Category: Effects of Technology

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

The short film Slaughterbots portrays a not so distant future where multitudes of miniature automatons kill a huge number of individuals for their political convictions. Delivered in November 2017 by scholastics and activists cautioning of the threats of cutting edge man-made brainpower (AI), it immediately turned into a web sensation, drawing in more than 3,000,000 perspectives to date. It helped sparkle an open discussion on the fate of self-sufficient weapons and put focus on ambassadors meeting at the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons.

In any case, this sort of theoretical sci-fi narrating isn’t only valuable for standing out. The individuals who plan and manufacture cutting edge innovation can utilize stories to think about the results of their work and guarantee it is utilized for acceptable. What’s more, we think this sort of ‘sci-fi prototyping’ or ‘plan fiction’ could help keep human predispositions from working their way into new innovation, further settling in the public arena’s partialities and treacheries.

An inclination can prompt the discretionary inclination of certain classes (of results, individuals, or thoughts) over others. For instance, a few people might be one-sided against recruiting ladies for chief positions, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not.

Innovation worked around information that records such predisposition can wind up imitating the issue. For example, enrollment programming intended to choose the best CVs for a specific activity may be customized to search for attributes that mirror an oblivious inclination towards men. In which case, the calculation will wind up preferring men’s CVs. What’s more, this isn’t hypothetical—it really happened to Amazon.

Planning calculations without considering conceivable negative ramifications has been contrasted with specialists ‘expounding on the advantages of a given treatment and totally disregarding the symptoms, regardless of how genuine they are.’

Some tech firms and scientists are attempting to handle the issue. For instance, Google drew up a lot of moral standards to direct its advancement of AI. What’s more, UK scholastics have dispatched an activity called Not-Equal that means to support more noteworthy reasonableness and equity in the plan and utilization of innovation.

The issue is that, freely, organizations will in general convey just a positive vision of the likely results of not so distant future advancements. For instance, driverless vehicles are frequently depicted as tackling all our vehicle issues from cost to security, overlooking the expanded perils of cyberattacks or the reality they could urge individuals to walk or cycle less.

The trouble in seeing how advanced innovations work, particularly those that are intensely determined by dark calculations, additionally makes it harder for individuals to have a perplexing and exhaustive perspective on the issues. This circumstance delivers a strain between a consoling positive story and the unclear doubt that inclinations are installed somewhat in the advances around us. This is the place we think narrating through plan fiction can come in.

Stories are a characteristic technique for pondering prospects and complex circumstances, and we have been hearing them for our entire lives. Sci-fi can assist us with estimating on the effect of not so distant future advancements on society, as Slaughterbots does. This can even incorporate issues of social equity, similar to the way certain gatherings, for example, displaced people and travelers, can be rejected from computerized advancements.

Plan fiction stories give a novel method to originators, architects and futurists (among others) to consider the effect of innovation from a human viewpoint and connection this to conceivable future needs. With a blend of rationale and creative mind, plan fiction can uncover parts of how innovation might be received and utilized, beginning discussions about its future repercussions.

For instance, the short story ‘Wrongdoing sourcing’ investigates what may occur if AI somehow happened to utilize publicly supported data and a criminal information base to anticipate who may carry out a homicide. The scientists found that in light of the fact that the information base was loaded with individuals in minority ethnic gatherings who, for social reasons, were factually bound to reoffend, the ‘wrongdoing sourcing’ model was bound to wrongly presume minorities than white individuals.

You don’t need to be a gifted author or make a smooth film to create plan fiction. Conceptualizing exercises including cards and storyboards have been utilized to create plan fiction and help build up the narrating cycle. Making workshops that utilized these sorts of devices more normal would empower more architects, business people, and policymakers to utilize this technique for evaluation. Furthermore, making the subsequent work freely accessible would assist with uncovering possible predispositions in innovations before they influence society.

Urging originators to make and offer more stories thusly would guarantee the account that supports new innovation wouldn’t simply introduce a positive picture, nor an incredibly negative or tragic one. Rather, individuals will have the option to acknowledge the two parts of what’s going on around us.

In the 1920 the partnership between the National Research Council and Science service signaled the start that radio could be a dignified way to popularize science and for achieving positive publicity for all science. Science Service continued to be involved in radio production for the next forty years, essentially functioning as the scientific establishment’s sanctioned surrogate on the airwaves. To understand Science Service’s commitment to broadcasting requires first understanding the organization’s founders and essential mission and the important role it played in sculpting American scientists’ attitudes toward popularization during the 1920s and 1930s.

The organization’s creation was rooted in a noble idea: “to reach the widest possible audience with the largest amount of scientific information” and to do so with accuracy and diligent attention to the audience’s needs and interests(). For the scientific establishment, the notion of an entity devoted exclusively to popularization was neither repellent nor automatically welcome. During the first decades of the twentieth century, the scientific community’s indifference to popularization had begun to evolve into a begrudging acceptance grounded in practicality. Scientists recognized the potential political and economic benefits of cooperating in public dissemination of their ideas; with active involvement, they might be better able to monitor accuracy, certify authenticity, and claim credit, and such attention would surely encourage increased political investment in science. There was also an expanding potential audience for news and information about science. Consumer technologies, relativity, advances in chemistry, and archeological expeditions all were contributing to a sense of intellectual excitement at the same time that a voracious media market Science had emerged from the Great War with an enhanced but somewhat ambiguous image, primarily because of the publicity that attended the development of chemical weapons.

Science’s benefits were undeniable. Chemists and physicists had contributed to military and defense preparedness; public health and medicine were extending human life; genetics, entomology, and soil chemistry were improving agriculture, killing pests, and increasing crop yields; and the technological products of physics and engineering like wireless sets and phonographs As the economic depression continued, attempts to use radio for adult education took on new significance, yet most of the major campaigns to accomplish that objective failed miserably. These projects also paid little attention to science. At a moment when science and engineering had special relevance to national recovery and were receiving increased attention in newspapers and popular magazines, the number of broadcasts aimed at educating and informing Americans about such topics remained small. Only a few individuals and organizations, acting independently of most educational reform groups, exploited radio for science popularization. This failure seems all the more paradoxical because well-funded, well connected national advocacy groups led by academics, including many scientists, and focusing on “radio in education” existed in the United States during the 1 930s.

The inability of these organizations to cooperate with each other, their intellectual snobbery and undisguised disdain for the very medium they were supposedly trying to utilize, and their unwillingness to invest significant resources in production of quality programs all hobbled their effectiveness. Moreover, these reformers seemed unconcerned with promoting science education for adults, choosing to concentrate on literature, music, economics, and public affairs (politics) rather than the ABC’s of astronomy, biology, and chemistry. In radio age relatively few American researchers received government funding, unless their work had immediate application to public health, agriculture, or weaponry. However, things changed after World War 2 and Vietnam War, when science was backed by government grants. The perception of science as the recipient of government money and not as a contributor to society was damaging. Being equated with politics, political parties, and favoritism painted science not as the “hero” of the space program but as an arm of the Establishment.In addition to these issues of public perception and the prevailing reputation of science, the American educational system was not having success with its science curriculum.

