Blog Entry #1

Brief Overview and Summary

For our first TWC session, we had the opportunity to discuss how technology has played an integral part in the progress of most civilizations. Watching an extract of the show “Guns, Germs and Steel” then led us to question why certain civilizations were able to dominate the world with technology while others failed to do so (case-in-point is the people of Papua New Guinea). We then proceeded to ponder if technology was leading us to become a lazy, obese generation. Finally, we discussed whether embracing technology is a choice and if so, how can we strike a balance in order to avoid this tragic fate!

Observation and Ideas

Probably what captured my attention most was Yali’s ominous question, “Why did the white men have more cargo than the New Guineans?” In other words, why are some civilizations able to dominate the world with technology and others not?

It boils down to the resources that a country possesses and the quality of its people. From the video “Guns, Germs and Steel”, we can see that the New Guineans were not blessed with many edible fruit-bearing plants in their jungles. Even farming did not reap the same benefits as it did for other civilizations because their crops were different and generally more difficult to plant. Furthermore, they lacked farm animals to domesticate. Hence without a proper productive food supply, it was difficult for them to progress beyond the hunter-gatherer way of life because they could not support a large population.

In addition to this, I believe that a civilization also requires the people to have the ability to manipulate these resources and find new ways to improve technology. It is not a question of race or genetics, but of education. There were no schools or universities to develop a good mathematical, scientific or engineering foundation for the people so that they could later develop or discover new technologies for their civilization.

I also agree with Jared Diamond (in the video Guns, Germs and Steel) that the advancement of technology is based on a series of developments. In a modern context, without the Internet, we would not have Internet banking. And without the computer, we would not have the Internet. In the same way, while the rest of the world was progressing upon their existing technologies, civilizations like Papua New Guinea were left behind because they lacked the adequate resources and people to take the first few steps in modernization.  For example, when the rest of the world started using metal tools, the New Guineans were still using stone tools because they lacked metal specialists. Why? This required farmers to generate food surpluses to feed the metal workers and their agriculture was simply not productive enough!

I would agree to a certain extent that technology is leading us to become a lazy and obese generation. Like Karl Marx once said, “The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.” It is obvious that people started spending more time at home, on their couches after Mcdonald’s started their Mcdelivery service.  Are our bodies made to be served by technology? I believe not, and this is probably why more people are growing obese in modern times. But let us not forget about the people who remain fit and healthy despite the rapid advancement of technology around them. Hence, I feel that it boils down to a question of discipline in the way one lives.  Technology is just a tool. It is up to us to decide whether or how to use it.

Key Takeaways

This leads me to my first takeaway. Technology is a choice and we have to strike the ideal balance.  We should use technology to improve our productivity but at the same time remain cautious of its negativities.  Secondly, it is quite obvious that civilizations that prosper are the leaders of the change process. Hence, we should always try and think outside of the box when facing problems and come up with something new. Innovation comes down to our creativity and imagination!

Issues for Further Discussion

I would have loved to hear more of my classmates’ opinions and theories on the roots of inequality between poorer civilizations and richer ones. I realized that the factor ‘availability of resources’ is just one of the many reasons why certain civilizations manage to dominate with technology, but others are not able to. Other factors such as geographical location and religion may have played a bigger part in hampering their modernization process.

“Technology is easy, but people are hard.” - This could have been discussed further! People, I feel, are generally resistant to change. Learning new skills and how to use new services is troublesome and time-consuming. Just ask my grandfather whom my mum tried to set up a ‘facebook’ account for. However I feel that our present generation is being brought up to be more open-minded to change, which spells a bright future for our civilization.

Are we responsible for sharing our technologies with other civilizations? This probably would solve the problem of inequality to a small extent, since it still boils down to the availability of resources. But since we face the same global problems such as floods, tsunamis and global-warming, it would definitely benefit the world as a whole if we share our, for example, energy conservation technologies. Hence, my take would be ‘yes’, it is our responsibility to share our technologies with other civilizations.

Personal Ratings

8/10 – A thought-provoking session that sparked many interesting discussions.

I also enjoyed listening to my classmates’ interesting opinions.