Week11- Technology Assessment and forecasting

Overview of the lesson

 We started off today's lesson watching a siemens video. This video talked about some problems that we are facing today and some solutions that siemens came up with. This video brought up a few main problems that we are facing today, such as increasing population, increasing number of people moving to the urban areas, depleting of natural resources and increasing importance in healthcare. Many of these are those that we have mentioned and brought up in class. However, siemens brought up new and innovative solutions to counter these problems. Such as building sustainable infrastructure. This video shows that siemens are actually forecasting their actions based on the problems that are happening today. However, one concern would be, by the time these actions have taken place, would these problems have changed or worsen?

We also discussed about the quote "Empires of the future are the empires of the mine". This probably means if you can think of it, you can make it happen. This quote is definitely applicable, since so many things around us are objects of fantasies of the past. However, they are just necessity to us now. In a reading last week, 5years ago people says that in future, everyone will be carrying a portable computer everywhere. Not only are we carrying computers, we also have internet within our grasp at all times. 

What i found interesting


The most interesting part of this lesson is the discussion that we had regarding innovation and planning. When we plan, we plan for the future, without working from the past. This means that we do not plan from what we have now, but we look forward and plan how we get there and make changes along the way. Together with planning, comes innovation. When we start to innovate, we have to remember 2 things, when innovating, the difference is not inventing it, but making people want to use it. Second, understanding the implications and issues of this innovations.


Most important take away


Most important take away in today's session will be from the microsoft video. This video shows many new technologies that seems like what we are using or already own. However, they managed to make them look spectacular and integrated many functions into one application. Most importantly, as they work towards innovating such products, they took into consideration our earth. They quoted at the end of their video "We do not save trees, we live in them". This shows that their aim is not solely to innovate new and interesting technologies, but also encourage people to save the earth. What we have seen in the video may not happen in near future, however, quoting the quote i have mentioned above, "Empires of future are empires of mind", i believe this will take place in no time.  


 How would i like to further this discussion


I would like to further the discussion by discussing more about forecasting and how we can differentiate between inventing something for people or inventing something that people will not use.

Rate this session

I would rate this session 9/10. I have gained many great insights and have seen great videos that have provided a great vision of what our world look like in future. And i am looking forward to seeing it happen. And maybe be part of it.