As a result, adults did not have a level of science literacy that allowed them to understand the complexities of science or space exploration. It can be argued that television viewers watch television programming that was relevant to them, to their time, to their politics, they would have been primed for a mature, elegant educational program that sought to connect with them. At the same time, they hungered for adventure and fantasy presented with great spectacle. Cosmos’ leading goal was not necessarily “education:” Sagan wanted to change the public perspective on science, to accept it and therefore to fund it. This change in perspective is typical to the “evolution” of science as a field: “Science grows not by mere accumulation of data as does natural history but by changes in perspectives” (). Sagan felt that public understanding of science was critical to its progress. So when PBS and Carl Sagan wanted to create a show , they decided they want to attract the “average” viewer, Sagan should appear like the “everyman,” and not as one of the “scientific elite” who had been associated with government spending.

The show should look like look like Star Wars and sound like ‘Sixty Minutes. Through the show Sagan illuminates that the direction scientific discoveries is in the hands of the common people. While they may not have embraced science nor fully understood what it could do for them before this program, after Cosmos, Sagan hoped, they would adopt a new appreciation for and understanding of the ways in which science benefits humanity as a whole. The show was so effective that Cosmos did not need time to “build” an audience. It enjoyed immediate popularization. The avenues of distribution available for popularized science almost always involve some marketing component. While any message must first have an small scientific audience before it can persuade an public audience, in popular science, concern about audience attraction and retention is shaped by its need to cater to a secondary audience, the public, of “financial supporters.” Usually, financial support comes in the shape of advertising dollars and the attached concerns stem wholly from outside the rhetor’s primary persuasive argument. Capitalist concerns are at the core for this secondary audience: moral or ethical or intellectual interests are not the deciding factor.

The rhetorical message must be shaped to attract not only the audience which the rhetor intends primarily to address, but also to attract and persuade an audience of financiers who need to fund the program’s production, distribution and/or publication. Being unable to attract not just the primary audience but the necessary secondary audience could result in the effective erasure of the message. The secondary audience has controlling financial power and determines whether a message exists. Without good cause to believe an advertising message will be delivered as desired to an audience attracted by the program, financial support will not be secured. These concerns about secondary audiences exist even if a program airs on PBS because it receives significant amounts of its funding from the corporate sponsors and from individual contributors. PBS cannot risk being seen as promoting partisan views for fear it may risk losing federal funding. Controversy may also put at risk pledged donations from “members” who voluntarily contribute to the cost of running PBS.

Technology should be limited

Technology yields purpose in society but its use should be limited. The time spent by people behind screens shows a remarkable height. According to a study done by the Council for Research Excellence, the average adult in the United States now spends roughly 8.5 hours a day looking at screens. That is why we should limit the use of technology because over the past several years technology has increased in use dramatically. Individuals should reduce their amount of time behind technology to sustain basic learning skills in order to live a healthy and independent life with no distractions. On the other hand, others believe too much technology is not bad but beneficial within society.

There are over 4 billion people who are connected with technology today mostly including young ages. That really says a lot about our generation today, it shows how distracted we are with technology that we are forgetting what is going on in our world today. As (Common Sense Media) states, “Parents and teens spend up to 9 hours a day on a screen, and kids up to age 8 spend 2 hours and 19 minutes on a screen. “Due to the number of uses, individuals interact with technology today, our society is being exposed to issues that are caused by the overuse of technology. “Research has also shown that twice as many children and three times as many adolescents are suffering from obesity than just 30 years ago based on increased body mass index scores according to” (National Center for Health Statistics, 2012; Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). This showing that in the future we are going to be so exposed to technology that our basic skills will disappear and people will become more obese thanks to the number of people that will become unwilling to work or use energy because of everything that will be done for us robotically.

At the point when we become occupied with the Internet, we lose every other need that should be done, for example, our homework, work, or even youngsters. By limiting ourselves we are saving ourselves from becoming addicted and obsessed. Also, we may wind up losing our control in time and cause problems in our lives. At the point when we don’t observe how we make use of our time; we can forget about what should be finished. Time is a significant factor in our lives and when we lose track of time, we may wind up overlooking significant undertakings. Video games have an increasing number of users, especially teens. Teens nowadays have gotten awful evaluations and bombed classes since they invest a lot of energy playing video games and very little time in their schoolwork. “Students with a higher GPA used social media less frequently than those with a lower GPA, the study found. Students with a high GPA (3.0 or better) did so an average of 2.9 times per class, those with a medium GPA (2.0-2.99) an average of 3.0 times, and those with a low GPA (below 2.0) an average of 3.8 times. “according to (Longwood University) Experts discovered that this measurement didn’t just apply to teenagers, yet it likewise applied to undergrads and there grades. For example, computer games or the Internet replace schoolwork or our career, and we lose all discipline in time management. Making it harder for us to succeed in life when all u will do is be stuck with technology.

From another perspective, people may believe technology is very useful to our society today and believe we should continue to improve our technology. The reason some people believe lots of technology is beneficial is because they find that it helps us work smarter in real-life situations. (According to PMA a nonprofit organization that develops and retains top talent to secure a strong workforce) “technology enables timely and informed decision making, among other things”. This shows how in the future we are going to have everything done for us is going to make our intelligence weak and we will lack common sense due to the laziness we will have.

Whether technology is good or bad that totally relies upon us and how we use it from previous years technology has made a fine impact on our lives with the aid of providing so many notable things. Technology gives us so many benefits from cellphones to the web and even for scientific purposes. Without technology in our lives, our world would be a very exceptional place. Not only does technology supply us with a new and expanded way to communicate, but it also gives us new and interesting methods to research and get our thoughts out to the world faster. The downfall to this is that we grow to be so addicted to technology that we absolutely forget about what is going on around us due to the number of hours we put in our day using technology.

The global growth and development of technology have played a remarkable role in changing the lifestyle of many individuals. Over the years, technology has grown and played a pivotal role in gadgets that help human beings connect with others across the world. Rather than increasing connectivity and making the world a global village, Sherry Turkle’s “Growing up Tethered “ reflects the negative effects technology has on the life of modern-day youth in a time of rapid technological growth. The article demonstrates the impact of technology in the presence of teenagers and how it changes social and behavioral patterns. Past generations had no access to technology and thus had physical contact. Individuals could visit their friends and relatives but after the growth of technology people have decreased in physical contact as they communicate with the rest of the world from the comfort of their home. This feeling of comfort that many young individuals receive from their technological devices causes them to detach from daily life, hindering the youth society from real-life experiences. This “shield” that technology provides youth from real-life experiences will ultimately hamper their state of maturity and ability to connect to reality. By creating a technologically advanced universe we’ve developed a deceiving bond in which teenagers rely on their devices for the feeling of mere connection sacrificing real-life experiences and conversations, hindering their overall state of maturity.

