Out of the 10 emerging technologies, I liked the few following in particular:
1) Augmented reality
The technology of augmented reality is very similar to that of the project Natal by Xbox 360 where humans could perhaps don some technological device and immerse themselves into the digital world for example. Some examples cited by the article included how we could improve our learning quality through this technology. For example if we were to learn about history, the technology would enable us to get a real feel on the actual scenes of the pages of history. We could perhaps even take a trip down Singapore's past and experience what life what like during the war in 1942 and talk to the "people" on what they felt like at that time. A trip to the museum would perhaps give us a feel of how it how was like, but wouldnt augmented reality tech do even more than that?
This augmented reality technology is a great learning booster for all of us because I fully agree with the author saying that we humans learn best through hands on experiences. I could personally vouch for this as well. It will make learning a much more interesting one as well. And when things are interesting to us,we seem to learn and digest them better and remember them well. Since the hands of time is something we cannot wind back, this augmented reality would give us a chance to have a peek and feel into what it was like then, which would be almost as good as the real thing. I would personally love to talk to famous people like Mozart and Michael Jackson thru this technology and find out what what was going through their minds when they composed music, what inspired them and what they felt like going through life's obstacles etc.
Too much to say about augmented reality really but I doubt that this technology would be really realised until another few decades. Reason being that it'll be expensive, alot of research must be put into things to make learning accurate like alot of voice recognition to be put in and detailed rendering of the scenes etc. The author also addressed that this technology could subject people to propaganda as well. Which is very true and I feel that because augmented reality could enhance our learning and all by many folds, I would think that the effects of propaganda would be more engraved in people as well. Hence, this technology is like a double-edged sword.
2)Vibrational medicine
From my understanding of the article, vibrational medicine is healing of the human body without the the use of drugs. Types of vibrational medicine include:phototherapy, spitirual healing, acupuncture and mind/body healing. I think that actually such healings are better to people no doubt they may perhaps take a longer time because they dont have the type of "power" or effects that drugs have over us. But on the flipside, vibrational medicine is not addictive or we do not necessarily always have to rely on them unlike typical western medicine. What I mean is, things like panadol, when we take them each time we have headaches, we actually become reliant on them all the time. Natural healing should take place where possible as it does not introduce any foreign chemicals or whatsoever into our systems. Our body is after able to self-heal. (like how we can recover from wounds. This is why I would think that doctors would usually perform placebo operations on patients because of our human capabilities and not because of drugs.
(Just a little something more on placebo effect)
I feel that the human mind is the also very capable in the area of healing and in other ways. I believe that when we focus our minds on something, it can be done. In the polytechnic where I did archery, my coach would always give us mental training sessions. He'd tell us to picture ourselves at the shooting line and going through all the steps to the point where we are about to release the arrow. And then we would picture ourselves hitting the target. It was somewhere along this line. And many a times, it works. Though it has nothing to do with healing, I think it's a good example to show how when we tell ourselves to think in a certain way,things can actually happen. The mind is indeed a very powerful tool.
3) Genetic engineering on humans
Last but not least, genetic engineering is an emerging technology that allows us to change the way we want ourselves to be. In the article, it gave an example that we could make our future generations hate the taste of sugar and thereby reducing problems of obesity and heart diseases. Yes, this is a good thing but we would face the ethical issue of whether it is right for us to play God. Why not genetically alter our children to be obedient to us? Give humans super senses like superman? Or enable our dogs to do our homework? No doubt is sounds like a good plan, wouldnt we be in a way disrupting nature's way of things? With respect to changing who we are or our future generations, I would think that genetic engineering would somehow deprive us of living life as what it was originally intended to be. Things like making our dogs to our homework or making children obedient, it doesnt make us better people but rather diverts our purpose of being human. Altering to make out future generations to be who we want them to be, would they be happy? Still, I am sure genetic engineering does have its benefits and it could be explored in other ways.
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