Today is
the final session of a very enriching TWC experience with Prof Shahi. We had
quite a few presentations today as one group from last week had to bring over
their presentation due to time constraints.
Group Project Presentation
We had 5
group presentations today. And the topics covers a wide range from Prosethetics
to Sex.
1. Mind Controlled Prosethetics
Group 4(of the previous week)
presented on Mind Controlled Prosthetics and I thought that it was a very
intriguing presentation. I have learnt a lot ranging from the strength of
prosthetic limbs being able to exceed any possible human strength and the
ability of prosthetic limbs giving users a sense of touch. With the advent of
3D printing, these prosthetics could become really affordable to the common
handicapped person. However with these developments comes certain implication
as well. As mentioned in my individual paper, athletes who are enhanced with
these prosthetics would have a large advantage over able bodied athletes in
competitions. Hence there has to be a need to differentiate these 2 different
types of athletes. Perhaps sporting authorities come up with a separate class
of competition where these enhanced athletes can compete in. Another
significant implication would be the use of prosthetics as a means to commit
crime. As Sam mentioned, these limbs do not leave fingerprints and can exert
large amounts of force. So this implication does not seem too far-fetched.
Nevertheless, the benefits are pretty exciting isn’t it?
2. Transhumanism
Group 1(for the session)
presented on Transhumanism which I thought the content was rather similar to
the previous group. However this group raised a very relevant point with
regards to healthy and physically intact individuals choosing to replace their
body parts with prosthetic. This will not sound inconceivable when prosthetics
in the market far exceed human capabilities. Another important benefit would be
the use of prosthetics for military purposes. Soldiers who lost their limbs
during missions could get new limbs and carry on with their frontline duties.
3. Food for the Future
Group 2 started their presentation
with a very refreshing skit of a traditional farmer vs a huge conglomerate that
uses high tech methods for farming. The farmer then posed the same question as
Yali about the inequality in their situations. What I found most interesting
about the presentation would be the future food preservation techniques. There
are already experiments done on burgers from Macdonalds’ showing how they do
not change in appearance after left in the open for many days, and even dogs do
not want to go near to the burgers. Now, there is even the SuperSandwich which
can last 3-5 years without refrigeration. Even if the scientists tell us that
it is safe to eat these burgers, I shudder to think about the long term health
implications that this could have on our bodies. What I felt this group could
have done better was to include how to ensure food security among the
developing countries as such food preservation and biotechnology would not be
easily accessible to these countries. Even the smartphone application that the
group mentioned for eradicating food wastage would not work in developing
countries as the poor do not have the means to buy a smartphone.
4. Sex and Advertisements
At first when I heard of this
topic, I was left wondering how far can the development of sex in
advertisements be linked to technology in the past present future sense, but I
have to say this group made the link well. The future of sex advertising was
particularly interesting as there is 3D sex ads added with augmented reality,
which is just every guy’s dreams. The fact that facial recognition combined can
be used to identify the target audience is also helpful as the young and
impressionable will not see these ads in forms like augmented reality. Those
who have squeaky clean record or those simply not interested in explicit
content will also be spared from these content because of their previous
“search histories”. However, the group acknowledged the sex advertising would
bring about many negative implications on the society so there is a delicate
balance for companies to strike.
5. Virtual Reality
The last group presented on
virtual reality. Their introduction I thought was fantastic where it showcased virtual
reality well. The rest of the presentation was about all the possibilities of
virtual reality such as augmented reality, which I feel will really revolutionise
the world, starting with Google Glasses.
Personal
Rating
As a
whole, the presentations were insightful and interesting to keep my interest levels
high throughout. Would give it a 9.5/10! What a fitting way to end my TWC
journey!(at least before finals)
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