Lesson 1

Intro

We have a pleasant introduction which was helpful to get to know each other. Most mods so far do not have this. This intro was too to help us interact better as a class and allow easier sharing during the individual oral presentation.

We also got to know Dr. Shahi, who is a delightful person with a wealth of experience to share. I hope we can learn more about how organisations keep up with tech changes and how we can build business in the upcoming industries.

In addition to the different areas of technology that we will be exploring as outlined. I am interested to explore more on how we can start green tech companies. I have always wonder what it takes in terms of resources, especially the people and finance to start a company dealing with green energy and such. Where do we look for engineers who we can work with. It seems insurmountable to start up a company like Hyflux yet if we recall Hyflux was only recently started.

In the following parts I would like to cover some reflections on the lesson.

Shift Happens (video 1)

I bet that his video aroused the interest of most in the class. It shows how much progress mankind have made since the the 'train' and 'internet'. It encouraged the class to think how limitless the future is.

Having recently watched Sci-fi Science by Dr. Michio Kaku, who is favourite scientist (the other is of course Dr. Sheldon Cooper), we have already many of the foundation technologies that can be used to do things like a starship and space travel. Thankfully, he assured us the robots will not be able take over mankind anytime soon with most having the capability of a cockroach.

Germs, Guns and Steel (video Out of Eden)

We watched the 1st video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnmT-Y_rGQ) of the series which a very interesting question was posed by Yali: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”


We had a discussion which was initially framed as "Are white people more superior, thus they have more things?" Not discussing whether material things are important in life, we can all agree that the answer is "No". The fact that Yali asked that question, we can infer that those people have the impression that white people seems superior.

During the colonial times, the oppression by the Europeans imposed the believe that they are more superior than the natives. Though as evident by our hardworking forefathers, this proved to be false. Individuals from Lee Kong Chian and Tan Kah Kee to even the samsui women. All have no less ingenuity and resourcefulness than the Europeans. With trade and communication, where ideas can be shared, society can learn, improve and generate new ideas as well. Where a population can share ideas, the society can breakdown false beliefs. Therefore resulting in the rejection of the colonial powers in the early 20th century.

Then why do societies such as the native Papua New Guineans as shown on the video still seem to believe that white people are superior? One of the reasons is natural resources. Natural resources can help a society to develop through the use of the resources to create tools and technology and generate wealth.

Second is having a open society. This will enable the society to share ideas and to trade for resources that they do not have. A testament to being open to share ideas and trade is Singapore. Lacking natural resources, this enabled Singapore to develop into a world class nation. An example to prove that the second ingredient is vital is the Ming Dynasty China. The Ming Dynasty was the world superpower of the 15th century, the ships that Admiral Zheng He used were far more advanced than those of the Europeans. Open to trade and new ideas, these contacts with the Western World allowed the Ming Dynasty to develop technologies such as rockets.

The Ming Dynasty example bring us to the next reason that is politics. In the late 15th century, politics caused China turn inwards in the face of threats from overseas to try to keep control over the populous. With the poor governance and little new ideas, the Ming Dynasty started to decline. Similarly, to societies such as the native Papua New Guineans, there is a very strong government to lead the society, as they are grouped around small tribes. Resources are not consolidated and its best minds are not gathered together to share and generate new ideas, thus it is very difficult for them to reach developed status.

In my opinion, these three reasons chiefly helps to explain why some countries are developed while some are not over the past 10, 000 years since civilisation started.

Miscellaneous Discussion

We have some other miscellaneous discussion. I would like to comment on some of them as I did not have the opportunity to do so during the lesson.

Change Management vs Change Leadership

There were some discussion on the difference between management and leadership. In my opinion management is 'doing things right' while leadership is 'doing the right things'. 'Doing the right things' means that a leader directs the organisation to the right direction. 'Doing things right' means that a management finds solutions to move the organisation along towards the direction set by the leader. I hope this is helpful the make the discussion clearer.

Creativity, Invention and Innovation

Dr Shahi threw a question on which of the following processes comes first followed by which processes. The class had a lively discussion. I liked this part of the lesson, seeing how the class participates actively bouncing their thoughts, not fearing difference in opinion. I hope that we can have more of such sessions in future.