FIRST SESSION

Brief overview/ Summary

The first TWC lesson turned out surprisingly well (I was a little worried as I knew nothing about this topic). We started off with self introduction which was great actually, at least we knew who we were sitting with and will be sitting with together for the many weeks to come. Prof Singh was right about the fact that we will probably recognize people by the ‘something interesting about you’ part of the introduction because now when I look at some faces, it was accompanied by the interesting facts they stated (eg, Liverpool fan, likes to eat play-doh..) rather than recognizing them by names. Well, I guess first impressions are always the most impactful. After which, we went on to watch videos of “Shift Happens” and “Guns, Germs and Steel” which can be found on Youtube.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

In “Guns, Germs and Steels”, a character Yali prompted a thought-provoking question, “Why you White Men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” It got me thinking through various reasons why this is so. Firstly, was it geography that allowed certain countries to thrive while leaving countries to remain the status quo? Well, certainly. It has been proven that towns or cities that were located along the oceans or water areas tend to flourish and thrive due to water transport systems that allowed them to carry out trade. In this way, people could buy and sell to sustain their lives and hence economy. This could be one of the reasons why the European cities thrive but not the New Guineans. Also, vast amount of land space meant that more cultivation and agriculture could be carried out. This could actually sustain a larger population and increase the labour pool. This could have possibly led the Europeans to advance faster due to a proper structure of labour force and thus, the economy expands.

Another eye opener for me was when the timeline of human civilization was discussed. Human ingenuity is really incredible, as we can see from the changes and improvements dating back a few hundred thousand years ago to today. Looking at advancements of today, I sometimes wonder how our ancestors could live their lives with such simple technology. We should be thankful we are living in an era with airplanes which we could bring us across the pacific ocean in a few hours, an era in which we could sleep in the comfort of an air conditioner. I cannot imagine spending a few months in a ship to get across countries, or tying messages on the feet of birds to send information (that was the fastest way to transmit information in ancient times).

Key Takeaway point

Change is necessary and we, as humans should embrace change. Imagine if our ancestors did not seek to improve or innovate, we would not have been where we are today. Imagine life without light, without cars or without airplanes. We should then always seek to improve ourselves and tap into our creative juices so that a better change could be introduced into human lives. Technology could thus be a tool for us to spearhead this change.

Issues for further discussion

Due to time constraints, we were not able to discuss more in depth about reading 4. I would really like to know more about the European renaissance and how they managed to advance ahead of the Middle East in such a short period of time.

Personal ratings

8.5/10. Great start for TWC :)