Question types

Humans v.s technology

1. Should humans be hired when robots can do the job better?

2. ‘If a job can be replaced by machines, it probably should.’

Effects of technology
1. Is technology limiting creativity?

2. How effective is technology in making us healthier?

3. Should we worry that social media has become young people’s window to the world?

4. Are machines making humans obsolete?

5. ‘Artificial intelligence enhances our lives.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?

6. Technology caused men to be the worst enemy of nature. Discuss.

7. How far do you agree that technology gives us greater control in life?

8. Consider the view that advancements in artificial intelligence will result in more divides.

9. To what extent have technological developments enhanced learning in today’s world?

10. Has technology made modern society a more dangerous place?

11. Technology makes the world a less lonely place. Do you agree?

12. Consider the view that new technologies create more problems than benefits for society.

13. Technology does more harm than good. Discuss.

14. How far can technology help to preserve heritage today?

15. Is it true that the digital age leaves no one behind?

16. To what extent is technology making our lives miserable?

Others
1. ‘Artificial intelligence should be embraced, since it is inevitable.’ Discuss.
 2. Evaluate the claim that the regulation of technology is a desirable, but unrealistic goal.

3. Children should not be given phones. Discuss.

4. We have placed too much faith in science and technology to solve global problems. How
far do you agree?

5. Can space travel be justified when there are such pressing issues in the world today?

Artificial intelligence
1. Dangers to humanity
- Research fellow Stuart Armstrong from the Future of Life Institute has spoken of AI as
an “extinction risk” were it to go rogue. Its destruction scale is even larger than the scale
of a nuclear war - nuclear war only kills a relatively small proportion of the planet while
AI could wipe out 95% of the human population IF computers can effectively re-program
and improve itself, AKA intelligence explosion
- AI’s impact could be cataclysmic unless its rapid development is strictly and
ethically controlledAI’s impact could be cataclysmic unless its rapid development
is strictly and ethically controlled

2. Replacing humans in the job market

- According to a 2019 Brookings Institution study, 36 million people work in jobs with
“high exposure” to automation - at least 70 percent of their tasks (ranging from retail
sales and market analysis to hospitality and warehouse labor) will be done using AI and it
is the white collar jobs may actually be most at risk

3. DeepFake disrupting social security

a. Digital security
- Malicious use of AI could threaten digital security
- circulate tendentious opinions and false data that could poison public debates and
even manipulate the opinions of millions of people, to the point of endangering
the very institutions that guarantee peaceful civil coexistence
- e.g. through criminals training machines to hack or socially engineer victims at human or
superhuman levels of performance

b. Physical security
- In 2015, 30,000 AI/robotics researchers and others who signed an open letter about the
prospects of autonomous weapons - autonomous weapons have been described as the
third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms
-
c. Political security
physical security (e.g. non-state actors weaponizing consumer drones)

political security (e.g. through privacy-eliminating surveillance, profiling, and repression, or

through automated and targeted disinformation campaigns)
In addition to its more existential threat, Ford is focused on the way AI will adversely affect
privacy and security

China’s “Orwellian” use of facial recognition technology in offices, schools and other venues.

4. Widening social divide

Widening socioeconomic inequality sparked by AI-driven job loss is another cause for concern.
Along with education, work has long been a driver of social mobility. However, when it’s a
certain kind of work — the predictable, repetitive kind that’s prone to AI takeover — research
has shown that those who find themselves out in the cold are much less apt to get or seek
retraining compared to those in higher-level positions who have more money.

