GE143 - Course Introduction

Course Orientation

Dr Robert Batzinger
Instructor Emeritus

Payap University
Chiang Mai, Thailand
15-Aug-2022

1 Welcome…

to the first day of class!!

 

1.1 Self-Introductions

Who are you?

Speed round: (4 questions < 1min)

  • Your name and how you would like to be called
  • Where are you from?
  • What are you studying here?
  • Where and what do you want to be in 5 years time?

1.2 Your Instructor

linkedin

email: robert_b@payap.ac.th
Office: PC314 (Office hrs by appointment

1.3 Signing Up for the Class Resources

2 Course description

Learning scientific processes and information technology for daily life. Safety and ethics in information technology, judgment in using information technology. Technological impacts on human and society.

2.1 A strategic choice

  1. Talk about current state of IT development in Thailand

    • Discussions will be outdated before you graduate
    • Many are familar with more advanced IT services

  2. Focus on new Tech on the 5-10 yr horizon.

    • Truth is hard to find; opinions and fake news abound.
    • Skills to understand and assess the value and risks of new technologies are valuable.
    • Sorting between reality and the hype is a critical skill.

2.2 Your preference

  1. Option A: Current technology?

  2. Option B: Future technology?

3 Case 1: A nanoscale motor

  • Self-assembled motor uses an ‘origami’ technique
    • a long DNA strand is folded into a complex shape
    • fixed in place by dozens of short DNA strands
  • consists of a pedestal, a platform and a rotor
  • Obstacles on the edges of the platform creates a ratchet that restricts movement of the rotor to 1 direction
  • Alternating voltage applied across the sides of the motor spins the rotor.

3.1 Illustration from the original paper

Self-assembled DNA Motor

Anna-Katharina Pumm, 2022. A DNA origami rotary ratchet motor. Nature 607,492–498 (2022)

3.2 Discussion

  1. What applications do you see for this technology?

  2. What risks do you see?

  3. What would convince you to allow doctors to inject this in you?

4 Case 2: Three-D Printing

  • 3-D Model
  • Media: Hot plastic, ceramic, microbeads
  • X-Y plotter
  • stage elevator

3D Wireframe

3D Printer

4.1 3-D Printing in Ukraine

3-D Printers for Ukraine

4.2 Applications for 3D Printers:

  • Medical devices
  • Artificial limb components
  • Broken parts
  • Weapons
  • Drones
  • Bombs

Drone war in Ukraine

4.3 What are the ethics of 3D printing?

  1. Mass production of emergency medical equipment vs weapon
  2. Cost reduction for medical treatment vs weapon productio
  3. Saving lives vs taking lives.
  4. Intelligent weapons vs massive general destruction

5 Critical analysis

Singularity University Mindset

  • embraces the future and its challenges by providing technology leaders a forum to explore the opportunities for making a better world for all. It creates a community of incredible individuals with a common interest in improving the lives of billions of people.

  • draws on behavioral science to create an approachable, repeatable innovation methodology to address human limitations related to changing mindsets and behavior.

5.1 The future is faster than you think

  • Computational abundance
  • Time abundance
  • Capital abundance
  • Demonetization of technology
  • Communication abundance
  • Increasing genius
  • Increasing lifespan

5.2 Study of the future

Requires understanding

  • the contributing factors: market need, economy, size of investment, etc
  • relevant data: understanding of the technology, size of market, rate of development
  • public opinion: the effects of fads, traditions, trends and mindsets
  • impact on other systems: killer app, disruptive technologies, social upheaval

5.3 Successful technology

  • Addresses a felt needs
  • Requires a reasonable investment
  • Quickly moves from concept development to production of product
  • Results in a reasonable return on investment

5.4 GDP vs Life Expendancy

Gap Minder Animation

5.5 A famous prediction

Steam Locomotive The canal system in this country is being threatened by the spread of railroads. We must preserve our canals at all costs for the following rreasons. If canal boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, repairmen and lock keepers will all be left without jobs, not to mention the farmers now employed in growing hay for the horses. Railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles an hour by engines which roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock, and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed. Martin van Buren, 1829

5.6 Other Famous Predictions

  1. Flight is reserved for angels. To think anything else is blasphemy. Bishop Wright, 1870

  2. I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. Chairman of IBM,1943

  3. I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. President Kennedy, 1961

  4. There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. President DEC, 1977

5.7 Megatrends

  • Increase in global abundance
  • Accelerated demonetization and democratization
  • Everyone, everywhere is connected at gigabit speed
  • Everything, everywhere is being connected
  • You can know anything, anytime, anywhere
  • Autonomous personalized transport (fast and cheap)
  • Increaing human intelligence
  • Increasing human longevity “healthspan”
  • Capital abundance: access to capital everywhere
  • Globally abundant cheap renewable energy

5.8 Futuristic Mega Projects Neom, Saudia Arabia

6 Homework Assignment 1

  • By Wednesday, 24 Aug:

    • Discuss the questions
    • Draft the responses

  • By Friday night, 26 Aug (before midnight):

    • Edit the group response
    • Open the share permissions
    • Submit the URL

PYU GE143 2022/1: Science and IT for the Quality of Life [4]