :

• Americans spend $586.5 billion a year on gambling
• $31 billion go annually in the US on tobacco products
• $58 billion is spent on alcohol consumption
• $250 billion are spent annually in the US on the medical treatment of tobacco- and alcohol-related diseases 

These money are definitely better spent on sustaining our livelihood rather than destroying it. 

Technology and innovation management


We explored Valley, Summit and Cloud opportunities in an article by Prof Shahi. I feel that Singapore's landscape is mostly made up of industries Summit opportunities.

Those of valley opportunities were quickly shifted to somewhere else. Such a competitive setting in Singapore will not allow it to grow as it will be overshadowed by those in the Summit. Therefore it is being shifted to somewhere with potential to grow and become an industry with summit opportunities.

One relevant example would be Biotechnology in Singapore. It used to be of a cloud opportunity. We built infrastructures, invited renowned scientists and introduced this field in the education sector. It quickly flourished into a summit opportunity where demand was large. But shortly after it fell into decline. Top researchers began to leave Singapore.

But could this spell the beginning of more independent research? I feel that we should not lament about the loss of such talents in our country but to grow our own 'uniquely' Singaporean talent in the field of biology. After all many of the things we have now were translated from ideas. As long as we persevere and groom our researchers in the correct direction, we can still become world-class standard. After all, humans are Singapore's prime resource!




I would want to ponder about why Singapore would lose to other countries in terms of biology research, are other countries out there way more lucrative to do their research in? Could it be our shift in emphasis, regulations or even funds not sufficient/optimal for their liking?


Personally i rate the session a 9/10.
+ The videos shown were really relevant and i actually made an effort to go home and watch it again!
- Some discussions got a little more heated than the usual level and i felt it could have been better for others to contribute as well.

Lesson 2 - 22 Aug 2011

There went the second week of school. I am still trying to get used to the schooling culture and coping with the workload. I guess such lifestyle change would take awhile to get used to, and tests my mental ability too.


The second lesson of TWC came and there was this slide which caught my eye :
Percentage of the World Economy by Region, 1 AD – 2050 AD.

I was surprised to note that most of the wealth started in India. I always thought the west were rich to begin with, so then they could start developing their countries and begin colonising other places. Subsequently the world went into some change, many of the wealth were distributed everywhere with the west taking the majority. Now the trend is shifting back to the east again.

One notable trend is Japan, with it’s declining economy caused mainly by the Earthquake and Nuclear disaster, will they be able to rise back to find themselves at the top in high-tech manufacturing especially with the close competition from Korea? Although Korea face hostility with their neighbouring country, I feel that  interventions from UN and USA helped to mitigate this. Just like when North Korea wanted to engage in Nuclear R&D, and have possession of potential WMD, they reached an agreement that they stop any development in the nuclear studies and exchange for economic aid.

Japan has a bigger problem now that disaster has struck, which caused ripple effects on their economy. Several key components in the iPad2 come from Japan, including the battery and the flash memory used to store music and video on the device, according to research firm IHS iSuppli. This can happen to a large extent as not only the iPad2 runs on batteries, every portable electronic gadgets require good quality batteries which Japan manufacturing plants are capable of producing. Looking at the world’s demand for iPad2 or even apple products, it would be terrible for Japan’s export if the manufacturing plant stops producing those goods permanently. They might find their way to their closest competitor which is Korea and force a dip in Japan’s economic power. Furthermore, Japan had been resistant in their policies, in which they thought those policies they used last time to gain economic power last time, is still relevant. The Japan leaders have since refused to see that the economic model has failed which now they have a government debt of 200% of their GDP. Competition, recovery from disaster and policies take time to have an effect and thus I feel that the predicted Japan’s economic power is relevant.

Another part of the lesson i wish to highlight is the : The Millennium Development Goals 

The MDG aspires to alleviate poverty as much as possible, ensure that the poor have food to eat, have a shelter above their heads, and to receive education. Such resources are very common in Singapore and it reminds me again not to take things for granted, and to always help people in any other way possible.

But what i felt was that these goals seemed far-fetched to me, especially in our world today where we face many problems, how are we going to cope with these problems faster than new problems can come up. With USA facing such a huge debt, and some European countries are not doing well, Japan is not doing well either. If the government in these places decide to cut spendings, certainly these humanitarian funds would be affected too because it is in the leader's interest to solve the fundamental problems in the countries. In many countries, they do not see that the social problems are the most important issue to solve. Often it is economic, political or military. If only there are global consensus to really help the people in need, and if only there are enough resources, enough outreach, then the world will really be a nicer place to live in. 

Can we imagine a day when we watch the news or read the newspapers, that there will be no crime reports, no signs of social problems, no economic issues or even no political issues?

Is it that the opportunity cost is greater to tackle the social problems first than the others?

If many countries are declining in economical standards, and that money is circulating around, there should be a country that is doing extremely well in that case. Are the countries that are doing well, making use of the money that they earn for the right cause? Or are they keeping quiet so that they will not be in the limelight and be obliged to contribute more to humanitarian efforts?

These are the issues that I sometimes wonder and hope that they could be discussed.

Overall, i rate the session 9/10. Not only I learnt from the professor, but I benefited too from the "guest speakers" which offered different and new insights about what they spoke. I think having different people to present a topic is good as everyone think differently, so we can offer views and ideas which everyone can learn or even share with others.

The only negative part : not enough time to discuss, very rushed :(

Lesson 1 - 15 Aug 2011

It was the very first day of school and I really struggled to assimilate into SMU's learning culture.

Then came TWC and like any other University lessons, they are expected to deliver knowledge of a higher ,deeper and broader level, and very well it did.


Lessons proper, we were first introduced to some revolutionary developments in human history, and were then introduced to a technology timeline by BT here.

BT Technology Timeline

The timeline was made using Macromedia Flash and was found to be very interactive. Professor Shahi mentioned that some of the inventions came sooner and some of the predicted technologies in the future may came sooner than we predict!

An example from the timeline is that in 2015, oil consumption will peak. Now we have talked about alternatives like bioethanol and biofuel. If we can bring agriculture technology to greater heights and with quantity, sooner or later we will be less dependent on oil. There is still so much underutilized fertile land in the world, surely can do something about it.

Another example is in 2013, where 70% of landfills in USA will be full. With talks about space travel and more successful voyage in the recent times, I think we might be able to send non-biodegradable wastes into space. I am not sure about the ethical issues involved, but a very radical idea would be to set it to orbit and let asteroids, comets, stars or even the sun to disintegrate them completely!


We were then introduced to a short clip on YouTube, featuring :

Guns, Germs and Steel

The documentary is very interesting, Jared Diamond and his encounter with New Guineans and "Cargos". When I looked at the citizens, they seemed very tribal and have their unique way or survival in the jungle.

I guess our environment and their's are similar in a way where we use whatever technology we have and improve our standard of living. The difference is the type of technology. To them discovering new materials to making a spear could be a new technology, but on the other side we are talking about nuclear weapons.

In a world where we are so dependent on computer technology in whatever we do, I must say that I can never imagine living in that kind of setting.


Issues for further discussion :


I wished we had more time to discuss about the New Guineans, which I would like to discover more answers on why they do not have access to modern technology that we have.

From wikipedia, it says that only 18% of the New Guineans live in urban areas. It makes me wonder if there are any traces of broadband internet, iPhone or even Cable TV there?


Personal Ratings : 9/10
+ points for wonderful insight and introduction to a whole lot of other learning opportunities.
- points for knowing that there is so much work to be done. (It's for our own good! But still...)