Initially, Turkle’s main idea depicts that adolescents have developed a severe attachment to the growing technologies and more so to the mobile phones and gadgets that deny teenagers independence. Sherry Turkle, a professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims in her excerpt, “Growing up Tethered” that “ We make our technologies, and they, in turn, make and shape us” (251). New affordable devices are emerging every day, making their accessibility easy. With new devices and their cheap alternatives meeting the tailored needs of most individuals, the issue of dependency too these gadgets spread to those privileged and less fortunate. A focus group studying generations born after the initial technology boom suggests that reliance on mobile phones and gadgets detaches an individual from the regular daily lives that would advocate for more social contact and growth of an independent person ( Hundley, Shyle 2010). The readily available gadgets and the current development in the technological world are changing the rules of engagement that, in the past involved physical contact. Lack of physical contact reduces the social nature of human beings and thus, lowers the chances of verbal discussions every day. The increase in reliance and consistent positive outlet that young individuals are provided with mobile devices change human beings into antisocial characters who fail to engage with people close to them. Therefore, technology tethers individuals causing them to be dependent on mobile devices to communicate and find comfort amongst their peers hindering their ability to connect with the real world outside of their deceiving technological gadgets.

Additionally, Sherry discusses the addiction teenagers have to cell phones and how the same brings forth changes in the styles of bringing up children, and aspects that delay the maturity of children. Eugenia A. Ives, an educator with a Masters in Education from Dominican University of California states “[…] addictive qualities associated with digital consumption and cyber usage is gaining prominence as a serious concern” ( Ives 2013). Over-reliance or overuse of technology can bring about changes in technology that trigger an alteration in the structure and how children are to date ( Ives, 2013). Correspondingly, the routine and lifestyle of the parents and their children. Parents are investing too much time in their gadgets such that they have little time for their children. Turkle argues that “ Excessive attachment with cellphones undoubtedly changes the rules of engagement” (Turkle, 172). The connectivity of teenagers with their parents and other people becomes less every day. Therefore, parents are not in a position to address the issues affecting their children, and such has a significant impact on their morality and their future lives. Though parents have little social contact with their children, the availability of the gadgets makes it possible and easy to reach out to the parents any time a need arises. The devices narrow down the gap needed for contact since parents are just a call or text away from their children. The convenience that cell phones give to the lives of people is a core aspect that provides a sense of independence as well as ensures the security of children. Although cell phones provide ease with communication and security, having a dependent relationship with these gadgets will obstruct a young individual from gaining their independence because an answer or comfort will always be a call away.

Furthermore, in her excerpt, Sherry Turkle shows the idea of the lifestyle of the current generations that are majorly affected by technology and cell phones to be specific. The facet of technology tethers the lifestyles of people and shapes their lives. Today, the majority of teenagers are glued to their gadgets, and this undoubtedly makes them slaves of their cell phones ( Sharma, 2018). Most people who are engrossed in their phones fail to observe the realities of the world as they are tethered to a technological life that is not real. In an interview with Turkle in the chapter “ Growing Up Tethered, “ Roman, a young adult eighteen years of age, admits that he cannot stop texting while driving. “ I know I should stop, but I cannot. If I get a message posted on my Facebook wall, I have to see it “ ( Turkle, 430). Teens consider phones as their paramount company and friends, thus their lives are incomplete without cell phones. People are losing their true identity first and are keen on developing a profile on online platforms that are a fundamental part of life. Teenagers, before the emergence of technological devices, were social beings who valued friendships as well as social contact. In today’s world, people have shifted the paradigm significantly to create associations on networks rather than in the real world. Some go to the extent of forgetting the existence of actual people in the course of life.

One cannot deny that technology tethers teenagers and inhibits their ability to interact and experience the world outside of their screens. However, technology can transport many individuals from the world they live in and give them a more broad perception of the world The exposure that technology gives to growing teenagers increases their chances of learning, and, thus, every teenager with access to technology receives equal opportunity. Although, accessibility can provide equality for less fortunate individuals, many teenagers without a proper understanding of how technology can help abuse their devices, not realizing just how detrimental it can be towards their growth into adulthood. In an interview with Turkle in the chapter “ Growing Up Tethered, “ Ricki, a fifteen-year-old high school freshman at Richelieu states that she has a list of friends that she calls to validate her thoughts or actions. “ I check with her if I have gotten this right “ ( Turkle 241 ). Then Turkle goes on to claim “ Technology […] encourages a sensibility in which the validation of a feeling becomes part of establishing it “ ( Turkle 241). This constant availability of validation or company that many teenagers have within a click away produces a fragile adult who cannot be independent and is not fully mature due to the ease of connection that their devices have always been able to provide. For that reason, technology can be useful to provide an outlet for a variety of difficulties catered to an individual, but in this society, many teenagers choose to abuse their technological devices in a way that will ultimately be detrimental to their journey to adulthood.

In conclusion, growth in technological advancement has a significant impact on the lifestyles and maturity of young individuals in current generations. The reality that technology has overtaken reality rather than improved everyday life is evident that people cannot ignore the same today. Technology tethers people in a way that limits their lives while dictating behavior practices and social lives. Cell phones are commonly used gadgets in the wake of growing technologies. The devices have created an imbalance between the actual experiences and technological developments. It is good to use technology to advance lives but overreliance on the same causes addiction and this affects the ordinary course of life making young individuals detach from reality impeding their independence and overall maturity into adulthood. 

Have you ever wondered how technology shapes the person that you’ll become in the future? Without a doubt, technology has a great impact on our everyday life. Nicholas Carr in his article ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid’ describes the Internet as an immeasurable powerful computing system: “It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and our TV”. We can see how technology is spreading in many different areas, such as our transportation. Today more and more vehicle manufacturers are making electric cars and not only that but also self-driving vehicles. Our TVs went from being TVs to smart TVs, not to mention our cell phones, years ago they were only cell phones, but now they are smartphones! It seems like technology makes everything smarter and humans are no exception, technology makes us smart humans. In this essay, I want to talk about how the Internet makes us smarter, more productive, and more successful.

