HBN303 – Blog analysis Part 2

This blog analysis discusses how the technology aspect of the blog content from this unit reveals the changes in society and technologies shaping the future.

In the week one blog entries nearly all of the ideas posted by students were alive in a science fiction capacity at one point; now they are socially adaptable due to the sheer technological grunt available.

Dystopian thoughts say impending doom from our own industrial & consumer waste will result in warming effect to threaten human survival. This technology boost in human evolution has a vicious by product of carbon pollution and we humans are now responding with awareness of such problems. Such as the resource shortages and how everything needs to be more power conservative to produce a more sustainable future. Are we using the cause of the problem to cure the result, is this feedback sustainable?

As Laura James mentioned in her experiences of a day without a mobile phone; the post titled “Future of the Phone” Laura commented, “i felt a great sense of uneasiness” which is evidence that people are going to be reluctant to change their current consumer habits. Laura concluded her post with “Though there is no fighting the fact that mobile phone use is becoming as essential to living life as breathing and eating already is.” No one mentions unplugging and turning off in the blog entries.

Week two discusses the fantastic ideas of breaking our selves down to a molecular level and the fears socially attached to ventures into bio technology. Julliete Pages posted “Things that appear unrealistic in biology now will appear as normal” in the future. The more we understand bio technology the more interest people will generates around the topic, this social change will adapt the future. Most people are fascinated with these advances especially because it directly involves them and also because they can benefit from the products created to prevent illness. Advocating change now for the future is not likely going to be easy when people are scared

Week three blogs reveal what students find powerful to them. Responses varied over many different fields, most tied into a desire of freedom to live a better life. I felt a strong connection with Binh Tran’s post “what action should we take?” he talks about nuclear technology, the negative impacts during war time, power station failure at “Chernobyl and Fukushima then consider whether we should continue or stop using it”. Anything dangerous that humans are manipulating for good reasons may have unintended outcomes. Binh says “the answer is because it is too powerful and the cupidity stops people to get rid of it.” It’s this type of thinking that also shapes our future.

Basic concepts of foresight:

How the past affects the present and influences the future. Traditionally a great product or service would generate a sale and create a strong brand and growth would ensue, while this is still presently true, Binh Tran’s week 5 post on “Business model trend” shows how this is just as important as it is influencing business transactions now and into the future. The importance of spending time getting the business model correct from the start is emphasised now more than in history. The past has affected the present situation with business models generating revenue in varied unconventional ways which influences the future of business models.

‘The future’ itself does not exist it therefore cannot be studied. The week 6 blog area has a strong set of ideas and images this is evidence of futures studies. The key being plural as it’s possible to consider multiple outcomes. This is known as Dators 1^st Law of the future. A good example of this is Gina Kandau’s post on “why the future of mobile will be screenless and touchless?” it included an image of glasses and how their hosting the new mobile medium. By contrast I found that Avineesh Jayakara Sheety’s post about “TATA MOTORS” to be an image of the past than the future, as it includes a photo and text that merely reported what had happened in 2008.

Binh Tran posted a link with ridiculous images of the future. His post “Microsoft Vision 2019” enables Dators 2^nd law of the future; the future concepts at times appear ridiculous. Such as, to have a single sheet of ‘newspaper’ and interact with it the way a person would currently on a tablet is absurd. A mug that shows statistic information about weather conditions and its contents is another ridiculous concept. This video depicts a very utopian existence, where everything functions well. There is endless space for one person and there doesn’t seem to be any external pressure impacting on their lifestyle, Similar to images found on the Swinburne website to attract new students.