This week, the first session’s focus was on the sustainability in the face of technology and industrial development. To go deeper into this topic, we firstly watched a youtube video called “The Story of Stuff”. This video talks about the possible extreme destruction of the world’s nature resources in the result of America’s over-consumption and the behaviors of the government and the private enterprises. Though I regard myself as eco-conscious and not that I am against the avocation of protecting our Earth, I find that, at a certain level, the reasoning in this video is fallacious and extreme. Example mentioned is the “planned obsolescence” – designed for the dump. Is this really how the society is operating now? We make stuffs to be useless as soon as possible? We chuck them and buy new ones? I disagree. Despite the replacement of computers is rapid, how could we say the creation of computer is USELESS when it brings better efficiency and productivity?
One fact we could not deny is that we manufacture more than our share. The manufacturing process indeed exemplifies how selfish Mankind is. Love Canal, Great Pacific Garbage Patch and excessive use of fossil fuel are the results of the absence of the consideration of consequences before any action taken. Everyone is just looking after their own interests. Fulfilling their level of satisfactory is what concerns them most.
However, I do not think that the selfishness of everyone is the main cause of the negative environmental impacts. When human is not going for their own benefits but others’, the world becomes even more complex. Economics hardly comes in place and maximization of utilities becomes unrealistic. It is near to impossible that equilibrium can be reached in the premise of taking every single entity into account. Hence, a certain extent of self-interest is essential to keep the world relatively simple. Being ego-centered is not wrong, but we ought to have win-win mindset too. This could benefit every individual greatly.
Additionally, EVERYONE IS SHORT-SIGHTED. THEY ARE TOO EAGER TO OWN WHAT IS PRESENT AND ALWAYS FORGET THE WORD – SUSTAINABILITY! We should think of the environmental well-being in parallel to the economic well-being. Have a cyclical methodology of creating value to society. Besides the legislations to protect the irrational use of resources and to set constraints to the exploitation of the environment, review of manufacturing process and environmental awareness is also vital.
The second session went into the discussion on technology and innovation management. Due to the limitations of time and resources, not every innovation can be realized. Sometimes, the long reaction time makes innovation hard to be recognized. Therefore, one measure we can take is to increase the efficiency of translation and maximize the utilities of the innovation.
We need to manage our existing technology to ensure its greatest potential is unleashed. A funny phenomenon is people who have access to certain technology may not need it and vice versa. Developed countries spend hulk amount of capitals on R&Ds such as medicines for HIV/AIDS and to increase immune tolerance. Despite so, diseases are still easily spread around in less developed countries. This question is the transfer of technology so as not to reinvent to build. The ideal stage is when less developed countries could benefit from receiving advantages.
Another point that brought to my attention during this session is The Shahi Landscape Model for Technology Assessment: Conceptual Framework. In this model, opportunity is classified into 3 types – valley, summit, cloud. The suggestion from the powerpoint slides from session 3 is to “focus on summit opportunities – putting people, technologies and resources together to capture the value proposition”. I partially agree with this approach. The type of opportunity to grasp depends on which perceptive we are looking at. Summit opportunity indeed benefits entrepreneurs with deep pocket and it continues to maintain the premiere that people are going to pay. For valley opportunities, the existence of the product sometimes creates the market. It is a market-driven opportunity for starters with short-term projects and immediate returns. If we incorporate the consideration of environmental well-being and the development of sustainability, cloud opportunities should not be missed as people are required to foresee things in the long run, to predict the development of future and to develop a viable model.
After all, we should create values without limiting options for future generations.
Session Rating: 8.5/10