In order to become smarter, one must do a lot of research, here’s where the Internet comes into play. Search engines are a very powerful tool used for research. There are many options out there such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing just to mention a few. Carole Carwallardr in her article ‘Google, Democracy, and the Truth about Internet Search’ refers to one of these search engines, she states: “Google is knowledge. It’s where you go to find things out”. Search engines are virtual libraries that we carry with us at all times, that’s why expanding our learning is easier than ever before, but we have to be very careful. In our quest to expand our knowledge, we can encounter false information, and we need to be able to distinguish the good from the bad. Martin Moore, director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power at King’s College, says that search results do influence people, adding: “These tools offer remarkable empowerment, but there’s a dark side to it. It enables people to do very cynically, damaging things”. The Internet makes us smarter in many different ways, we do research about the things that interest us the most almost every day. For example, we research about conflicts that are happening on the other side of the continent. We research new diseases, sports, politics, and weather, or we can even learn new skills. Now let’s talk about communication.

Technology has revolutionized the way we communicate completely and also the way we learn. Smartphones make it easier for us to spend more time studying due to the many helpful features that they offer to expand our learning process. There are hundreds of applications that will help us perform better. For example, dictionary.com is an app that will save us a lot of time and we can use our time more efficiently, or YouTube, where you can find videos of almost anything, music, comedies, movies, short films, and most importantly educational videos. Our smartphones give us the opportunity to communicate via text message with our classmates, which makes it more convenient. According to Jenna Wortham in ‘How I Learned to Love Snapchat’, texting has become the preferred mode of communication. Social media has taken a major step in the way we communicate as well, it is where people go and express themselves. Video calls will get you close to your family and friends, we can feel at home even when we are hundreds of miles away. Email is an excellent method to use to get in touch with professors or to share information with classmates.

It seems like the Internet has an endless list of positive things. Let’s talk about how the Internet makes us proactive. Using the Internet wisely helps us achieve more throughout our day. The Internet is good for the planet, yes it’s good for the planet. We all know that paper comes from the trees but with paperless bills, we help our planet and save money on postage and time from going to the post office. Today most employers post job openings online, which is convenient because we don’t have to go from place to place looking for a job. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of the Internet is online studies. Thanks to the Internet, now it is easier for everyone to continue with their academic studies. Online study gives you the opportunity to work without committing to being in the class at a specific time. Most of the work performed for your classes is done on your computer, and if you need to do some research, everything is just a click away. Online study is very convenient because you set your own schedule. You can take the classes in the comfort of your house while listening to your favorite music, and one of the coolest parts of all is that you can have food while taking your class. Without a doubt, the Internet has positively changed the way we communicate.

As technology evolves, so does our brain. All the tools that we have today transform us into new people. Our knowledge, wisdom, and alertness. Our doubts and concerns are solved with the effective use of the Internet. The Internet opens infinite doors to the world, it makes us smarter since we have access to information from all over the world. It makes us more efficient since we can do more on the Internet. The Internet brings us closer to each other thanks to the advantages that we have in communication. Last but not least, the Internet allows us to become new people thanks to online studies. You have the final word, it’s up to you to use our tools efficiently and create the new you.

Virtual reality is a computer simulation tool that is becoming used more and more prevalently in today’s society. Virtual reality was first released as a device used primarily for gaming and fun, but now virtual reality is being put into use for businesses and also schools. The definition of virtual reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors. Virtual reality allows users to be fully immersed in whatever the activity at hand. Ideas of virtual reality have dated back to the 1800s. The gear of today’s virtual reality owes a ton of gratitude to the decades of cheap and low-cost quality devices that were easily accessible and paved the way for them. There are many reasons why virtual reality units are being sold in today’s market. Virtual reality programs can benefit the health field, business field, entertainment field, and educational field. Prototypes for virtual reality units first started being built in the mid-1970s and they have been steadily improving since then.

Virtual reality is typically used for entertainment processes, but virtual reality units are beginning to be proposed for other purposes. Can virtual reality units be useful in business? Many believe so. There are many ways that virtual reality can be used in business. In business, virtual reality can be used to train employees, for retail operations, for construction, for data visualization, and to help manufacture. Virtual reality is useful in training because it allows trainees to be fully immersed in a 3d training program. Before virtual reality, this was never possible. Outside of entertainment, training is the next most important function of virtual reality. In 2017, Walmart partnered with Strivr (a virtual reality company) to prepare its staff for black Friday sales. Immersing the staff in lifelike crowds is a more than perfect way to prepare employees for the holiday sales. Virtual reality eliminated the need for them to stop normal business operations for training.

Virtual reality can also be very useful for construction. Virtual reality platforms may allow architects to walk around and physically see their designs before they have been built. With this ability, altercations can be made to the design before the project is physically built. New technology makes it very simple to turn paper plans into a 3d image, and then into virtual reality projects. Looking at designs through virtual reality can help a client better understand an architect’s work.

Another question that is commonly asked is if virtual reality can be used for educational purposes. The answer is yes. There is only so much that can be learned just from reading or writing about a subject. Using virtual reality in education has allowed students to be fully immersed in a learning experience. Specifically, history students would be able to witness history using virtual reality. It would be much easier to remember parts of history if you were there and watching it rather than if you were just reading and writing about it. Being able to visualize what you are learning in a 3d view allows students to better enjoy their learning time.

Virtual reality is a computer simulation tool that is becoming used more and more prevalently in today’s society. Virtual reality was first released as a device used primarily for gaming and fun, but now virtual reality is being put into use for businesses and also schools. Virtual reality allows users to be fully immersed in a 3d environment. Virtual reality is typically used for entertainment processes, but virtual reality units are beginning to be proposed for other purposes. In business, virtual reality can be used to train employees, for retail operations, for construction, for data visualization, and to help manufacture. Virtual reality can also be used to enhance learning opportunities. Virtual reality is an advancing technology that will continue to be used in our world as life goes on.

Works Cited

1. Maria Koufafi. “Uses of Virtual Reality in Education.” Criss, 17 Oct. 2018, www.crissh2020.eu/uses-of-virtual-reality-in-education/.
2. Mayes, Frank. “The Science of Virtual Reality.” The Franklin Institute, 26 Aug. 2017, www.fi.edu/virtual-reality/the-science-of-virtual-reality.  

In today’s times, people are becoming more and more heartless and self-absorbed. The question at hand is rather or not technology and the Internet are the problem. I would have to say yes! Empathy is, by definition, the experience of understanding another’s condition from their perspective. Commonly, empathy can be described as stepping into someone else’s shoes or seeing through their eyes. It is an ability to value and know what another individual may be experiencing or feeling. Psychologists call empathy a ‘prosocial’ behavior. It is essential in building close relationships and maintaining friendships. Sadly, many people lack the skill to emphasize due to childhood trauma, detachment from others, autism, brain damage, and as of late, social media or other reasoning. Artificial technology has caused us to become numb to pain and struggle because everyone wants to live their best life or go viral at any cost. When making choices, young people use a specific network in their temporal lobes (underneath the temples), while older (and more empathetic) people use the prefrontal rind – a region that preserver how our decisions affect others.

