ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

PROGRAMME : Bachelor of Science (Hons) Business Management

SUBJECT CODE AND TITLE : MGT2024 Scientific Ideas & Innovation
ASSIGNMENT TITLE : Part A – Mid-Term Writing Assessment

LECTURER : Shannon Jann Ng ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE: 22 May 2022, 9am

STUDENT’S DECLARATION
1. I hereby declare that this assignment is based on my own work except where acknowledgement of sources is
made.
2. I also declare that this work has not been previously submitted or concurrently submitted for any other courses
in Sunway University/College or other institutions.
[ Submit “Turn-it-in” report (please tick √): Yes __√__ No _____ ]

NO NAME STUDENT ID NO. SIGNATURE DATE

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1. Fu Junze 17065491 Fu Junze 22 May 2022
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E-mail Address / Addresses (according to the order of names above):

1. 17065491@imail.sunway.edu.my 4.
2. 5.
3. 6.

APPROVAL FOR LATE SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT (If applicable)

IF extension is granted, what is the revised due date? ______________________________________________

Signature of Lecturer: ______________________________________ Date: ____________________________

Marker’s Comments:
Fu Junze (17065491)

Marks and / or Grade Awarded: _____________________________ Date: ____________________________

From the history of human civilization, science and technology have not only continuously given
human beings the power to conquer and transform nature, but also continuously improved human beings'
ability to rescue the weak. In addition, at the same time, they have also changed human beings' way of
survival, production, and even cognitive way to varying degrees. In this historical process, due to science and
technology is developed by virtue of its own power, gradually penetrates into all human activities, and
constructs its own superior system, becoming the base of human existence or reshaping the environment of
human life. Hence, now science and technology are in turn dominate the way of thinking and ideology of
human beings and become a new field of vision for judging other human activities, thus leading to profound
changes in human values. This requires us to rethink ourselves and reconceptualize the relationship between
human beings and technology. Now, what I want to talk about is how technology influence our lives from a
small aspect rise to a big aspect.

1. Technology causes less communication

Actually, technology is changing us unconsciously and influence us imperceptibly, even though it is a

very small thing. Nowadays, almost everyone is holding a smartphone, and social media also becomes
essential part of people’s life. It offers people from all demographics with a vital method of staying
connected with others. It allows you to stay connected with loved ones when working alone far away from
hometown. It might help you connect with others in similar situations to your own and exchange advice and
experiences. For instance, in today’s society, Covid-19 pandemic is prevailed, social-distance and isolation is
required very often, thus, social media (e.g.: Instagram and WeChat) and meeting platforms (e.g.: MS Teams
and Zoom) will be the best way for us to get connect with each other. Furthermore, technology provides a
good online working environment when people cannot work physically.

However, while these social media channels bring us convenience, the ideal utopian society of this
virtual network is leading us into a vicious cycle of communication indifference. People seems like get more
used to this lifestyle of solitude and more comfortable with it so that less and less communication occur
between people. "Mobile phone control" is such a group of people. For example, whether at the dinner table,
on the bus or just standing in a corner, they buried their heads playing game or social medias. In my family,
me and my family also focus on ourselves' phones rather than have a conversation of some topics when we
sit together. This happens between friends as well. Obviously, I think modern people's life is rich and

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convenient contact, but in fact, the distance between people is estranged, emotions and spirit have nowhere to
rest, and more importantly, the reality is that a kind of communication helplessness has arisen, we seem to be
the most familiar people, but we have become very strange.

2. Technology controls humanity and takes privacy unconsciously

From another perspective, as technologies such as artificial intelligence continue to develop, the
ability of human beings to use and transform nature has expanded from only transforming external nature
(nature) to transforming internal nature (body and mind), which inevitably raises questions about the
technologization of the human body and the technologization of the mind. For example, in terms of the
technologization of the human body, one can choose to be genetically edited before birth and to choose
aesthetic body contouring after birth. Hence, we are controlled by the dominant mass aesthetics of today's
society, which are spread through technology – social media such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. In the terms
of technologization of human mind, people can perceive spiritual pleasure and obtain spiritual satisfaction
through smart devices and smart environments. Just like the things we are experiencing every day, people are
immersing in high-tech environment such as automatic face recognition system for Sunway students to enter
library, sports watch (e.g.: Apple watch) for people to capture their body condition and so on. Hence, we are
controlled by high-tech, provide them our privacy such as location, camera, personal information, etc.
Therefore, due to the continuous development of technology, some technology companies will continue to
promote new technology industry systems for the sake of profit.

