Technology (and science, too)

Nowadays, technologies are parts of our every day life. Everywhere we go, we can see how technologies are all around us, teaching us, guiding us, and helping us with everything we do. One can imagine how different our lives would be without technologies. So today, I'm here to talk about how science and technology have change our lives.

Technologies are all around us

You may know what "science" and "technology" are, but do you truly understand what they really stands for? No? That's why I'm here to help you. To make it simple, science is "the body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied." This means that science is any knowledge that can be rationally explained through experiments. And "technology" is simply something that is created based on the application of scientific knowledge.

Now that we've done with that, let's get to the fun stuffs. Did you know that ,according to a Japanese poll in 2000, instant noodles was considered "Japan's best invention of the 20th century?" This was because after WWII, Japanese people were struggling with their lives. Many people wanted to eat just 1 bowl of ramen. And by witnessing a long line of people just waiting to get some noodles, the Japanese inventor Momofuku Ando thought "peace will come to the world when people have enough to eat." Thanks to Ando and his amazing invention, many people are now escaping starvation.

Looking at this makes me hungry

Instant noodle is only one of the many inventions that science and technology have produced. And just like any other inventions, instant noodle was created to help people with their lives. And that's what science and technology is all about: to gain a deeper understanding about things around you and to improve the life of humanity.

But sadly, this is not always the case. With science and technology improving everyday, the risks that those knowledge can be used for evil purposes increase. From cyber criminals, wars, spies, to bio weapons and nuclear power, we are no longer safe, even in our very own home. It's true that science and technology have improve our lives in so many different ways, our lives would have never be this good without them. But the danger they bring also making our lives more dangerous than ever before.

Technology can be a two-edge sword

So what can we, as a society, can do to help protect ourselves and other people from the risk that science and technology being used in ways that can detriment our ways of living? Well, for big problems like nuclear power and bio weapons, there's not really much we can do but to show our support or disagreement. But for problems that are closely related to our lives, like increasing dependence to technology or cyber bullies, we as individuals can help fixed those problems for the betterment of society. Each problems will have its own solution, and if we can join together to help fixed problems relating to misused of science and technology, our lives will certainly get better.

Piracy

Many of us have committed piracy once or twice in our lives. No, not the Pirates of The Caribbeans kind of piracy (though, we will also talked about that subject in this blog). What I mean is intellectual piracy, or copyright infringement.

Do you care about copyright?

The Pirate Bay, Mediafire, Megaupload... these are some among the many websites that allows people to upload files and share them with the world. This means that anyone with access to these pages can download the files and use them as they may. Sometimes this is okay because those files maybe free or personal. But most of the times, people used these sites to upload copyrights contents so that everyone can use it. This means that contents that you normally have to pay to get access to are now free for everyone.

AKA: Their Hell, Our Heaven

I know some of you might think "So? This is awesome, right?" Well to you guys it may be very cool to get all these free stuffs (who doesn't like free stuffs?). But to the people who spent their time, hard work, and money to created these files, this is not something to laugh about. Watching files that you spent days, months, years to make is now being distributed everywhere for free without your permission is rather heart-breaking.

Right in the adulthood

Copyright infringement has been a huge problems for media industries for decades. Companies that produce games, musics, films, programs... are struggling with the fact that people are getting these companies' products for free from the Internet. This results in a huge lost in their revenue because a majority of users don't pay for the files. Now you may think it's awesome to get these stuffs for free but for these companies, intellectual piracy can lead them to bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy = Game Over

So how can we solve this problem? First of all, I must say we're extremely fortunate that this isn't the 18th century and we're not committing actual piracy. Why? Because back then, committing piracy means you'll end up in jail at the very least. There are also hanging, decapitation, dancing the hempen jig, and the absolute worst is being lock in a steel cage and hang in the air until your flesh rotted (which takes about 2 years). The most twisted part is that people enjoy coming to see your death like it's some kind of sport event. Nowadays, the worst intellectual piracy can get is jail and pay for compensation. No rotted flesh!

Who knew so many people came to see someone die?

Also worth mentioning is that copyright infringement happens on the Internet, which makes it harder to find the culprit. Some might say "there should be a law against online piracy". That maybe true, but it's too complicated to create a law that can protects major businesses while not harming the small ones. It's because we haven't define content that is needed to be protect from piracy. Is taking a quote from a Facebook post piracy? Is taking a portion of a video clip violated copyrights? How about an image on Google?