● Info about consumers readily available on social media platforms: allow their needs to be
better targeted
● recent developments in Internet of Things and Big Data analytics enabled social media
networks to analyze user’s online behaviors => find products that better suit their needs
● ALSO enhances business operations and promotes advertising efficiency

Self-Driving Autonomous vehicles

● Ethical dilemmas: decision-making in potentially dangerous situations (e.g when an
accident is unavoidable, should the vehicle prioritize the safety of its occupants vs
pedestrians or other vehicles?) there are no standardized guidelines for autonomous
vehicles yet
● Disruption of the logistics & transportation industries
● Vast amount of data needs to be collected, including location information, driving
patterns & personal preferences of passengers etc. It is a challenge to store and use this
information to safeguard against misuse
● Liability & legal frameworks: how to determine liability in the event of accidents

5G deployment
● Wireless networks promises faster speeds, lower latency and enhanced connectivity
● Potential health risks associated with increased exposure to electromagnetic radiation &
concerns about national security in relation to the involvement of certain technology
providers
Bio Tech
● CRISPR gene-editing technology
○ Revolutionized the field of genetic engineering
○ Modification of genes with unprecedented precision
○ Potential to treat genetic diseases and improve agricultural practices
○ Applications: biomedical research (help scientists understand cancer,
neurodegenerative diseases etc.), agriculture, conservation of species, human
therapeutics (cure diseases like sickle cell anemia etc.)

AGAINST
1. In the worst-case scenario, women carrying cloned fetuses could suffer miscarriages or
give birth to severely malformed babies (although the experiment on Dolly, an ordinary
sheep, proved otherwise)

2. Cloning would undermine our fundamental concept of humanness / demeaning to

human nature
- What would become of individuality in a world where another person could be copied not
once but an infinite number of times?
- What would happen to the fundamental assumption that children - human beings - are
created by the union of a man and a woman, by two parents?

3. Directing the future development of species - humanity will not have the wisdom to
manage the power that comes with gaining total control over its own destiny

4. Unnecessary for ‘scientific research / procedures’

- there are other ways to obtain the knowledge needed to fight cancer and other diseases
- cloning would not be needed to create bone marrow for transplantation because it is
already possible to take a sample of existing marrow and “grow these cells in a dish”
until there is enough

FOR
1. Provide invaluable insight into how cells work, opening the door to treating cancer and
other diseases

2. Directing the future development of species - eliminating negative / undesirable traits

3. Should not be morally wrong - producing a clone of a human being would not amount to
creating a 'carbon copy' - a donor and a clone would have different personalities, even
though their physical appearance was the same

4. Real world applications:

- duplicating embryos for in vitro fertilization
- replacing a dying child with an identical baby
In the 1960s, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg argued publicly in favor of
replicating humans. Among other things, he said, cloning would allow humanity to better direct
the development of the species.

Big data
1. Technology leverages on large amount of information available to make better decisions,
enhancing our physical well-being through improved healthcare and safety
- Medical professionals expand the use of AI capabilities in cancer detection - diagnosing
colorectal cancer by analyzing tissue scans better than pathologists
- Computer vision - autonomous vehicle - guarantees safer mode of transport, saving
millions of people from car accidents death worldwide

2. Personal data collected helps develop technologies that increase convenience and
material SOL
- TikTok proprietary technology that has led to their huge success also collects data on user
interactions, video information, and account settings to a recommend a highly
personalized “For You Page”, amicably known as FYP

3. Digital footprints - the efforts spent to collect, attain, store and analyse our personal
information represents an invasion of privacy
- Why is privacy so important: grants individuals the ability to make their own decisions
- Our actions, preferences etc. are all being tracked - limit freedoms and attacks on self
dignity

Fintech

Cloud technology
cloud to really change the business: taking costs down, improving time to market, and better
serving customers

Environmental tech
Agrotechnology
Agro-technology include aerial imagery, gene editing, synthetic biology, green chemistry,
vertical farming and greenhouses, drones, GPS technology, smart sensors etc
Advances in machinery have expanded the scale, speed, and productivity of farm equipment,
leading to more efficient cultivation of more land. Seed, irrigation, and fertilizers also have
vastly improved, helping farmers increase yields. Artificial intelligence, analytics, connected
sensors, and other emerging technologies could further increase yields, improve the efficiency of
water and other inputs, and build sustainability and resilience across crop cultivation and animal
husbandry.

