Such is the nature of our technological world today, whilst reading through this article, I could concurrently connect Schwab’s ideas and theories to other pieces of information in my web vicinity. He discusses a few different ways in which the world’s technology is advancing. One of these is the continual development of autonomous vehicles. Elon Musk is a key figure in this field, and his forward thinking plans with Tesla are something to keep an eye out for. One other advancement that Schwab discusses is the genetic modification of DNA in humans and plants alike. I am aware of Artificial Intelligence and the potential risks and rewards that studies in this field can bring. But I had not given much thought to what happens when we interfere with the biology of nature until I watched a Documentary on Netflix called The True Cost. In the most efficient way possible, it is a doco about how the fashion industry has become like fast food restaurants, creating a lopsided system whereby communities in third world countries are being outsourced to make clothes dirt cheap and suffering severe conditions in slave-like environments. Now, this is a serious issue and has huge repercussions. From the environmental perspective it means that more cotton is being consumed. The answer has become to genetically modify the plant to withstand poison and other pesticides in order to increase production efficiency so that more clothing can be made. The obvious problem with this is the amount of toxins being released in the air and directly into the soil. It is damaging, not only to our environment but the way in which our world functions as a whole.
Okay, so I’m not an expert in any of these fields, but you can’t disregard even the loose connections established between the few ideas above. The overarching theme that stood out to me from the reading is the ability we (those more so in the western world) have to access information through the Internet. But there is a huge disparity between those who have and those who do not have and it appears to be getting worse. At our fingertips is an extremely powerful tool evolving so rapidly that in order to effectively progress and develop properly we need to adapt to it in an inclusive way. With this adaptation though comes drawbacks. Our innate tendency to check our phones for example in an awkward/unnatural situation can simultaneously ease the tension and disconnect us from real human interaction – leading to individualisation, creating social issues as Schwab touches on.
It seems that the most important thing we can do globally is to collectively understand and embrace the changes in new technology in a way that benefits the human race as a whole.
– Gabe