Technology and Environment, Agriculture

“When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability.” – Gurinder Shahi

The world is growing really fast today, may be too fast. We are using massive amount of raw materials every day for production and consumption. Much of the raw materials are non renewable resources such as fossil fuel, wood… If we continue consume non renewable resources even at reducing amount, sooner or later we will have to face the shortage of resources. Prof points out this problem today in class and I think it is an up-to-date problem of society. As Prof suggests, the only way for human to attain sustainability is to grow our own resources. In fact, technology advance is enabling human to do that. People are developing different sources for energy, different ways of growing food thank to biotechnology advance.

                                                                                                                        

Controversial topics in agribiology:

-          Agribiology vs Agribiotechnology

-          Farmer of farmist

-          Growing food vs growing energy resources:

In order to provide enough energy for industries, people take a lot of efforts to produce energy. People are taking farming land to create energy resources. But that action is followed by the shortage of farming land. The increase in price of food shows that people are taking too much valuable farm land to grow energy resources and therefore food is becoming scarce.  We need to provide enough food first hand and also produce energy for economic growth. How to balance between food and energy? We have to find new method of managing land, use it more productively and effectively.

-          GM or not GM:

GM food is a revolutionary innovation of biotechnology. Plants are genetically modified to be more nutritious, have bigger sizes or resistant to pest and insects. GM food has many advantages. It reduces soil erosion, protects environment and farmers’ health. Moreover, GM plants reduce production cost and produce higher crop yield. GM plants are even considered as the way to provide enough food for the world since it is an effective way of growing food for growing population.

However, as I mentioned in my presentation, GM food brings about potential risks to human health. Scientists should conduct more researches to figure out whether all GM food is safe for human because health is a serious issue. If GM food adversely affects health, consumers must be informed and protected. Moreover, the government also has to be more responsible and concern more about the consumption of GM food. GM food needs suitable regulations and labeling system so that customers can choose what they want to eat.

Food security:

According to FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization, food security is a condition where all people at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. As the population is growing fast and the gap of rich and poor is larger and larger, food security becomes increasingly important issue. With less land and bigger population size, how can we manage to feed all people in the world? In order to attain the goal of food security, there are many areas have to be changed for the better. Biotechnology will enable human to provide enough food for everyone since biobusiness is still in the “valley opportunities.” Disruptive innovations in biotechnology will create new ways of production with higher efficiency so that people can develop to the summit of biobusiness landscape.

Personal rating:

9/10. Today class is really interesting since the topic agriculture is really relevant to daily lives. And I have my first individual presentation in SMU.

Topics for further discussion:

1. Should society replace GM food with organic food?
2. Is GM food is dispensable to provide food security?

Biobusiness revolution

There are only two ways to live your life. 

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as though everything is a miracle.

- Albert Einstein -

Summary:

Biobusiness is commercial activities based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. Biobusiness is relatively a new kind of business but it has been developing at such a fast pace. It has already constituted 25% global GDP. This fascinating development indicates that biobusiness has a lot of potential and it can change human lives in many fields such as biomedical, environment…  Among many biobusiness sectors, the market size of health care is large, especially in the United States. It is evident that the more society develops, the more people concern about their health care. According to the table of global biobusiness market size in 2001 that Prof shows us in class, US health care market size in 2001 is more than a half of global market size. However, Prof points out the problem that health care investment is mostly spent on extending last few years of lives rather than on providing proper health care for young generation. This can be a serious issue for countries which are having or will have aging population since the health care expense will be such a big burden. Prof also gives class details about health care revolution. Nowadays, more and more medicines and vaccines are invented to cure or prevent people from suffering diseases.

