Technology assessment and Forecasting

Technology assessment and Forecasting

During this week’s lesson, we learned about factors enabling us to “foresee” the future trends of technology. This is not exactly a precise science but looking it can give us a glimpse into whether the technology will ultimately be game-changing.  One of the presentations which I particularly liked was Brennan’s presentation. It was basically about how science fiction can be an extrapolation about how the future could be like.

Movies like the Matrix were thrown in and we discussed whether future society could ever be like that. There are so many movies that show an apocalyptical earth and to rule out the possibility of them happening in the future would be pretty close-minded.

Prof also mentioned gadgets like the Nokia Morph which I thought was really cool and definitely something to get in the future!

Zi Hao also talked about cultural stickiness which I thought was pretty interesting. Whether culture should fit to the technology or technology fit in with the culture. By not understanding the culture and forecasting what the uses of the technology trying to be introduced will bring, failure will be imminent.

To conclude, I would give this week’s lesson a 7/10. The topic as compared to previous weeks was not as interesting however I still enjoyed the lesson. TWC has been a very enriching class and I have gained many an insight through attending the classes.