TWC Sesson 6

Session 6 was focused on BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences. We looked at the development of various incredibly innovative ways the bio-business have grown and are growing into over the years.

There are several interesting trends observed during the session. One such was the decline of communicable diseases and rise of chronic illness in developing countries. As medical technology improved in developed countries, problems associated with food, hygiene and mortality rate dramatically decreases. However, this has lead to its own set of problems. A little digging revealed that the chronic illnesses are given very apt names in developed countries: diseases of civilization, diseases of affluence, or Western diseases. Among the many diseases of civilization are: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease among a whole laundry list of other problems typically associated with people who've eat too much or lived too long. While in developing countries, communicable diseases are still the primary problem mainly due to lack of sanitation, poor access to adequate nutrition and sub-standard medical services. Chronic illness are still a side-note as people simply didn't eat enough or lived long enough to contract them.

Another interesting issue discussed was future of medical care. There was a video showing that this is shifting toward a more personalized care system where doctors can now monitor your health 24/7, probably via microchip implants. Consultations using video conferencing technology can now allow patients to skip the hour long (a gross understatement) queues and see the doctor from the comfort of their own home. This will drastically expedite the medical check-up process as it will save time for both the doctor and the patient. However, I feel that this will present issues of its own. Although I do not doubt the feasibility of this practice, it is already possible with existing technology, I do have doubt over the quality of the medical consultations provided through video conferencing. Without the physical presence of the patient, the doctors will be unable to do a detailed check-up on the patient that will draw on their own experiences and knowledge as a medical professional. Instead, the bulk of consultation will then have to rely on the information provided by the patient over video conference due to the lack of proximity. There is then a shift of responsibility of provision of relevant medical information from someone who knows the human anatomy a little better to someone who doesn't and might not be in the best position to provide such decisions due to sickness, etc. Nonetheless, there is still great potential in this service.

Overall I will rate this lesson 8/10. The session was very informative and exposed me to an new, interesting industry sector.

TWC Session 5

Session 5 was focused on Information and Communications Technology and how it changed the world. The lesson started with the introduction of the evolution of the internet. The shift from Web 2.0, where the the user communicates to the system, towards Web 3.0, where the systems communicates to other systems and users. This new system will allow greater integration of technology into our daily life by allowing the various devices we use to communicate to one another, allowing our information and preferences and location to be essentially stored in the “clouds”. This will be about a revolution of how we interact with technology and certainly bring about great convenience. However, this systems will also potentially expose us to more risks as well. Since the bulk of our personal information are stored on the web, there will be significant privacy and security concerns, where government or otherwise, will potentially tap into this vast reserve of confidential information to control, censor or take advantage of users. Then again, all new technology comes with risk and potential for abuse. We must then determine to what extent do we want our life to be integrated into the cloud.


If you consider status quo, we are already, to a great extent living in the cloud. Since the advent of social media firm, we are already in the process of ceding, to a certain degree, our private, confidential information to the web. Facebook, Twitter dictate our social life while LinkedIn, XING portray our professional image. The rise of such firms has already changed social interaction. The rise of social media and other forms of ICT have allowed us to keep in touch with more people more easily. Such convenience has promoted the the spread of ideas and ideals. One prime example would be how social media was used to circumvent oppressive regimes such as during the Arab Spring or in Tibet.


Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations said “Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated.” The expansion and lowering cost of access to ICT in the world can in help the powerless, fettered and humiliated to cross that border. Cheaper and faster access to information has helped lower poverty in many countries. ICT has facilitated the spread of ideas and technology, where the technological innovations from first-world countries would eventually filter to the third-world countries. Farmers in China now use wireless technology to gain access to up to date prices and value of their crops so that they will not get ripped off by wholesalers. Access to weather information allowed them preempt and prepare for any potential natural disasters coming their way. Freedom of access to information has increased accountability and transparency of both government and corporations. In many ways, the borders are shrinking.


