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Opinion

Will technology make us or break us?

Andrew Sheng says breathtaking tech advances are making solutions to the world’s most vexing problems available to everyone, but organising for these changes remains the biggest challenge

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Some of the 404 participants of the “Next Einstein” competition held in March in Toronto, Canada. The contest set a Guinness World Record for the “largest gathering of people dressed as Albert Einstein”, according to organisers of the Einstein Legacy Project, set up to encourage innovation and free thinking. Photo: Handout via Reuters
Andrew Sheng

Technology is so pervasive these days that we either have techno-optimism – that everything can be solved through technology – or technophobia – that technology will get rid of all our jobs, justifying protectionism.

Thanks to technology, US President Donald Trump is communicating with voters directly through his tweets, which have changed our perception of how leaders engage with their supporters. His tweets simplify very complex issues, but strike an emotional chord. Right or wrong, they are changing the game.

Watch: The top 10 TED talks of 2016

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a forum featuring short talks that explain things simply. And with Apple TV or Xiaomi’s Mi TV, we are now able to access global information easily. Of course, a lot of such information could be fake, misleading and even dangerous. But I am now learning faster through such talks and videos than through books and articles in print.
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Even though I was an early fan and user of technology, I had not appreciated how much technology has changed the world and divided generations. As a baby boomer, the major input for me for serious decision-making had been print. But once I installed my TV box, I can now access, directly in my home, lectures, talks and documentaries on all kinds of topics. Indeed, with high-speed internet at home, I do not need to go to the library, university or any expert.

Visitors look at a recently restored artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, the “Adoration of the Magi”, at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Will the day come when students can learn how to draw from a Leonardo da Vinci avatar? Photo: EPA
Visitors look at a recently restored artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, the “Adoration of the Magi”, at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Will the day come when students can learn how to draw from a Leonardo da Vinci avatar? Photo: EPA

The future is here: China sounds a clarion call on AI funding, policies to surpass US

When I was shown virtual reality last year, I realised that soon, we will be able to have a direct conversation with any historical figure, like Aristotle or Confucius. Artificial intelligence can create an avatar, downloaded with everything Aristotle has written on any subject, and we can ask anything – and get an answer from AI as if Aristotle were still alive. Who needs human teachers after that? If students can ask the Einstein avatar directly about quantum physics or speak to Leonardo da Vinci about how to draw, who needs to go to university? Learning becomes a game with the best avatar teachers.

If students can ask the Einstein avatar directly about quantum physics, who needs to go to university?
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