Session 10

This week's lesson was on the topic of technology assessment and forecasting, developing a framework for understanding what comes next. 

One of the more interesting presentations was given by Chang Ning, about speculative ethics of new technology. One of her discussion questions is whether or not people should speculate about new technology, and whether people can ever over-speculate. The problem with speculation is that people are focusing more on debating issues of future technology that are unlikely to happen at the expense of addressing the more immediate issues that comes with current technology. I believe that we can never over-speculate about any technology, because any outcome is possible, no matter how slim the chances of it happening. Hence, it is only wise that we are prepared for any sort of outcome. However, we should still allocate our resources wisely by putting more effort into planning for outcomes that are most likely to happen, while investing less into planning for unlikely outcomes, even if we do not completely neglect them. This, however, does not mean that we should be any less concerned about the technology that is more widely used right now. 

There was also another presentation about the Roadmap to 2050 for Water Science and Technology Development, which was all about China's plans to handle her water issues by 2050. While such plans give the country  direction to work towards, there may sometimes be changes in the future that can potentially make the current plans ineffective or outdated. Since the plans that China has was made well in advance, technological advances on water technology in the future might be able to speed up their plans for 2050. This brings us to one of the problems that planning so far ahead has: that the old plan might not be up-to-date anymore. Hence, there is a need for us to constantly reassess the plans made and alter it as and when there is a need to. I think that this was the most important thing that I have learnt from class this week, that it is necessary for us to keep up with the changes going on in the world and be able to suffieciently flexible so that we are able to adapt to the changing environment.

Rating: 8/10
I learnt the importance of planning for the future, and at the same time, ensuring that the plans for the future can accommodate change.