- Agriculture accounts for almost 20% of the country’s GDP

- Vietnam: There are some local startup firms in agtech that have been applying some
elements of agriculture 4.0 that are intelligent applications and devices
- E.g MimosaTEK, one of the most successful startup agtech companies, has
provided IoT-based management services to build an information platform to
improve the livelihoods of farmers by transforming experience-based farming
activities into information-driven activities

Future expansion & developments with technology:

- Food demand is on the rise yet supply side faces constraints in land and farming inputs

- There is a lack of solid connectivity infrastructure → could tack on $500

billion in additional value to the global gross domestic product by 2030 (7-9%
improvement from its expected total and would alleviate much of the present
pressure on farmers)
- The COVID-19 crisis has further intensified other challenges agriculture faces

Technology for environment

1. Carbon upcycling technology (CUT)
- Cement is an essential component of concrete, but producing it creates a lot of CO2.
Cement production accounts for 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. CO2 binds with fly
ash to create a nanoparticle with more reactive surface area which combines concrete
together and strengthens it with less cement. Less cement => less emission
2. Technology reduces environmental damage, it can also reverse environmental damage
through means like solar geoengineering, which releases particles into the atmosphere
that reflects sunlight, cooling the planet.

- The invention of modern transportation such as aeroplanes have allowed import and
exports to move around quicker, improving the global economy. Communications
technology also allows business to be conducted with greater ease
- Telecommunications like skype, zoom, google meet
- Exchange of knowledge in Singapore’s A*Star science research facility allowed scientists
from all over the world to invent a vaccine for Influenza
- Alleviating global concerns (improving food security from GMO food, make food crops
higher yielding and more robust to biotic and abiotic stresses) e.g golden rice in the
Philippines to curb vitamin A deficiency in developing countries
- Democratisation of knowledge; facilitates osmosis of knowledge; democratises education
and provides help to those who cannot afford it
- The Internet is a repository of information readily accessible to most - free
services such as Wikipedia aids greatly in preliminary research/gaining
knowledge about the world.
 - Free and professional educational resources such as Khan Academy and
Duolingo; MIT open courseware

- Technology is exacerbating social divide

- encoding societal biases in the algorithms we create
- digital divide has adverse effects on the employment, education, health, social
services, and socio-economic development of digitally excluded people
- Globalisation and digital technologies have transformed the labour system,
from recruitment to the nature of work. Technology has become as essential as
the postman was in the past because it enables job seeks to apply for jobs online;
diminished prospects of job seekers finding employment as employers prefer
online applications Digital divide threats exacerbate inequalities among
marginalised groups in society by reducing their chance of attaining employment

Green FinTech
● Increasing level of financial flows from banking, insurance, investment from the public,
private to sustainable development priorities
○ SolarisBank (Germany) Berlin-based fintech company that developed a solar-as-
a-service platform called Enpal, helping homeowners to install solar panels on
their rooftops without any upfront costs
○ WeLab in Hong Kong developed a mobile lending platform to introduce a green
lending program that offers lower interest rates to individuals and businesses
seeking financing for environmentally friendly projects, incentivising and
supporting green initiatives by providing access to affordable capital

Space technology / space exploration

Notable Companies
● SpaceX (Elon Musk)
● Blue Origin (to tap into the limitless resources of space to preserve Earth)
● Virgin Galactic (offering space tours)
● Starlink, One Web (satellite network)

Potential of Space Tech

● asteroid mining - rare earth elements worth billions
● possible inter-planetary settlements
● metal and water which could be used as a source of ready fuel in space
● Telecommunication in terms of higher network capacity and higher speed networks
→ satellite internet providers
● Space economy will grow in 3 fold just over 20 years - worth of 1 trillion
 ● Magna Carta (Outer Space Treaty of International Space Law)
○ Perhaps this shows how law & tech needs to keep up with pace so that we don’t
miss out on the benefits that new findings may offer, while keeping humanity in
check so that nothing goes haywire
○ 50 year agreement that outlines how to peacefully explore space
○ UN approved
○ The US initiated the magna carta, because their satellites (over 40% of the
satellites in outer space out of the 2000+) belong to the US, so their large
dependency on them puts them at stake due to the increasing debris