Noticing your first response and affliction to get some perspective on it is one strategy to push back technology’s encounter on our imagination’s aptitude to feeling compassion for others. Scientists have even pinpointed a specific area of the brain that controls this tendency toward offense of empathy and self-interest. When our brains turn off to dissociate from displeasing events, we lose a part of what determines our humanity. Technology is advancing to the point that we ourselves are becoming cyborgs emotionally. Women don’t even cry over relationships like they used to before technology and social media were so advanced. Technology has advanced to the point that we have everything at our fingertips and from experience people become accustomed to things they see and experience often and being ‘heartless’ seems to be the trend. Before social media and technology, we felt more passionate about things because our emotions were raw and real. Through the decade as we are constantly bombarded with images of war and death we grow desensitized to the natural feelings we should feel.

Most of us live through some form of artificial intelligence such as laptops, phones, etc. In the prelude finding, Kirsch said there seems to be a strong correlation between gun violence and invoking the Second Amendment tongue of liberty and idol excite gun commerce over social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Over the decade, social media has created an illusion and a platform for a facade of perfect vigor. Many endeavor to reanimate the lives of those they see on social media platforms at any cost. People admire so much the millions of social media accounts full of avocados, tranquil landscapes, and professional-looking photos of people lounging at five-star hotels that they will give anything, including their morals, to achieve it. I have personally seen a fight break out and the first thing people did was grab their cell phones and start recording and posting the situation instead of trying to help calm the fight. People are obtaining thousands of online worshipers as they sell them beauty and lifestyles, the whole time losing sight of what is truly important.

In conclusion, the Internet is affecting the way we perceive things and feel empathy, and we can see this in the number of deaths published via social media every single day. We need to put down our phones and actually live in the moment, not through the lens of the moment. The Internet is a dangerous place and we need to stay mindful of that and be mindful of what we post. Technology will always be an important aspect of our society, but I think we should rely less on technology and depend more on each other. Manpower has always outlasted machines, and this has been proven throughout time. We cannot stop what is posted to social media, or what is posted to the Internet in general, but we can decide how much we expose ourselves to as well as how we react in situations where we should be feeling empathy and sympathy. We can rewire our brains and relearn things because that’s the difference between humans and artificial intelligence. Although technology will continue to grow and advance, we will continue to produce it, and this is what makes us superior, but also inferior at the same time, our constant need to upgrade and improve.

Rationale

Land based telescopes are better than Space telescopes mostly due to their physical size. Large land based telescopes gather a vast amount of light with their large mirrors and they can be used to survey substantial portions of the night sky. Whereas space telescopes are smaller in size and work with large land-based observatories to look at smaller regions of the night sky in plenty of detail.

Justified scientific arguments using Evidence

Land Based telescopes catch light waves and the larger a telescope is ‘the more light it can catch and the better the sharpness of the image becomes’ (Kudritzki in Osterath, 2015). Hence large land based telescopes enable astronomers to detect fainter objects such as stars and galaxies deeper into the universe and therefore further back into time or the past – because light takes a very long time to reach us on earth from objects far away (Kudritzki in Osterath, 2015).

Examples of the some large land based telescopes include – the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GranTeCan) in the Canary Islands; the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas; Keck 1 and 2 in Hawaii; The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona; and the Gemini Observatory Telescopes in Chile. Each of these telescopes are very large and range in diameter from 8.0 m to 10.4 m. There are three other large land based telescopes which are under construction and include the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) in Chile; the Thirty meter telescope in Hawaii and the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT); and each of their diameters range from 24m to 39 meters and are due to start and finish construction over the next seven years. (Das, 2020)

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a very large land based telescope equipped with costly and enormous mirrors and optics and it will be able to provide images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space telescope. The GMT will be completed in 2023 and it will give astronomers and researchers the ability to look back further in time more so than ever before (Das, 2020). The adaptive optic systems will produce a single clean image- that will be atmospherically corrected with a very clear resolution of between 6-10 million-arc-seconds and hence the science/physics ‘we are going to learn will be incredible’ (Seigel, 2017). The GMT will lose its claim of being the world’s largest observatory to the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) with a 978 square metre collection area finishes construction in 2024 (Tarantola, 2017).

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a very large telescope with diameter of 30 m and proposed for Mauna Kea in Hawaii and would provide a very large primary mirror to increase resolution and light gathering power simultaneously for Astronomers to observe the universe . The majority of astronomers recognize the Mauna Kea site as a technically superior site for a large telescope due to the high altitude, however in doing so would ignore the objections of many native Hawaiian citizens and hence the TMT has yet to start construction in Hawaii. Some astrophysicists believe the TMT should be built quickly in another location such as Spain, so they can continue exploring and understanding space through using a large telescope in the future such as TMT (Seigel, 2019).

Space Telescopes

Space telescopes such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope along with large, land-based observatories work together to capture small regions of the sky in great detail. For example NASA’s Observatories have worked together to create a 3D representation of the dynamic Crab Nebula which is the tattered remains of an exploded star (‘NASA’s Great Observatories Help Astronomers Build a 3D Visualization of Exploded Star,’). Hubble’s Space telescope is in a rare position above Earth’s atmosphere and provides exceptional clarity through images as the telescope orbits around Earth. Hence if both astronomers used both space and land-based telescopes and worked together they may be able find complete view of objects in the universe such as the remains of an exploded star (Era: Space Telescopes; Discoveries: Why a Space Telescope).

There are four NASA space telescope concepts which are competing with another to possibly be built and fly in the 2030s. However there are significant costs involved to construct each of the space telescopes, hence there have been no further progress with the following Space Telescopes -The Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR); The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx); The Lynx Xray Observatory and the Origins Space Telescope (Clery, 2018)

Space telescopes have many disadvantages including being much more expensive to build and launch than land-based observatories/telescopes. Space telescopes must be launched into space, hence they are much smaller than their counterparts in land-based observatories/telescopes. Space telescopes are much smaller than Land based telescopes and therefore they can only look at smaller regions of the night sky in detail when compared with large land based telescopes. And finally, space telescopes generally remain in orbit in the universe, hence making repairs or overhauling the space telescopes can be either extremely difficult or not impossible at all, and when they eventually break down, they’re lost in space forever (Era: Space Telescopes).

Some limitations of the evidence include that there appears to be two main groups of astronomers who support either land based telescopes or space telescopes, yet they appear to have been able to explore more of the universe through collaborating together using both telescopes. Another limitation of the evidence may be that the research and development of all telescopes (especially Space telescopes) is dependent on large amounts of money. Finally, the telescops appear to be the interests of large scientific companies and they are not necessarily designed for further exploration of the universe rather they are promoting a product or a brand of specific optics or mirrors inside a telescope. There was also no evidence/ research to investigate whether large telescopes could be permanently placed on a planet such as Mars for further exploration of our universe.

