First TWC lesson :)

Today’s lesson on technology and world change addressed mainly the issues of how technology affects civilizations and how technology can potentially impact human health, as we discussed the probable effects of technology on the human race.

Few of the things I remember was the video of Guns, Germs and Steel of Jared Diamonds on his quest to uncover the roots of inequality in Papua New Guinea. The main point of the video, was a statement from a New Guinean to Jared Diamonds,” why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little.”

No, it was not an issue regarding race. Instead it was a question that had set Jared Diamonds, pondering on why and what had caused the US economy to be richer or having more cargo as compared to the New Guinean economy. And he discovered that it was the use of technology. The technological improvements that have continually been taking place in US and they were able to harness the use of technology that spurred their economy to flourish and climb up the economic ladder.

Also something that caught my attention was the effect of technology on the physical landscape of countries. As seen in the video, Papua New Guinea is a country with vast wildlife and greenery whereas countries like Singapore for eg. are mainly bound by roads, lights and buildings.Technology does affect the physial landscape of a country immensely.

One take home point of this is that people are after all, in a technological race, in a bid overtake, advance or outdo others. Even though the New Guineans live vastly different lives as compared to the US, they too desire and demand for “more cargo” and this largely would require the use of technology.

Another takeaway from this lesson was with regards to the probable effects of the human race, physically. There are various reasons to how or what the human race would become as depicted during the session but what I think really affects the physical size of humans depend on the people themselves. Technology should not be the reason as to why humans could potentially become obese but it is the onus of the people to exercise or eat healthily.

Lastly we watched a video on ted.com regarding a comparison between developed and less developed countries and how various countries have fared over the last decades. It would have been great if we had some airtime regarding this issue and discuss on why countries can continue to sustain itself in the long run and how they have managed to do so.

Finally, I would rate the session a 7 out of 10 because I think the session was not only interactive but  thought-provoking as we also watched informative videos and discussed about the issues regarding technology that really had set the pace for future lessons!