Things to Come in Space

● Space hotels – commercial entities landing on and mining the moon
● Space travel & tourism
● Space-based solar-power satellite into orbit (China is planning this)
● University of Mississippi School of Law - debating what human rights are needed in
space

Controversies & Debates

● Increasing space debris
○ Increases risk of collisions between operational satellites & manned spacecrafts
○ Even little bits of fragments can pose significant risks due to high velocities
○ Ensuring long-term sustainability of space activities are important
○ Also challenging to determine responsibility & liability for space debris
○ Space debris removal is a subject of active research because it entails high
technology but it is costly and may create potential unintended consequences of
debris
● Privatization of Space & Exploitation of natural resources
○ Commercialization of Celestial Bodies - claiming ownership or exploiting
resources on celestial bodies such as Moon or asteroids
● Militarization of space
● Diversion of resources that can be better spent for more pressing purposes
○ “Every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who are hungry
and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” former president of the
USA Dwight Eisenhower
● Environmental problems
○ A short trip on a spacecraft releases more greenhouse gases than a commercial
flight
○
● Pursuit of scientific knowledge
○ May not always bring about tangible outcomes, it allows us to make better sense
of the universe we live in, thereby having a better understanding of our role in the
greater scheme of things. This is why space scientists sent out Voyager Golden
Records on a shuttle that orbits in space to record sounds and recognise of the
different flora and fauna of Earth
 ○ Space exploration led to the creation of weather satellites that shuttles used to
study climate conditions in space → Global Positioning Satellite technology
(GPS) that assists in navigation & bringing about data networks to poorer and
isolated communities → an investment that can be justified
○ Since the involvement of private corporations become ever more prominent in
space research/exploration, the criticism that social welfare is compromised is
now less of a concern. Private fundings used instead of the state fundings used
meant that social welfare will not be compromised
○ Earth may could never be a permanent home has increased the urgency of space
travel
■ United Nations Climate Change Report in 2020 → planet would
eventually experience a rise in temperature beyond 2 degree Celcius,
even if we made a concerted effort to bring down our carbon
emissions to 0 by the year 2050
■ The far worse scenario is not poverty, but extinction of mankind
■ Exploration of true habitable planets have yielded tangible and positive
results, such as the discovery of Kepler 452b planet
■ This concerns everyone on earth and our future generations

Metaverse
- Digital identities: holding who accountable for lawsuits and legal responsibilities?

● If all that is known of the identity of a defendant is an avatar without any link to an
actual identity, will it be (legally) possible to make an order against an avatar?

Science Research

Aim of Science Research

● Controversy: human need vs profit maximization

Regulations
● Safety (both researchers & wider public)
○ Public Health & Consumer Protection
■ Rigorous testing: Thalidomide was used as a medication for pregnant
women, resulting in birth defects
● Ethical considerations
○ CRISPR-Baby Experiment in 2018 - gene editing research
● Environmental Impact
● Fair Competition & Market Stability
○ Cryptocurrency regulations - concerns financial stability, money laundering,
taxation etc.
● International Cooperation
Regulatory Capture
● Happens when regulatory agencies which are intended to act in the public interest are
unduly influenced or controlled by the industries they are supposed to regulate - this leads
to failure in regulation according to the enforced rules
● Examples:
○ Fukushima nuclear disaster - it was discovered that the nuclear industry in Japan
had exerted significant influence over the country’s regulatory agency,
contributing to lax safety standards and inadequate oversight, indirectly
contributing to the disaster
○ Volkswagen Dieselgate Scandal - They manipulated emissions test in their diesel
vehicle, leading to excessive air pollution, failure in regulation of the European
Union’s agency