Conclusion

Large land based telescopes are better than their smaller counter parts/ space telescopes because land based telescopes are able to detect fainter objects such as stars and galaxies deeper into the universe and therefore further back into time. There are many examples of land based telescopes, including – the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GranTeCan) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). Land based telescopes such as the GMT- will create a single clean image- that’s atmospherically corrected with resolution of between 6-10 million-arc-seconds and hence ‘the science we’re going to learn will be incredible’ (Seigel, 2017).

Space telescopes have a number of disadvantages, including being much smaller and expensive to build and launch than land-based observatories/telescopes. And Space telescopes generally remain in orbit, hence repairs or overhauling them can be either difficult or impossible and when they eventually break down, they will be lost in space forever (Era: Space Telescopes).

An Evaluation the claim

Hence large land based telescopes provide more cost-effective solution to survey large portions of the sky. Furthermore, large land based telescopes are able to observe fainter objects and deeper into the universe. Whereas Space telescopes have many disadvantages, including being smaller, very expensive, and they may have difficulties being repaired and may be lost in space forever. The only obvious advantage of both Land based and Space telescopes is that astronomers can get a more complete view of stars or galaxies through collaboratively sharing their images together (Era: Space Telescopes; Discoveries: Why a Space Telescope).

Suggestions for improvements and extension to the investigation

References

1. Clery, D. (2018, December 13). NASA is Planning Four of the Largest Space Telescopes Ever. But Which One Will Fly? Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/nasa-planning-four-largest-space-telescopes-ever-which-one-will-fly
2. Das, B. (2020, January 2). 12 Largest Telescopes in the world | 2020 edition. RankRed. https://www.rankred.com/largest-telescopes-in-the-world/
3. Discoveries – Why a Space Telescope? (2019, September 26). https://www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-why-a-space-telescope
4. Era: Space Telescopes. (n.d.). Amazing Space. https://history.amazingspace.org/resources/explorations/landup/lesson/eras/space/page2.php
5. NASA’s Great Observatories Help Astronomers Build a 3D Visualization of Exploded Star. (n.d.). HubbleSite.org. https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2020/news-2020-03
6. Osterath, B. (2015, October 23). Science with telescopes, size does matter. https://www.dw.com/en/with-telescopes-size-does-matter/a-18784812
7. Siegel, E. (2017, January 25). World’s largest telescope will revolutionize the future of Astronomy. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/01/25/worlds-largest-telescope-will-revolutionize-the-future-of-astronomy/#40ff0d5516b4
8. Siegel, E. (2019, August 9). Astronomy Faces A Field-Defining Choice In Choosing The Next Steps For The TMT. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/08/09/astronomy-faces-a-field-defining-choice-in-the-next-steps-for-the-tmt/#60fe56b44ffd
9. Tarantola, A. (2017, November 3). The world’s largest telescope will unlock the Universe’s oldest secrets. Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/03/GMT-worlds-largest-telescope/

Mario Kafouros and Nicolas Forsans examine in their research paper ‘The role of open innovation in emerging economies: Do companies profit from the scientific knowledge of others? The paper details the impact of external scientific knowledge on company profitability and more generally the role of open innovation in emerging economies, often where often technology less advanced in comparison to developed economies. Chesbrough describes open innovation as “a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market as the firms look to advance their technology”. Previous research in this field has, in fact, suggested that open innovation demonstrates that external scientific knowledge can be more beneficial than internal knowledge in certain cases.

More specifically, Kafouros and Forsans contribute to the understanding of how the varied strategic decisions of a firm to acquire external scientific knowledge affects financial performance as well as the firm’s own in-house R&D capabilities. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the use of external knowledge and technology affects performance in considerably different fashions depending on whether the knowledge source is foreign or domestic. Kafouros and Forsans reported that domestic knowledge sources provide negligible results for financial performances and adversely impacts in-house R&D, whereas foreign sources provide greater performance results and help firms to achieve their innovation potential.

Open innovation is a relatively new approach inherently presenting a challenge to previous, traditional approaches to innovation management and is considered by many in the field to be a trending and important topic. Open innovation research as a whole and more specifically Kafouros and Forans’ paper have several important implications for the world of international business. The research has extremely beneficial potential for practical use in firms, especially in the technology industry where innovation is key to staying ahead of the competition and becoming a key player in the market. In addition to this, innovation is considered to be a vital source of competitive advantage in an ever-increasing competitive environment. Most notably, this research is a contemporaneous issue for firms operating in emerging economies, where open innovation could be a breakthrough concept to bridge the divide in technological innovation between developed and emerging economies .

There has been a wealth of research conducted into the topic of open innovation since its conceptualisation by Chesbrough. It has attracted great attention from academics and is considered important in the context of industry due to the way it has reshaped innovation management thinking. The paradigm has been defined in literature as “the purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate the internal innovation and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively” (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke & West, 2006). Open innovation underlines the importance of using external pools of information for firms to improve their innovative and inventive capabilities and processes. Moreover, it highlights that internal innovations can also be brought to market and exploited through external channels in order to increase the market value of the firm.

Chesbrough notes that firms have traditionally employed a closed innovation strategy which prioritises the use of internal capabilities and resources to enhance the management of their in-house R&D activities. However, with his conceptualisation of open innovation, he believes that external sources of knowledge and technology are becoming increasingly valuable, and that closed innovation is no longer a sustainable approach for firms to maintain and improve their competitiveness and profitability. Furthermore, the open innovation approach endorses the development of internal capabilities to be able to profit from external sources of knowledge and technology. However, Hossain et al. argue that despite the popularity of the open innovation research there is still a large need for further research to be conducted before it can replace the closed innovation approach.

The open innovation model has been employed in numerous different industries, the majority of which being high tech industries such as the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Chesbrough underlines that external sources of knowledge are becoming increasingly valuable for firms, especially for those which operate in high-tech industries. Regarding various economic advantages achieved through open innovation, there has been significant evidence found in support of the paradigm. For example, Procter and Gamble increased their product success rate by 50% as well as R&D efficiency by 60% as a result of their employment of the open innovation paradigm. Although the vast majority of studies focus on the role of open innovation in large firms which operate in high tech industries, there are still some case studies which examine open innovation in small-to-medium sized enterprises. Most studies conducted on open innovation in SMEs tend to use secondary data sources and very few employ primary data. Van de Vrande et al. noted that Dutch SMEs employ open innovation heavily and the adoption of the paradigm has increased incrementally since its first use. Furthermore, a small number of studies have analysed the role of open innovation on SMEs using primary data sources. Therefore, through the collection and use of primary data sources when analysing open innovation in SMEs more information which specifically applies to these firms can be gathered. Thus, more accurate and reliable results can be obtained which in turn would provide a more stable platform for further research to be conducted.