However, there's still much we can do. There are still many in the world living without ICT and are unable to benefit from the revolution of information accessibility and adoption. With the world moving at such a rapid pace, the gap will only get bigger. Also, ICT have also been exploited to restrict and control information. As seen in oppressive countries like China's Great Firewall. Even in democratic countries like the US and UK, ICT have allegedly been used to conduct surveillance on its own citizens.


This session was highly informative and very interesting. I give this session 8/10. 

TWC Session 4

In session 4 the class started with drivers of world change. One driver that I found to be particularly interesting was the environmental factor. “If everyone consumed as much energy as the average Singaporean and U.S. resident, the world’s oil reserves would be depleted in 9 years”. It's a scary thought but nonetheless a realistic one. The class has been focusing on sustainable development recently so I did a little digging on my own. I found out that our resources are running out fast. At today's rate of consumption, oil will be depleted in 46 years, gas and copper years in 60, tin and lead years in 40, zinc in 46 years. There's plenty of coal, enough to last about 180 years, but we'll probably all choke out before we finish burning them all. The point here is: We're running out of stuff. The dawning of this realization has sparked the “green” revolution where we saw the advent of many “green” technology and a shifting of focus towards more clean and renewable sources of energy and resources.

Next we moved on to “Change Management and Change Leadership”. A interesting video on leadership was shown where a lone guy dancing could actually spark off a movement. This got me thinking if it can be applied to the technology adoption graph from the first half of the session. Much of the world change is brought on by innovative, brave people who dared to boldly go where no man has gone before. People like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steve Ballmer are the innovators and technology enthusiasts. But all the brilliance of the Steves are for naught if not for the early adopters of the technology, the first Macintosh users who dared go against the conventional Windows. These people proves that what the Steves are doing is right and affirms them by adopting the new technology. Then comes the tipping point, the number of users explodes with the early majority pragmatists who wants to join into the growing Apple fanbase and subsequently the late majority conservatives and finally the laggards and skeptics. And now the question is: Which group do you think you are? And which group do you want to be in?

I rate this lesson 8/10. The session provides a nice overview on the adoption of technological progress and an interesting view on leadership.

Individual Topical Review Paper Outline

Background/Introduction


What is cryogenics – cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures.


Focus on medical applications – cryosurgery and cyronics.


What is cryosurgery and cyronics?


Historical Perspective (ie where we have come from)


History of cryosugery and cyronics


Current Situation (ie where we are today)


Current applications in cryosurgery.
- how cryosurgery have changed surgical procedures
- current applications
- benefits of cryosurgery


Leads on to:

Cyronics
- Benefits of cyronics
- Risks of procedure
- Ethical issues
- Current applications

Future Considerations

Cyronics – complete preservation of the human body

Conclusion

TWC Session 3

Interesting topics were covered today. The first part of session 3 was focused on sustainability where the prof introduced to use the the linear and cyclical model. How societies are gradually shifting from an unsustainable, highly extractive linear model to a sustainable cyclical model where every process along a product's life cycle, extraction, production, consumption, disposal gives something back to the environment so that the carbon footprint/impact of the product is reduced to a minimum. More corporations are recognizing impact of the environment an internality rather than externality, allowing they to take into consideration the impact of their product on the environment as an actual quantifiable cost instead of a mere nuisance.


But my question here is then, who will bear the cost? The consumers or the producers? If the industries pass on the cost to the consumers, how will we be convinced that the industries will really use the mark-up to contribute to sustainability instead as a mere tool to rake in more profit? Should the industries absorb the cost, then how could companies contribute towards a cyclical model? Also,
do consumers really care? Personally, I don't. When I buy a product, I only look to the short term benefits of the product. How I could use it tomorrow or next week not 5-10 years down the road. By then new, better stuff would have come up and then I'll be considering how the better stuff could be used the next day or the week after. This I believe is the mentality of most of the consumers. Even if they've bought something sustainable, something that lasts 20-30 years, most of us would not use that product to the full extent. We'll most probably rush to the market at the sight of the new versions of the product. Thus negating the environmental benefits that the product brings and just allows the consumers to justify buying more stuff.