Human Ethics
● Nuremberg’s Trials - a set of experimentations conducted by the Nazis on their prisoners
to research on how to better equip or treat the German soldiers (Malaria experiments,
Freezing experiments, high-altitude experiments etc.)
○ It is important to note that these experiments were part of the heinous crimes
during the Holocaust and it did not directly contribute to scientific progress
○ It however did impacted the development of ethical guidelines and standards in
scientific and medical research
○ Also led to the establishment of the concept of institutional review boards or
ethical review committees
● Some unethical experimentation:
○ The vaccination that we benefit from today (like Hepatitis B vaccine → inject
virus into students) are developed through questionable ethics, such as using
humans for experimentation
○ Tuskegee syphilis experiment, where a number of Blacks in Alabama were
unknowingly injected with the virus and were deliberately withheld treatment
after it became available so that scientists could observe the behaviour of syphilis
virus in humans

Some good theories to know about ethics

Ulitarianism Focuses on maximising overall happiness or well-being

Anything is justified if it leads to larger potential benefits, such as
advancing medical knowledge or finding cures for disease

Deontological (Associated with philosophers like Kant)

Ethics Respect for human dignity and fundamental rights, prioritize and respect the
autonomy and well-being of individuals
Moral framework: No person should be used as a means to an end, however
desirable the “end” is
Who should fund science research?
● In the US, 72% of scientific research and development is performed in the BUSINESS
SECTOR, and 67% of them are funded by business sector
● Research Integrity is compromised due to conflict with commercial interest
○ Thalidomide tragedy of the 1960s
■ Study for drug companies claimed that the drug was safe for consumption
during late pregnancy
■ However, up to 10 thousands babies being born had birth defects as a
result of their mothers consuming thalidomide
○ BP (British Petroleum) - one of the world’s largest oil companies channels funds
to climate science-denying US policymakers (senator James Inhofe)
○ ExxonMobil also used to spread disinformation about climate science and deny
that climate change is a real threat
● Although science has many safeguards in place to catch instances of bias that affect
research outcomes, the main fear (pointed by a number of scholars such as Slaughter and
Rhoades) about commercialization of science is the quality of scientific research. Private
science research has come under increasing scrutiny.
○ Strong Intellectual Property (IP) rights (including patent law) can actually inhibit
scientific research as it can lead to coverups of research results
○ It is not just about publishing fake results, it is about how industries may only
choose to publish favorable results that work in favor of increasing market sales
(for instance, the efficacy of anti-depressants when overestimated can cause the
sale revenue to be all time high)

● Many research are also a public-private partnerships

○
● Open Science movement
○ A concept brought forth to instill more transparency in the process of scientific
research
○ Undeniably, the values that inspire the ideal of Open Science are promising
guidelines to face the epistemic and social justice challenges of research done in
private sphere
○ Research are to be submitted to peer-review journals to be evaluated on quality
etc.

Who benefits from Science?

● Trickle-Down Effects to benefit the community
○ New innovation that can only be afforded by the rich NOW can eventually
become more accessible to households and communities
 ○ For instance, the internet used to be seen as a rich-exclusive resource when it was
first introduced in the 1950s, as not many even have computers at home, much
less need the internet. However, in under 40 years, the internet had become
mainstream
● Policy and Social change
○ Science research has brought to light about issues that concern the public’s
welfare, driving for policy and social change
■ E.g tobacco control policies, climate research has shaped the emphasis on
governmental policies on environmental protection

Solving social issues

International Efforts or National Regulations

● Resource mobilization
○ Fundings from international organization & partnerships with donor countries can
implement large-scale interventions
○ BUT there can be corruption & mismanagement (UN Oil-For-Food Program) -
some officials diverted funds for personal gain instead of provivding humanitarian
aid to the Iraqis
○ Lack of local ownership & participation - infrastructure projects in third world
countries
● Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building

Ground-up approaches
● Local Contextualization & Ownership
○ Grameen Bank in Bangladesh pioneered the concept of microfinance, providing
small loans to individuals without access to traditional banking services,
empowering individuals in local communities particularly women, to start small
businesses and improve their own economic well-being
○ Community-Led Water & Sanitation Initiatives