At the same time, human beings will be ushered into a digital world that provides immersive
perceptual experiences with the combination of all elements of simulation and interaction between reality and
reality, the so-called "metaverse", for instance, Tik Tok. As a result, in my opinion, such a digital world is an
ideal world of perceptual "feeding". When we are addicted to gaining immersive perceptual experiences, we
may lose the ability to think independently unconsciously, only thing we do is follow the mass trends.
Because we overdo the thrill of the virtual world, desperately wanting to experience new things that we can't
experience in real life, we indulge technology and the internet to get to know us better by authorizing
“privacy” policies, thus, allowing these technology companies that want to profit from us to surveillance on
our lives.

3. Technology impacts environment and threatens our lives

Rising to more serious aspect, technologies also have impact on the environment. The development of
anything will have both beneficial and adverse effects on society, and this also apply to technology. The use

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of technology has brought helpful impacts to society economics and the environment, but it has also brought
adverse impacts to the ecological environment of society. The exorbitant use of technology to utilize the
earth's environment will lead to ecological imbalance, which eventually will affect human beings themselves.
In addition, because keep using technology, the destruction brought by it to the whole society will exceed the
benefits, and the harmful aspect of technology will become more apparent as time passes. For example, using
technology in agriculture may significantly boost agricultural output in a short period of time, allowing the
entire civilization to live. Nevertheless, the use of agricultural technologies such as pesticides and fertilizers
on agricultural goods will have a long-term impact on water quality and soil quality, and the abuse of
pesticides to kill pests endangers the development of beneficial insects.

Another example is the development of sustainable technology inevitably requires the exploitation of
resources. Due to the over-exploitation and waste of resources in the last century, the content of existing
resources on the earth is becoming less and less, especially the mineral resources and water resources are
very prominent. The earth's water resources are constantly suffering from pollution, now many places of
water resources are scarce, some water quality is below standard level, causing extremely significant harm to
the human body. This is why I mentioned previously that excessive usage of technology to exploit ultimately
will affect human beings themselves. As a result, the negative impacts of technology on the environment
have been demonstrated over time, including climate change, extinction of plants and animals, nuclear and
water pollution, and so on. These are all connected to humans' excessive use of technology. Therefore, in my
view, there are undoubtedly benefits to human beings in the use of science and technology, but most people
only see the bright side; the growth of technology on the environment to bring about the ruin of society is far
greater than human imagination.

Based on the above three aspects, we should consider what can we do and what our attitude should be
when facing these things, from the small things that happen around us to the big things that can threaten the
whole mankind. When we are losing communication because of over-reliance on the smartphone, we should
put down the hands of the smartphone, quit all kinds of technology dependence, out of the virtual mirrors
created by technology, feel the bits and pieces around you, and the real world for face-to-face
communication, live in the moment, not live in the network. When we are controlled by mass aesthetics and
virtual world, we should have the ability to think independently, raise awareness and strengthen self-
protection to protect privacy. We should not let the trends control our minds to meet mass aesthetics, and also
should not let technology firms have all our privacy just because we want to immerse ourselves in a virtual
world with impunity. Lastly, when our lives are threatened by the overuse of technology, we must recognize

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both the positive and negative consequences of technology on society. The environment is where we live, if
we utilize technology excessively, it can only lead to environmental destruction, threatening our life and
progress. We must employ technology to solve environmental problems rather than to increase pollution;
sustainable development is the way forward for today's society.

In conclusion, I can say that technology has made a great contribution to the development of all
mankind, but to a large extent technology has not taken humanity in the right direction. Technology makes
less real communication happens between people so that making the real world suffer from loneliness and
indifference, makes more people break away from the real world to join the virtual world and being
controlled imperceptibly, and makes various of harmful occurs on the environment which could threaten
humanity live. Therefore, when develop technologies, in order to establish the right values and do not over-
rely on it, we need appropriate ethical constraints, and even legal and regulatory controls, on scientific and
technological R&D and industrial development.

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