This week's TWC session had no seminar, but rather, it was a time where the groups presented their websites. The websites' topics can be based on anything, as long as it is related to technology. The topics were 1. Designer Babies 2. Nanotechnology(my group!) 3. Space Tourism 4. Plastic Vortex. This session is very different form the other sessions as the entire time is dedicated to the presentations and the discussions are from us, the students.
i found the designer babies very interesting, both in the aspect of presentation, as well as the topic. First, i am impress with the presentation style, especially in the introduction. The group introduced the topic by describing a scenario of a thirty odd year old wife who wants to have a baby, but is unable to have one despite trying very hard by natural means. Having designer babies will allow the wife to be able to have a child, as well as reduce the possible complications that a older lady might face. I felt that having such a introduction caught the attention of many of the students, and is able to relate and understand the issues of the topic.
Moving on to the topic itself, i feel that there is a certain amount of controversy. Basic human rights and moral issues are pretty much in the center of conflict. If a couple is perfectly healthy, is it right for them to have a designer baby for the reasons that they want to choose the gender of the child and his or her strengths and features? If designer babies become a common practice in the future, which i foresee, everyone will be of high IQ, good looks and almost no weaknesses. is that a good thing? what if every son looks like brad pit? on this issues, personally i feel that having designer babies to prevent diseases, deformities or problems along these lines are the right thing to do. It will prevent suffering and pain of children or loved ones. However, for esthetic or gender preference wise, i feel that this then becomes subjective. No one can really stop a couple from having a designer baby, but i feel that it is wrong to do so. Like many other technologies, only time will tell the developments of this amazing technology and how societies apply it.
The other presentation that caught my attention was plastic vortex. First, the topic presented is new to me. I did not know before the presentation about plastic vortex, or the amount of waste there is in the oceans. The group did a generally good presentation, covering the issues and possible solutions of curbing this problem. I was impressed with the solutions that the group came up with. This allows any readers that come across the website to be able to be "part of the effort". Those interested can also look up the 2 organizations whose aim is to clean up the mass thrash in the ocean, that is polluting and destroying the sea and the creatures in it. Among the solutions, Prof did offer to amend their solutions and i thought it was very helpful. The group's mentality was to stop further pollution of the sea by cutting down on plastic materials, but not to do anything about the plastic vortex. However, what prof mentioned was to put that as a mid-term goal and pen down a long-term goal to clean up the plastic vortex. This will require a lot of time, effort and expenditure by countries. Hopefully, countries will join hands to do so.
i had an enjoyable time in this TWC session and am looking forward to next week's batch of presentations! (:
jem
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