A New Beginning to Comprehensive Understanding

     When posed the question of what we know about technology and world change, many students replied that they do not know much about technology and world change. It could be a safe answer to give especially when none of us are overly knowledgeable on the topic. I did have a few replies to the question which seemes to grow more comprehensive as the class progressed.

     Technology and world change are undoudbtedly interconnected. Technology changes the dynamics of different aspects in the world, while technology feeds and accommodates to various changes happening in the globe. And we citizens of the world are caught up in this whirlwind. No matter the age, where the previous generation is looking to adjust to the new advances in technology, especially social media.

     I had a vague idea on how products of technology are impacting the globe, however, I was taken aback when the changes and impacts were crudely represented in numbers. (In the video, as shown by our professor) It gives us the concrete statistics how the world in ever evolving. Technology is fundamentally to make life better for people. It is not a question about whether we'll be able to keep up with it, but it is of whether we'll be capable of manipulating it to our benefit and making our lives as we desire it to be. This question can be tackled due to the fact that technology is a mere tool.

     The professor also has introduced to us new insights of Diamond's, where his works starts with a simple question of why the whites had more 'cargo' than the New Guineans. There were many ideas on why such was the case. Travelling opportunities and availability of resources were the factors that the whites had advantage over. However, what struck my mind, of why the whites and not the other party, was colour of the skin. The whites were dominative and that could have shaped the fate of the New Guineans. I have yet to view all the videos of Guns, Germs and Steel to elaborate further on the validity of my point.

     Key take away is that we have to know the history of how technology has progressed and we should read up on various case studies. The direction for the whole semester has been set and it seems that it will be a really informative one!