session 12

For this session, we continued with the group presentations. My group presented on weather modification. We started off with a trailer of the movie "The Storm".



What I would like to discussed here is the about the meaning of this trailer and some of the phrases that that were mentioned in it. This trailer is a possible scenario that might happen in near future. As we can see the trailer started off with a group of scientists working to develop weather modification technology in order to shift the hurricane away from land. However, as time progress, people (the government) started to exploit these technology in terms of a weapon. "If you control the weather you control the world, is it not worth some small risk?" To them, this technology, instead of benefiting the society, it turns out to be a weapon for them to control the world. This is highly possible to happen given its huge benefit. Looking at the current situation of weather modification, there are some critics that feel that the action of manipulating the weather is messing with nature, as commented by someone in the trailer where these people are "playing with god". They believe that "when you fight nature, nature fights back", and there are serious consequences in such actions. I agree that if humans are messing with weather as a weapon, its destruction force will definitely have a detrimental effect on the earth. However, if this technology is being used as a tool to improve people's lives, such as creating rain when there is drought, and is being utilize strictly according to the legislation, weather modification technology will be one of the greatest invention in the century that will benefits the society.

The other topic that was presented by one of the groups is about 3D technology. This is yet another great invention of the century. During the group's presentation, they mentioned about 3D pornography. This application did not occur to me before. I believe that this might be one of the problems that the government will have to tackle. Using 3D for pornography will enhance the problem that already existed in current society regarding this topic. The group was also mentioning about application of 3D as augmented reality.



Other than the application of augmented reality in medical field, this video suggests that this technology can be used for transactions. A paper with certain designs on it can be sent by the company to the customer, and when the customer receives it, through a certain software in the phone, he or she will be able to see the real product in 3D. This is a very good application of 3D as it allows the company to better advertise their product and reduce the chances of consumers buying the wrong product when shopping online.

Nuclear power is the energy source that the Singapore government might be considering to implement. This is a controversial issue in many countries as people are afraid of its negative health implication. This is especially so in Singapore as Singapore is a small country that is densely populated given its small area. Usually in other countries, they will build their nuclear plant in areas that are more deserted to minimize any negative consequences it has on people. However, this is not applicable in Singapore. Thus, this will be an uphill task for the Singapore government to tackle as they have to keep up with the progress (energy source) of the other countries with a small land size area that they are given to utilize.

This session is rated 9/10.

This is the last lesson of the entire TWC course. I believe that most of my course-mates had learnt a lot about leadership and world change with regards to technology. My main takeaway of this entire course is being summarize in this quote "technology is easy, people are hard". Technology is always there for us to use, it just depends on how the government implement it and how people use it to determine whether this product will benefit the society or not and to a larger or a smaller extent. Finally, I will take this opportunity to thank everyone in the class for your invaluable comments and insights, and our TA, Marcus who guild us along during these 13 weeks. Last but not least, thank you Professor for your effort in making this course a successful one. I really hope that all of us will be able to see each other again.

session 11

Cosmetic surgery is a term that most people would avoid three decades ago. But nowadays, cosmetic surgery is so prevalent, especially among the actor and actress, that out of 10 stars, at least 3 of them had undergone cosmetic surgery. Other than providing some people a chance to regain self confidence by altering their appearance, this commonness of cosmetic surgery can bring about huge revenue to the industry and serve as an economic boost to the country. However, some people took the opportunity of this situation (the prevalence of it) to defame others. There is this video that I came across online, whereby it talks about the how some people of the people used fake photographs and spread the rumours about how the actor or actress are so ugly before they went for the surgery, which can be misleading at times. This is one of the problem that media have to curb with the presence of cosmetic surgery.



Most of the people do not really pay attention to Cybercrime as it does not cause a direct physical impact on them. For example, if a hacker managed to get the information of someone and spread it, it will not be as damaging as it seems in those conventional crimes such as theft or robbery. However, looking at the consequences both crimes may result in, cybercrime may turn out to be equally, or even more serious than conventional crime (in terms of monetary aspect). For example, in theft cases, the amount of monetary involved is limited; whereas the economic damages of cybercrime incur can easily goes up to a few thousands, millions or even billions if it is the companies account that is being hacked. In website created, I like particularly one of the future solutions provided, which is fighting fire with fire. However, a point to note is that people should pay extra cautious while dealing with "fire" as this "fire", if not well-controlled, it might in turn cause damages to us instead. Even anti-virus can be infected, so nothing is impossible in the digital world.