Impact of Tech on Education, Learning & Jobs

● Digital divide & inequality
● Skill developments & Job Prospects:
○ Job polarization - increasing job opportunities relevant to automation & the
digital world (e.g retail and marketing → moving towards online marketing
who can create graphics, engage online audience on social media etc.,
customer enquiries are also replaced by chatbots on websites)
○
● Personalized learning
● Impact on early childhood
 ○ Exposure to responsive AI at an early stage may improve our cognitive and
emotional abilities
■ Brain development of an infant depends on rich conversation interactions
■ AI is able to replace the role of a parent
● habitual social media use is producing changes in how adolescent brains respond to social
rewards

Tech & Role of human: Can we be replaced?

● Its capabilities are developing to be ever more extensive
○ E.g magnetic slime can help remove foreign objects within gastrointestinal
system, removing the need for surgery
○ We have the perception that technology can only replace men in repetitive tasks,
yet AI are now able to engage with artistic pursuits (OpenAI DALL-E is a
program that produces realistic images of many different subjects in various art
styles)
● Decision making - the weighing of costs and benefits are still ultimately unique to human
○ Self-driving car technology still exists, yet has not been implemented due to
ethical concerns and complicated decision making framework → humans
make decisions over who to protect and take responsibility for their decisions
and actions
● Rather than replacing, complementation may be a better alternative
○ In the medical sphere, research has shown that a panel of experts and automated
systems may result in a significantly more accurate diagnosis than either alone
○

Tech & Crime Enhancement

● Cyberterorism
○ Doxxing, compromising our physical safety
○ StarHub and Singtel user’s data leaks
● ChatGPT
○ Employees who have been feeding sensitive corporate data into the large
language model opens the door to potentially massive leaks of proprietary
information
○ Cyber criminals have sensed the opportunity to create fake apps disguised as
ChatGPT-based tools or extensions
○ Generative AI can enhance social engineering scams
○ Cyber criminals now craft impeccable and articular phishing e-mails that cause
phishing emails to be less identifiable
○ By-pass e-mail filter services that would have otherwise recognised them as spam
○ While GAI speed up crime enhancement, it also allows the same for fraud
preventions, and fraud techniques are evolving more quickly
● Lethal Autonomous Robots (LAWs)
○ Robots that use AI face recognition to KILL
Tech & Terrorism
● Recruitment and Radicalization via social media has enabled them to reach a global
audience, exploiting the vulnerable
○ Many cases of radicalized youths without direct contact with any of these
terroristic organizations
● Encryption tools and secure messaging apps has made it even more challenging for
security agencies to monitor and disrupt their activities as online offer high levels of
anonymity & high level of operational security for terrorist organizations
○ They use cryptocurrency and online fundraising platforms to finance their
operations
● In 2012-2013, a ISIS-related Cyber Fighter Ogranisation targeted major US financial
institutions in a series of DDoS attacks, affecting banks like Bank of America,
JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo etc. → resulting in financial losses
● TV5Monde Attack → French television network fell victim to a cyber attack claimed
by the Cyber Caliphate and hijacked their social media accounts, disrupting
broadcasting oeprations
● Copycat attacks – sensationalistic reportings and rapid dissemination of images, videos
etc. can inspire maliciously-intended people to plan copycat attacks

Threat on Democracy
● Distinction on how technology itself is neither benign or malicious, but it opens up
grounds and allow possibility of threat

