Brief overview
There were five presentations this week. Group 1 looked at eBooks, some of the benefits and disadvantages as well as possible future applications. Group 5 considered how nuclear power could be used to drive the green regime. Group 6 explored techniques of weather control and their implications. Group 7 looked at 3D technology in the film industry. And lastly, group 8 examined genetic engineering and its associated problems.
Group presentations
Group 1’s video interview of SMU students regarding the use of eBooks for education was interesting. Some advantages and disadvantages mentioned include pricing of books, convenience of carrying an eBook reader with multiple textbooks stored inside rather than physical copies and saving the environment. In my opinion, the recent popularity of tablet devices such as the iPad as well as continually improving technologies such as the Kindle’s E Ink, will encourage the use of eBooks in the future. However, as the group rightly notes, the issue of protection of copyright and piracy has to be addressed in order for the publishing community to embrace eBooks to a greater extent. This needs to be overcome so that more titles are available before people would adopt eBooks. Pricing is also a very important consideration for the widespread adoption of technology, for example, Amazon currently subsidizes its eBooks in order to encourage more people to adopt its Kindle reader. Most e-readers cost hundreds of dollars and it is up to technology developments in order to reduce the cost of the e-readers.
Group 5 presented a very comprehensive argument for the adoption of nuclear energy as well as the potential challenges facing such adoption. I felt that their presentation was very relevant to the future of energy supply in Singapore, since the Prime Minister has said recently that nuclear energy was a possibility in the near future. An interesting point raised during the Q&A was that given the small size of Singapore, it would be hard to prevent widespread damage to lives and infrastructure should an accident occur. Also, although the waste generated from nuclear energy for the lifetime of family of four is only the size of a golf ball, when multiplied by a large population, this would still amount to a sizeable volume of waste which needs to be very carefully disposed of. It is important to note that adopting nuclear energy would not mean that Singapore is energy secure, since uranium would still have to be imported from overseas.
Group 6 presented on weather control and introduced techniques such as cloud seeding and hurricane control. I found the part on various countries’ legislation as well as international agreements on the weather control interesting. As the group mentioned, it is important for researchers and governments to use these weather control techniques responsibly as they risk upsetting the natural weather patterns or diverting destructive hurricanes to neighbouring inhabited areas.
Group 7’s presentation looked at 3D technology. The section on the future development of 3D technology was interesting, the use of 3D in dentistry, augmented reality as well as 3D virtual learning environments were suggested. The group’s topic however does not seem to have much scope for discussion of economic or social impacts and appears to be largely technology-centric and descriptive.
Group 8’s presentation on genetic engineering and its associated problems was largely similar to the discussion in session 6 and 7 and raises the same issues, although the group did take the analysis to a greater depth by looking at certain case studies.
Rating
7/10
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