Key takeaway points:

Immortality

One presentation in class today brings back the topic of immortality. It is an interesting topic because as the technology is more and more advanced, people now can think about mortality not as a fiction but non-fiction topic. The science base is that technology advances can enable people to produce some pharmaceutical that can reactivate telomere production in the cells. It is possible that in the near future, people can actually choose whether they want to live their lives forever. Interestingly, although the idea of mortality is fascinating, not many people in class want to be immortal. In the view of individuals, lives are only meaningful when you have limited time so that you appreciate what you experienced. In the view of society, immorality is actually a serious problem. If people are immortal, the population can not be controlled and natural resources can not be enough to satisfy human needs.

Moral hazard

Moral hazard arises when an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Moral hazard is an issue in health insurance industry. People who buy health insurance are less responsible since they have already paid for the services, they have incentives to ask for more health services than necessary. This action can lead to escalation in the health care cost and waste of time and resources.

Issues for further discussion:
1. Should society invest on searching for immortality method or should it invests only on health care services?

2. How the health care revolution can ensure the access of health care for everyone?

Personal rating:

8.5/10

Brief Outline: Mass Production

I.       Specific innovation of interest: Mass production

Mass production (also known as serial production) is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. This technology is first introduced by Henry Ford with his method of producing affordable cars. However, the technology does not limited at car production but are applied to various kinds of products. It really changes the way goods are produced since it is an effective method to produce goods in large numbers and lower price.

II.    Rationale for selecting this innovation

Mass production is a revolutionary change. It is the production model that contribute to the world economy by increasing productivity and decrease prices. As mass production are applied more and more, its impacts on economy are remarkable. However, since everything has two sides, by reviewing this particular innovation, I can deeply analyze impacts and the possible future of mass production.

III. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper

1. Executive summary

This review paper provides an understanding about mass production, its history the current situation, how it impacts the world as it is today and the future of mass production. The review paper focuses on impacts of mass production on the world. It also analyzes advantages and disadvantages of mass production. Further analysis suggest the future development of mass production – mass customization.

2. Introduction/ Background

·         Mass production concepts

·         History

-          The invention of mass production

-          Mass production is applied widely

3. Current situation

·         How mass production is applied in different industries

·         Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

-          Provide cheaper products

-          Increase in productivity

    Disadvantages

-          Lack of variety

-          Not responsive to changes in design

·         Need for changes in the old mass production model

4. Discussion & Analysis

Mass production and society

-          Impacts on customers

-          Impacts on workers

5. Taking things toward

·         The future of mass production: Mass customization

-          Introduction

-          Adavantages of mass customization compared with mass production

6. Conclusion

Mass production is a significant revolutionary change in human history since it changes methods of production. However, as the world is changing, the old mass production model should be replaced by mass customization.

7. Reference

ICT and world change

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is an indispensable factor in the world development. ICT includes mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, interactive communications, information system, cloud computing, knowledge management etc… ICT has gone through massive development from the time it first emerged.

Mass media in the past is a passive means of communication. People got information from televisions or newspapers and accepted these information as the matter of fact. But nowadays, electronic newspapers and social networks enable people to discuss their concerns, get feedbacks from others, not only in their neighborhood, in their countries but from people around the world. Mass media has evolved from a passive means of communication into an interactive, flexible means for people to share and challenge perspectives. One presentation in the class also discuss the future of television. Televisions in the future interact with audiences effectively to satisfy audiences’ needs. Audiences do not passively watch a movie but they can decide its endings. Mass media has evolved from a passive means of communication into an interactive, flexible means for people to share and challenge perspectives.

Internet also observes a impressive development from Internet 1.0 to 2.0 and then 3.0. At the stage of 1.0 and 2.0, people create content and share information on the internet. Electronic newspapers and forums enable people to receive information and share their interests. Social network websites such as Facebook, Twitter remove distances among people so that people can interact everywhere. Internet is now going towards Internet 3.0. As Prof said, Internet 3.0 is the continuation of the earlier stages. At the stage of Internet 3.0, Internet will involve in every single activities. Machines are also interconnected, information is exchanged freely from people to machines and devices in order to satisfy individual needs. As Prof pointed out, some companies such as Google or Amazon have already applied Internet 3.0 to satisfy customers’ needs.

