It is widely known that energy from the burning of fossil fuels have the most detrimental effects on the environment. People have discovered other sources of energy such as solar, hydro, natural gas, nuclear and wind. Wireless power generation or transmission is an area which is currently being explored. Some devices have started using this technology. For example, electric toothbrushes are charged by wireless power transmission. It doesn’t require wires or need to be plugged in. It actually isn’t a very recent technology. The idea originated from Nikola Tesla in the form of electromagnetic induction. However, this form of power generation has not been used much. It is said to be a more efficient and less expensive form of energy. I would have thought that this form of energy has not been used much in applications. However, I found that I was so very wrong about this. Radiowaves are also a form of wireless power transmission, and it has now become an integral part of our lives. Hardly anyone living in an urban community is able to live without sending a text message, making or receiving a phone call, or using Wifi. Although small, this technology has the potential to become a huge and important part of our lives.
Another interesting innovation we discussed in class was about the creation of avatars. We watched a video of voice-and-motion recognition game “Milo & Kate”. This technology was adopted and made known to the public by Kinect. What I found scary (yet exciting) was that the avatars, man-made characters in cyberspace, were able to interact, display a set of emotions and think for themselves. Prof also made a prediction that avatars will become very “real” in the future as people try to keep their loved ones by their side by creating an avatar. If we are able to keep an avatar of our loved ones, it means that our loved ones will never die. This may be able to solve people’s fear of ever being lonely; but is this just another form of an imaginary friend? When some children are young, they create imaginary friends to kill boredom. Is an avatar similar to an imaginary friend, and the only difference being that the avatar is visually present while some imaginary friends aren’t?
The class was rounded up by Javier, who shared with us an interesting invention by Apple. They created an app called TigerText. This app allows text messaging to be more confidential. However, there may be some issues raised here.
1. This encourages people to be less cautious about what they say as the text message can be deleted at a chosen time. People are less pressured to think twice about what they say. This is detrimental to society as it may accelerate the degradation of human’s morals. All our lives, we have been taught to think twice before we speak. Unfortunately, the emergence of instantaneous forms of communication, such as e-mails, text messaging and online chats, have already caused a dent in the moral values of society and the human race. With TigerText around, the process will be sped up.
2. May tempt people to engage in infidelity. Since their spouse or partners are unable to check and recover their messages if they have been deleted, the spouse or partner who is unfaithful will be less afraid of being discovered. Again, this results in the degradation of values.
3. Blackmail is also possible. The receiver will find it hard to prove to others that he has been blackmailed or threatened.
However, all these are not definite. If there’s a will, there’s a way; if people want to prove to others they have received a particular message, there are ways to record or take a screen shot of the text.
Personal Rating: 7/10
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