Netflix believes it's the solution to online piracy

It's true that online piracy is very difficult to deal with. But in my opinion, there's nothing that humans can't do. We just need to put our minds and our resources (lots and lots of resources) together and figure out a way to protect companies and industries from online piracy. It may take years, thousands of people, and millions of dollars. But i believe that if people are strong enough to work together toward a common goal (in this case preventing online piracy) ,with the right amount of time and resources, we can achieve the impossible and once again bring back the fairness to businesses all around the world.

Here are some links about solutions to piracy that you may find interested:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2012/01/17/how-to-fix-online-piracy/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/france-solution-online-piracy

Income Inequality

When it comes to unfair things in our life, one thing stood out: income inequality. Money is an important factor in our daily life because without money, we can't pay for food, water, electricity, etc. So if money is so important to our lives, shouldn't it be distributed equally among human. If everyone have the same amount of income, wouldn't that means everyone will live a happy life?

That maybe true in theory, but in reality, things aren't always how we want them to be. Statistics shown that out of the 7 billion people on Earth, the richest 1% is holding 43% of world wealth, while the bottom 80%of people only have 6% of the world wealth. So what is happening here? Why do the minorities have so much money while the majorities have almost nothing?

More astounding facts: 200 years ago, rich countries were only 3 times richer than poor countries. Today, that number rise to 85 times. So why is there such a huge gap in the income between poor and rich people? To understand this, we can take the US for example.

US currently has the most unequal advanced economy in the world.United State's economy is so unequal, it even has its own Wiki page talking about it. In 2013, 75.4% of the nation's wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population. From wealth accumulation rigged for the rich, manipulation of tax, tax rate decrease, stock market domination by the riches, to numerous consumer debts, the rich just keep getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer.

That's not all, as many scams have been created by the richest to hide the fact that the minority of people in US is holding the majority of the nation's wealth. One of those scam is the "we should all cheer for stock market". Mainstream media has made this seems like a chance for poor people to become richer by investing in stock market. But the truth is: 60% of US population only own 0.2% of all wealth outside of home. Some organization even claimed that income inequality remain steady since the wealth of the top 1% decrease from 1983 to 2007 because of "democratization of stock ownership. What many people didn't know is that while the wealth of the top 1% decreased, the top other 5% increase by 20%, and the poorest 80% decrease by almost 20%.

So how can we fix America? Based on theatlantic.com, "The most potent way to get more wealth to the poor and middle-class is to get these people to save more of their income, and to invest in assets with higher average rates of return." And to do this, first we have to change America's culture of saving. Rich people have lots of money, so they usually save them, and in time the saving become huge. The poor, on the other hand, don't have that much money for savings.What the website propose is financial education is a must in public school to change American's way of thinking.

The change of US wealth distribution from 2007-2009

In addition, we can help the middle class invest in stock to raise their wealth. Teaching people how to manage their stock investments is a great way to help people avoid losing their wealth. Tips and tricks about what to do, what to not do, and what to avoid doing are great in helping people make the right decision in stock investing. By doing so, we can change the wealth distribution in society so it will shift more to the other poor and middle class. In turn, these solutions can help closing the gap between the rich and the poor and make unfair distribution of wealth fairer.

World Organization

There are many worldwide organizations in the world that are striving to solve current world problems. Even though each organization have its own missions and methods, one thing in common is that they all try to improve the life of humanity.

Today, I'm going to introduced to you 2 worldwide organizations that are dedicated to advancing technology, IEEE and AAAS. These two organizations may not be the same, but they both strive for a common goal, that is to improve technological innovations for the benefit of all people.

IEEE (stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. 

The IEEE was the combination of two different societies, AIEE and IRE. AIEE was created in 1884 by a small group of electrical professions with the aim to aid professionals in their efforts to apply innovation for the betterment of humanity. IRE was created in 1912 after the creation of radio. Unlike the AIEE, which focused on electrical power and its ability, IRE devoted to radio and electronics.

Both societies grew in the 20th century, but IRE became the larger group in 1957. On January 1st 1963, the two societies combined to formed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer.

IEEE's goal is to be essential to the global technical community and to technical professionals everywhere, and be universally recognized for the contributions of technology and of technical professionals in improving global conditions.

AAAS(stands for American Association for the Advancement of Science) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of all people. It's the world's largest and most prestigious science society and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science.

Formed in 1848 as a national scientific society, AAAS became the first permanent organization formed to promote the development of science and engineering at a national level and to represents the interests of all its disciplines. 

The AAAS seeks to "advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people." 

The question now is why did I choose these 2 when there are many different organizations out there? Well the main reason is because I'm having an upcoming presentation about Science and Technology. And since these two organizations both want to advance technology and innovation for the benefit of humanity, it seems fit to use them for this blog and possibly my presentation in the future. If the presentation went well, I going to upload that file here so everyone can see. Wish me luck!