The second half of the lesson was focused on innovation. A few interesting models came up. The RDA model. Research, development and application which focuses on the process of innovation and the valley, summit and cloud framework which for me is more applicable to identifying opportunities in the business arena. One interesting point raised here was should innovation be technology-driven or market-driven? The former place emphasis on creating new markets using new technology while the latter focuses more on innovation on existing markets. The conclusion was it's only advisable to adopt the technology-driven approach if you have enough capital and time. Creating new markets takes time but once you've created the market, you'll hold monopoly over the sector. High risk, high rewards. However, lacking those factors, innovation should then be market-driven. The market for the product already exists. The upside is innovation is merely improvements on existing products, the downside is others are thinking of the same thing. The problem with market-driven products is that there will be competition eroding on your market-share, aka profits.



I would rate this session a 8/10. It was a very informative session.

TWC Session 2

Interesting topics were covered this week. We started with defining the difference between innovation and invention. My conclusion at the end of the discussion was innovation was essentially creation, generation of ideas and invention was the physical manifestation of the idea. Hence, as agreed in class: Invention was the subset of innovation. Then we moved on to history of the world. How different societies once dominated the world at different point in time and their subsequent downfall.

One area in particular that caught my interest was Prof's Organizational Behavioral Model which can be applied to areas like the rise and fall of nations and corporations. Prominent examples such as the fall of China and India and the subsequent rise of European nations have been brought up, as it had been the previous lesson. But this time, the model was also applied to corporations, where once industry leaders like IBM and Microsoft have dominated their market have fallen from grace and are gradually replaced by newcomers like Apple and China's Huawei.

I am convinced that this model is extremely useful in explaining in retrospect but extremely difficult to apply in the present. Take Microsoft for example. Microsoft was once the Apple and Google of today. A place where programmers and managers worked towards excellence instead of bottom-line. They saw IBM as the hulking tech giant that was bore down by politics and bureaucracies. Innovation was replaced by internal office politics where potentially revolutionary technologies like the e-book and smartphone technologies was suppressed and even sabotaged by colleagues who were under the impression that they would not only be rewarded for excellence but the failure of their peers as well. It was once cool to work in Microsoft. But over the years, they themselves became IBM, the very thing they despised.

My point here is: Microsoft saw and knew what led to the downfall of IBM and yet they knowingly, and perhaps even willingly followed, their steps. I see the same pattern with Apple nowadays, a once innovative company which came up with revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPhone, iOS have seen far fallen from grace after one of the most spectacular revivals in corporate histories. Many are speculating the end of Apple's innovative streak. Which is kind of true if you look at their recent performance, iPhone 5's sales are staggering behind Samsung's S series smartphones. Its once revolutionary iOS has been losing market share to the Android OS. The Macintosh is still a niche among many users. And investors seems to agree, Apple shares have fallen almost 30% since its peak in 2012. What happened? It was once cool to work in Apple (still is). But over the years, they are slowly becoming Microsoft, the very thing they despised.

The question now becomes: Is the downfall of innovative companies, once they become too big, inevitable? I guess we'll have to look to Google to know that answer.

We then went on to discuss the reading “The Colonial Holocaust and its Legacy”. How wonderful things such as religion, education, civility became excuses for conquest, slavery, genocide. When I read the article, I wept. I simply could not fathom how humanity is capable of such cruelty to members of their own race. How people can glorify a purge and genocide of an entire race with holiday and roast turkey. How we can bear to see a once proud, culturally advanced and innately gentle race be reduced to savages and casinos at the mention of Cherokee. Then I remembered: We are the only race on Earth that would kill each other not for food or territory or self-defense but because we can.

HDI was very interesting.

I would rate this session an 8/10. A broad range of topics were covered that were relevant to our future use. The analysis of the past, present and future gave us an idea on how thing were, how they are now and where they are going.