The lesson today was filled with several interesting videos!
The first one piqued my interest. It was a project on an interactive on-screen character called Milo. Here in the video we see Clare interacting with the boy as if he was a real human, reaching out when he threw something in her direction from his world. This video lets us think more carefully about the integration of technology into our society. Are characters like Milo 'real'? No doubt if I was in Clare's footsteps, I would react the same way as her. Because of the way Milo interacts, it felt instantly like he was a real human being with social skills and feelings.
Characters like Milo could possibly help in developing social skills in children who are left at home most of the time, as Prof mentioned. But the risk in that is definitely that the kid may end up being so dependent on Milo and treating him too much as a real friend, that he may not go out to make real ones.
"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human."
- John Naisbitt-
With technology becoming such a necessary part of our lives, is it possible that in the future, our perception of humanity may change? Indeed a time may come when we would no longer have a clear line of what is human and what is machine. Sounds pretty extreme, but hey, all the technology we possess today weren't very believable in the past. Heck even the earth being round was deemed impossible!
The lesson began proper with introductory remarks on the types of ICT. One of the most prominent ones was the development of the web today. Through a video, Prof let us see how the internet has developed from Web 1.0 -> Web 2.0 -> Web 3.0. Right now we are in an era where the net is highly interactive and knows what you want, just like how the google search engine is personalized according to your usual searching habits.
The only way for us to move now is forward. In a fast developing world, there is barely any room for looking back, and the sole purpose of looking back should only be for picking up of lessons. Thus, the importance of knowledge management for a knowledge-based company. Okay I admit it, I've never heard of a knowledge officer before until this lesson, much less the importance of it ._. But we all learn something new each day, don't we?
So now the interesting question is, have we captured the potential?
I agree with Prof's answer.
No, no and no.
In most of the areas where ICT can change the world in a better way, we have not maximized its potential. Once again the question of poverty comes into mind. How is it that despite all the development in technology that there is still so much absolute and relative poverty in the world?
ICT can be applied for example, in education in third world countries.
We can even use it for democratic purposes, as Mr Obama has done in his campaign. If it was used as a platform for people's opinions, we could further minimize unhappiness or discontent.
Now another question is, is it a good thing if we capture the potential?
Not necessarily so, definitely. How would you like your whereabouts to be tracked all the time, 24/7? Yes, that will help in the case of criminals. But it does invade one's privacy.
Melissa then gave us a presentation on the future of television. Her presentation was engaging and very personal to us, which is why she could easily capture my attention. She presented on the possibilities of television in the future, for example, advertisements could be eliminated completely and instead replaced with a system whereby items in the movie or drama being screened can be clicked on to let the user find out more about it.
Thereby she raised the question on the relationship between television and tablet.
In my opinion, it is possible that in the future there will be a blurring of the line between the TV and the tablet. My individual paper will touch on how PDAs and handphones eventually merged to form one product that is smartphone.
Can it happen with TV and tablet?
Highly possible, given the interchangeable functions that the two already share at the current moment.
Shaak's presentation was also thought-provoking. He talks of the free economy and how it actually works. Everyday things are getting cheaper. We are getting free wi-fi access, free access to search engines and other types of interactive platforms. The reason being that only a small number of people need to pay and that would be enough to subsidize the rest of the millions that use that particular function.
Indeed it is interesting and nice to know that today's things are getting cheaper and more accessible.
Then why does poverty still exist?
Back to the poverty question? Technology should be used to solve poverty, yet is technology not what caused it? Haha. That would take too long to debate.
The rest of the presenters, Wei Wei and Aloysius, also did well in their presentations of IN 2015 and cloud computing respectively. Good job you all.
So far all the presenters are pretty good. Pressure D:
Anyways, time to rate this lesson. I felt like I learned plenty from this lesson so I would rate it 8.5/10.
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