The importance of knowledge management is mentioned one more time in the class. Since people are heading to knowledge economy, the role of knowledge management can not be denied. Companies which wants to survive in the modern economy must transfer knowledge from their experts to employees and also take advantage of their employees’ ideas and knowledge. The efficiency of knowledge management is related to the productivity gain in society. Prof shows graph “Capturing the value of ICT/Knowledge Revolution” which demonstrates the productivity gain of human development stages. According to the graph, ICT/ Knowledge Revolution has not grown its full potential. How to grow full potential is an important question to be answered. One way to gain productivity is improving knowledge management. Moreover, people should apply ICT into solving fundamental issues such as improving education quality, alleviating poverty so that people everywhere have equal opportunities to grow their potential.

“Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated.”

- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations -

One question raised by the class today is "How ICT/ Knowledge Revolution can improve equality in society?"

Personal ratings: 8/10

All about changes

Brief overview:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent; It is the one that most adaptable to change.”

- Charles Robert Darwin

What can we learn from the quote? The world is changing and never should people get too specialized. People always need to keep responsive and flexible since societies, companies and technology are changing. If you fail to be adaptable, you are likely to get obsolete and falling behind. The world is changing every day as the matter of fact. But what drive these changes? There are many drivers in different aspects that can lead to world changes.

Now let’s look closer to changes. There are two types of changes: Revolutionary and evolutionary changes. In this week class, we focus on revolutionary changes. Revolutionary changes can range from simple innovations such as wheels… to more complex inventions. The most significant difference distinguishes these two kinds of changes is that revolutionary change is more disruptive. It means that disruptive changes change the way things are done permanently. For example, before emails are invented, delivery mails are indispensable in daily lives. But emails change the way people send information forever. As I read in a newspaper recently, United States Postal Service is nearing default as email has emerged and exploded and people no longer want to use postal service anymore.

Changes happen everywhere in every aspect of society. As a result, people must know how to Therefore, change management and change leadership are important skills to be successful in modern markets. People often mistaken between change management and change leadership. In fact, these are two different roles and can be distinguished by many features. Prof and reading materials suggest that change leaders are ones initiate original ideas, set up visions, dare to take risks and inspire other people while change managers are ones focusing on structures and systems in order to regulate changes. Change managers should be meticulous and have abilities to find and fix wrong things and also stabilize the system.

Key take-away points:

• Model “Proactively Managing Change – Understanding the Pessimism-Time Curve”

As we talk deeply about changes, we should mention how individuals manage change. Prof shows us “Proactively Managing Change – Understanding the Pessimism-Time Curve” model, which indicates four stages to proactively manage changes. The first stage is uninformed optimism in which individuals create new ideas and feel optimistic about the future of their ideas. The next two stages are informed pessimism and informed realism. When more information is taken into consideration, many difficulties and obstacles arise and make the ideas impractical. Despite difficulties, individuals should not give up and try to work out the reality.

• Management methods in modern world

In times of disruptive change your expected future is no longer valid.  Leaders need to think and act differently in order to chart a new course for the enterprise.

Doug Berger – The innovators

Now many countries has been changing from industrial economies into post-industrial economies, management method has to adjust to that fundamental change. In industrial economies, companies try to manage their employees to follow orders and work as hard as possible. However, in knowledge economy, the management task is much more difficult because managers have to deal with intellectual properties. Since employees work with more complicate issues, the management method in which employees strictly follow instructions is not effective anymore. In knowledge economies, employers want their employees to contribute new ideas, innovations to companies. Therefore, managers have to give employees incentives and opportunies to creats more values. Companies should empower their employees, give them responsibilities so that they can feel the sense of belonging and contribute more to companies.

Issues for further discussion:

What is the effective way that can motivate people to contribute their best to companies?

Personal rating:

I rate this week lesson 8/10