Through the acquisition of intellectual property from other organisations Chesbrough highlights that a firm can increase and consolidate their internal innovative and inventive capacities. On the other hand, licencing core competencies to other organisations can provide bilateral benefits. For example, the licensee may use the core competencies and prove its worth and the licensor may receive a fee in return as well as learn from the external use of its ‘product’. In addition to this, Spithoven et al. highlight the importance of absorptive capacity, which is the ability to recognise the value of new information and assimilate it to generate commercial value. They note that appropriate absorptive capacity is essential for open innovation to take place effectively.

However, Chesbrough’s open innovation concept has received both criticism and praise by some scholars in this field. Trott and Hartman and Hossain et al. argue that open innovation is not a new concept and that Chesbrough has instead created a false dichotomy in his argument that open innovation is the only alternative to the closed innovation approach. Moreover, Houssain et al. highlight the serious concern that has been raised over the lack of empirical evidence pertaining to the benefits of open innovation. In addition to this, Elmquist et al. examine the tendency by scholars to give open innovation a broad definition as well as critical views of the paradigm. The article identifies that quite often the innovation process doesn’t take place uniquely within the firm, rather it is spread across numerous external actors. Moreover, Lichtenthaler provided a comprehensive review of the available definition, noting that there is a clear need for a better understanding of the characteristics of open innovation and most importantly there is a need for an improved theoretical foundation. Moreover, Lameras et al. underline that the notion of open innovation is often conflated with open source innovation and therefore there is perhaps a lack of clear understanding of the definition of open innovation.

The research paper conducted by Kafouros and Forsans highlights that being open to external knowledge sources brings with it both positive and negative consequences for the firm’s performance and in-house R&D. With this in mind, the paper serves to examine previously untested theories on open innovation and also add to existing frameworks by demonstrating that the impacts of external knowledge vary significantly depending on the source. Therefore, this paper contributes to the understanding of the different factors which form the ability of firms to profit from the use of open innovation. In addition to this, the research findings establish a platform upon which further research can be conducted into the available and now tested theoretical propositions.

Furthermore, the study found that foreign technologies and knowledge sources improve a firm’s financial performance, whereas, domestic sources of knowledge provide insignificant results. The implications of this subject for International Business research are important because it suggests that is not sufficient to simply encourage the use of external knowledge sources without considering the strategic decisions employed by the firm to open its boundaries to this knowledge. Moreover, from the management perspective it is important to consider the balance between foreign and domestic knowledge sources as it may impact firm performance and profitability considerably.

The exemplified indirect effects of external knowledge also have important implications for open innovation research and International Business research as a whole. The paper found that whilst the direct effects of openness are insignificant, the indirect impacts (which are the exploration benefits of using external knowledge) are both economically and statistically significant. Thus, previous research which has focused exclusively on direct effects may not offer a complete account of the implications of openness and further research must be done to analyse the indirect effects.

Additionally, the findings of this paper challenge the view that emerging economies such as India, will remain the global manufacturing workshop for developed economies. In fact, the paper suggests that firms from emerging economies are able to embrace technological possibilities successfully and further improve the impacts of their own research and in turn their competitiveness. Moreover, Chesbrough and Crowther recognise the necessity of external knowledge and technology acquisition for firms to be able to defend their core business and survive in an increasingly competitive, global environment.

Regarding emerging economies, very few studies and articles have researched the role of open innovation on firms which operate in these countries. Scholars of open innovation tend to be located in the USA and Europe and represent a lack of geographical scope, not only in terms of their location but also the focus of open innovation. Therefore, by focusing research on India, an emerging economy, Kafouros and Forsans are increasing the geographical scope of existing research and have deepened the pool of knowledge available. From a management perspective research into open innovation is crucial as often firms do not have the capabilities and resources to do everything in-house and are required to look externally for knowledge and technology in order to survive and thrive.

On the other hand, there are also several limitations and weaknesses in this research paper. In particular, with regards to the sample chosen and the focus of the research. Firstly, the sample used consists only of firms operating in the chemical industry in India, which is subject to strict intellectual property laws. Thus, the results obtained from the research are specific only to the Indian chemical industry in which knowledge can be very protected. Therefore, this could lead to inaccuracies in the results if they were to be applied to all firms operating in all industries in the country as the importance and need for intellectual property laws differ from industry to industry. In addition to this, the chemical industry is highly technology dependent and therefore open innovation may have a more significant role to play in the industry in comparison to other lower technology dependant industries. As a result, the findings of the paper may not be generalisable to other industries within India. Furthermore, the results may also be uniquely specific to India and not to all emerging economies. For example, another emerging economy may yield significantly different results compared to the results from the Indian chemical industry. Consequently, it is unlikely that the findings of this research paper can be applied to all emerging economies and further research will have to be conducted to confirm the findings. Similarly, these findings may only relate to emerging economies and a similar analysis must be done in developed economies as there a possibility that the analysis may, again, yield different results.

Furthermore, the paper examines a theoretical proposition which has previously been untested and therefore the results pertaining to the theory have limited use at present without further testing being conducted. Another limitation of the study is the focus on the effects of inbound innovation and the neglect of outbound activities. Enkel et al. believe that inbound and outbound innovation activities are “coupled processes” and therefore should be given equal importance and focus when examining open innovation in order to gain more accurate results and a deeper understanding of the role open innovation. Furthermore, in Schroll and Mild’s analysis of 30 articles pertaining to open innovation, there was limited analysis made on outbound innovation whilst the majority focused on inbound. Therefore, as Kafouros and Forsans omit analysis of outbound activities from their study the results may not yield a complete account and thus, the accuracy and reliability of results may be called into question.

To improve this study the sample in question should be extended to include analysis of the role of open innovation in firm performance and profitability at various levels; the firm level, the industry level and national level. In doing so, one would hope to gain a deeper pool of knowledge pertaining to open innovation and improve the reliability and accuracy of the finidngs. Specifically, Kafouros and Forsans have chosen quite a restrictive sample which only includes firms operating in the Indian chemical industry, which is subject to very strict intellectual property laws.

Therefore, in order to counter the lack of generalisable results, the study should include firms operating in different industries within India which perhaps are equally subject to strict intellectual property laws in order to gather more accurate and reliable results. Most early research has focused on high tech industries, such as Kafouros and Forsans’ paper which only examines firms in the chemistry industry. However, Chesbrough and Crowther assert that the open innovation paradigm can be used in other industries as well. Therefore, further research should be done to ascertain the role of open innovation from a multi-industry standpoint and should not be limited to high tech industries. Moreover, as intellectual property laws in other emerging economies may be more or less protectionist than in India a further analysis should be conducted into the chemical industries of other emerging economies, such as Brazil and China. Consequently, this would address the limitation of the study which highlights that focusing solely on India would not provide accurate and generalisable results for all emerging economies. Furthermore, the findings of this paper, if they can be transferred to all emerging economies, may not be relatable to developed economies such as the United Kingdom or the United States of America. Thus, a similar analysis should be conducted into firms operating in similar industries in these economies to increase the knowledge and findings of open innovation’s role in effecting performance and profitability.