Democratising Science Research

Religion vs Science
● Abdul-baha, founder of the Baha’l faith have aptly quipped - “Religion without science is
superstition. Science without religion is materialism.”
● Science is the use of empirical evidence and vigorous experimentation to establish
beyond a doubt that a given hypothesis is true
● Employs the use of God’s word, instead of logic, and empirical evidence, to ascertain a
certain belief
○ No requirement for a solid proof to establish a belief. Unwavering belief in a
higher being is expected
● Examples of how the 2 should work hand in hand
○ Buddhism has actively encouraged the exploration of the world through
empiricism, which is similar to that employed by the scientific inquiry
○ Liberal Catholics have managed to reconcile scriptures with Darwin’s theory of
evolutions
● Serve different domains and can coexist harmoniously
 ○ Doctor Jennifer Wiseman was astute in her observation - while science is
wonderful tool for understanding the physical universe, religion gives the answers
to the more philosophical questions in life and explains our significance in the
context of the universe
○ Pew Research Centre did an interview with Muslims, Hindus and Christians.
They found that almost all of the respondents responded that they think that
religion and science are compatible, as one tends to explain something that the
other does not provide an explanation for. Few of them expresses any conflict
between religion and science (such as between that of Darwinism theory of
evolution as well as human creation by God)
● Reinforce each other
○ Human’s innate desire to understand things is evident since time immemorial -
when Columbus went on an expedition to find out how much more is there to the
world, when Zheng He sailed the Pacific Ocean, and when we sent humans to the
moon
○ In the same vein of thought, it is easy to understand why people sought for
answers for some of humanity’s burning questions that scientists are not able to
explain - most prominently as what happens to life after death?
○ Fundamentally, science and religion serves the purpose of catering to people’s
desire to understand about things more than themselves and to know how to act
● More often than not, religious values or voices of the religious community serves as a
much needed checker and balance on science and prevents ethically questionable
scientific research from occurring
○ Boundaries are drawn clearly in fields like genetic engineering and cloning
● Some religion fun facts….
○ In Scandinavia, most people say they do not believe in God but paranormal and
superstition beliefs tend to be higher than expected.
○ Witchcraft is gaining popularity in US while paganism is the fastest growing
religions in UK.
○ In many communities, religion acts as a uniting force for communities and allow
people from different social classes to come together.
○ Religious sites and historical places of worship are well conserved under
UNESCO, showing the unwavering relevance of religion.
○ Even with the advancement of science, religious beliefs in the supernatural are not
yet obsolete. In Indonesia, volcanoes have a spiritual significance, each with a
myth associated with it. Volcanoes are honoured with festivals and offerings by
the local people.
○ Sultans in Yogyakarta also play a special role to ensure the sacred alignment
between the volcano, the palace in the middle and the Indian Ocean, thus ensuring
the safety of the people.

Relying on S&T itself to correct its Shortcomings

S&T & Inequality
● Data biases & algorithms
○ Hiring algorithms and gender bias: automation of screening and ranking of
job applicants (Amazon), but was discovered that the algorithm exhibited
gender biase, penalizing resumes that included terms associated with women
or references to women’s colleges → training data biases can lead to
discriminatory outcomes in automated decision-making system
○ Credit Scoring & socioeconomic bias in credit scoring system, disproportionately
disadvantaged individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, limiting
financial opportunities for marginalized communities
● Alleviating challenges faced by marginalised communities as a result of inequality
○ E.g communities who suffer at a greater extent due to climate change (Sub-
saharan, kenya etc.)
○ KENYA e-Warehouse Project in Kenya utilizes technology to provide climate
information services to small-scale farmers, disseminated to them via mobile
phones, providing them with timely and localized weather forecasts, crop
management advice etc. so these farmers can adapt to climate change as well as
the unpredictable volume of rainfalls
○ INDIA SELCO Foundation in India provides access to clean and affordable
energy for marginalized communities in rural areas
○ UGANDA mHealth is a telemedicine app that helps to diagnose children and
pregnant ladies, including warning messages for climate-related health risks
Can we still trust Science?
● International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology recently accepted for
publication a paper titled “Get Me Off Your Fucking Mailing List”, whose text was
nothing more than a total of 7 words repeated over and over again for 10 pages.

How media is ruining science

● Adverse incentive for people to distort scientific studies

○ Science & health media writers are constantly in need of new sexy studies
○ Meanwhile, while scholars and academic journals face pressure to produce work
that gets attention from media outlets, which in doing so can elevate the stature of
their research, which in turn promotes their funding (or report in such a way that it
gets sensational)
○ Media agents for research institutions have become adept at turning complicated
scientific jargon into compelling press releases, usually at the expense of accuracy