Week 10: Electronic World

You see things; and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”

- George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw put it very aptly. The “why not?” attitude ensures that all of us are be open to new ideas; only when we adopt this attitude can experimentation and innovation take place. Most people tend to take on a myopic view of things – especially in Singapore, where lower education system does not promote people to be creative. Students are taught to give textbook answers when asked a question. Although this system is undergoing change and students are encouraged to be creative and think out of the box, Singaporeans are still not responding to this change fast enough.

There were several technologies introduced in class; some of which were familiar and some unfamiliar. The first was one I had not heard of before and I found very interesting – plastic electronics. In the future, plastic electronics will be flexible, such that bendable e-books will be possible. The future of plastic electronics is very bright. It can be used in many aspects of life. Scientists are even dreaming of putting plastic chips in contact lenses to bring the internet to the individual. This is extremely interesting as it will allow internet to be highly accessible to people, at anytime of the day, anywhere and everywhere (as long as the infrastructure is there).

Another technology – this time one I had heard of prior to class – was augmented reality. Augmented reality makes use of virtual images captured to project them in real-time. One of the ideas of how augmentation can be used in the future is about glasses in the future. In the future, information can be displayed on spectacles; so whatever information the user needs can be seen by the user on the surface of his spectacles. This concept has probably been out more than a decade ago. It was used in movies like Robocop and The Terminator, where information about people or enemies could be seen by both Robocop and the Terminator. This form of technology will also make information much more accessible to people.

 “Innovation distinguishes the leader from the follower.”

- Steve Jobs

This session was different from others we’ve had so far. Prof brought a guest to sit in for class. It was from the quote above that discussion arose from a question he’d asked: Does this apply to politics too? I feel that innovative leadership can be applied to every sphere of life. It can be easily mistaken that it is exclusive to the marketplace. This could be because there are tangible products and measures by which innovation can be gauged and measured. On the other hand, in the political scene, leaders may propose new policies and strategies which people will not choose to comply to and therefore may be not be perceived as innovation. Furthermore, benefits may be in the long term and not immediate, thus people may not apply innovative leadership to politics.

Personal rating: 8/10