TWC last session

The last session of TWC was about technology assessment and forecasting the future.



My Interest Is In The Future Because I'm going to spend most of my life there - Charles Ketttering
This quote explains the need to forecast the future as after all we are going to live through it. It is important to understand the new technology that may be created as it may after all impact our lives. We are then shown a video about a vision of Microsoft for the future. The video shows some ludicrous technology such as interactive newspaper. It was the ending that really struck me. Microsoft claim that it will take about 500 years for the vision to be a reality. Likelihood, 500 years from now, I would not be living in this world and this may not be a cause of concern to me but shockingly, majority of the class felt that it can take place in 20 years time! I would be living in the era of immense technological advancement. The question is are we prepared for it. How can we prepare ourselves for such technology advancement? I think this is why there is a need for technology forecasting

 Tomorrow Belongs To The  People That Prepare It Today - African Proverb


Interestingly enough, the concept of laggards is briefly implied in the quote Look Before, Or You Will Find Yourself Behind - Benjamin Franklin
In  the previous session, laggards is define as those that are unable to embrace technology. Could their inability to forecast technology results in them unable to embrace technology. I suspect so.

 P.s It sucks to be a laggard

Key observation for drivers of forecasting future technology
One key observation is that the drivers of forecasting future technology is mainly derive from a need for something. For example, with the advent of technology, there is a change of global social needs and this drives people to forecast future technology that may impact social needs. Sustainability - one of a session topic - drives people to forecast future technology that can be developed because there is a need to ensure that the benefits of future generation are not compromised due to limited resources on earth.

The drivers of change

Methods used in forecasting

There are so many methods to forecast technology such as conducting interviews and road mapping. The one I would like to highlight is gaming (since I'm a gamer myself). Surprisingly, the number of cases mapped for each region to use gaming as a mean to forecast future technology is zero yet there are a few real-world technologies inspired by video games. Technologies like auto-aim and programmable projectiles are actually inspired from video games. In fact, video gaming is a great method to forecast future technology because in gaming, there are no boundaries. You are not hampered by external factors such as time and resources. People can just develop ideas freely for games and such ideas may be a future technology. 

As what John F Kennedy states, “For time and the world do not stand still…

Change is the law of life.

And those who look only to the past or the present

are certain to miss the future.”

Gaming to predict the future

Lastly I would like to highlight about something not being covered in the session which is social media forecasting the future. As a matter of fact, social media has speculated real time events such as stock market and political voting. In the context of future technology, it is interesting to know that we could possibly be the predictor for future technology.

It is the last session and there are mixed feelings to it. Saying I would be melancholic as this is the last session would sound too contrived but definitely TWC is a memory to stay with me. I would also say that the rainbow after the storm draws near also as the last session of TWC concludes. Overall, I would rate this session 8/10.

There is no good or bad; its just opinion and perspective

Squall - Final Fantasy VIII