Finally, the research paper neglects to examine the role of outbound open innovation activities and as such by not analysing both inbound and outbound activities the paper does not offer a complete account of the implications of open innovation on firm profitability and performance. Thus, further research should be conducted into the “coupled processes” of inbound and outbound activities in order to provide a more holistic view of open innovation’s impact on firm profitability and performance. Moreover, in order to extend current theorising about the implications of open innovation on firm performance, further research should incorporate different forms of knowledge acquired from university sources into a consolidated conceptual and empirical framework. Perkmann and Walsh provided insight into the use of the open innovation paradigm within an industry-university context but, as Kafouros and Forsans note, the role of knowledge gathered by public and private institutions may enable further development of the paradigm.

In conclusion, open innovation quickly became a hot topic among researchers and firm level management alike and after a review of literature on this topic found that open innovation research has had a tremendous impact on research and practice since its conception. Hossain et al. highlight that open innovation is gaining a foothold on the global stage and, despite a pool of research having been conducted already, there are plenty of avenues open for future research. Therefore, whilst there are numerous limitations to the study conducted by Kafouros and Forsans, such as the lack of generalisable results and perhaps accurate results, it does provide a platform for further research to be conducted into each of these different areas in order to further the understanding and knowledge of open innovation. Despite the limitations, the paper contributes greatly to existing research and confirms previously suggested hypotheses which represent an important development in the field. Furthermore, the paper also challenges previous thinking that emerging economies will remain the manufacturing house of the world and suggests that with the successful employment of open innovation firms can survive and thrive in a hyper-competitive global market. Overall, the paper contributes to the existing pool of research, extends and challenges previous thinking in the International Business field and has opened a plethora of avenues for further research.

Science Fiction: A Commentary On Our Society?

“Our species can only survive if we have obstacles to overcome. You take away all obstacles. Without them to strengthen us, we will weaken and die.”

The above quote comes from Captain James T. Kirk, in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series called ‘Metamorphosis’. The episode revolves around a man out of time, trapped on a distant planet for over eighty years, away from the rest of society as it grows around him. Whilst there are other aspects that the narrative focuses on instead, this idea of a man who has had society change around him without any idea is a perfect analogy for the science fiction genre as a whole.

Sci-fi as a narrative allows us to explore worlds we will never get to see in our lifetimes, races not fathomable to the human mind and technology that our distant descendant might not even be lucky enough to discover. But despite all this, it is quite ironic that the sci-fi genre is almost used so frequently to address modern societal issues and influence our way of thinking about the modern world. It’s undeniable that science fiction has always reflected society at its time of writing. In 1933, H. G. Wells’ ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ reflected people’s worries of global conflict in the wake of World War One and predicted the development of nuclear weapons for warfare, which would come to pass in the following decade. This anxiety would bleed into the genre again in the Eighties and onwards: fear of nuclear war between the United States was a clear influence of the apocalyptic futures seen in sci-fi horrors such as The Terminator, Aliens and later with the opening of 28 Days Later, showing an eerily quiet London devoid of all life.

It is commonplace – and almost cliché – nowadays for the future represented in science fiction to be dark, a world ravaged by some form of unstoppable threat: catastrophic climate change, extraterrestrial horrors, technology turning on us, escalated political conflicts, the list goes on. asked what “grim future” he feared the most, sci-fi writer William Gibson bluntly stated that “I don’t think of those as very distinct states. It’s certainly possible to have all three at once.” Science Fiction isn’t the fear of what could happen in the face of a grim catastrophe should one arrive. It is the pessimism that any of them to occur.

The show Black Mirror is a modern example of this: a common conception of the show is that it portrays technology as bad and the inevitable downfall of society; what many people forget to consider is that many of the narratives showing someone’s downfall are human issues. An example is the opening episode ‘The National Anthem’ where the Prime Minister is forced by terrorists to fornicate with a pig to free a kidnapped member of royalty. The idea is that television is bad as everyone was too invested in what was happening to notice the princess had been freed in the centre of London. However, the idea is quite the opposite: that people’s morbid curiosity is what make them ignore what was happening in front of them. Having this scene be in one of the most populated areas of the UK exemplifies this – an empty London, just like in 28 Days Later: the modern apocalypse.

A Good Vs Evil Narrative?

When talking about the Science Fiction genre, there are one film franchise that immediately jumps out to many, and that is Star Wars; the idea of two ancient forces, the Jedi and the Sith, the Light Side and the Dark, good versus evil locked in an eternal conflict. The idea of this form of narrative has lasted for generations and will for generations more. But it is not Science Fiction, it is Science Fantasy, more akin to an Arthurian tale of old. The argument as to whether it is one or the other has waged since A New Hope was released back in 1977, but the truth is that in science fiction stories, morality is not always as clear cut as good and bad.

Take The Expanse for example, a sci-fi series of novel by James S. A. Corey, recently adapted into a Syfy and Amazon Prime TV series. Despite being set hundreds of years in the future, it still builds itself on modern-day human issues. Humanity may have colonized far-off moons and planets, but Earth is overcrowded and stuck in an economic crisis, Mars has almost become a totalitarian society, and those living in the Asteroid belts are worn down by criminal activity. Whilst there are characters that could be considered ‘villains’ in the show, the main conflict is whether the Earth-based government of the United Nations and the Mars-based MCRN will go to war. Neither side are right or wrong in the conflict and both know they will suffer greatly if a conflict occurs, but various territorial and human rights issues may make it an inevitability.

This type of conflict is an example of Murphy’s Law, an idea coined by Edward A. Murphy Jr. in 1947, stating that “anything that can go wrong, will – at the worst possible moment”. In the original context, this was regarding a mechanical issue that went horribly wrong involving Murphy, but the idea can be applied to the messages that science fiction tries to put across. Despite all our efforts, something will be the cause of our downfall as a society, be it an outside force or one influenced by our own efforts. Going back to The Expanse, this is what may cause the inevitable war – the cost of humanity thriving throughout the solar system is more issues they were unprepared to handle. To them, conflict is inevitable and it will happen at the worst moment, wiping both sides away in mutually assured destruction.

This to me is the crux of a good science fiction story: humanity creates their own means for destruction, they are their own worst villain. Look at The Terminator – humanity spends years and countless resources creating Skynet as a way to progress the human race, only for them to inadvertently create the very thing that wipes them out, their Judgement Day to quote the film. Science fiction always shows humanity as a balancing act. If we progress too much and get too greedy, it can all crumble away from us twice as quickly.