IRP

1.1 Overall topic introduction

In the recent decade, technology has become one of the most vital factors for humans and
our societies to thrive and develop. Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic (Arthur C. Clarke). Technology has magically shaped the
society in which we live today. There are a vast number of ways in which the standard of
living has improved for all people due to technological advancements. Nowadays, humans
can access huge amounts of information, this in turn improves the quality of education by
giving us more teaching methods and fast access to information. Furthermore, it is a vital
factor for many developments, such as the economy. Economies around the world rely on
technology. Technology has made the world richer overall, but not everyone has benefited.
In 2009, the world’s top 1 percent held 44 percent of the world’s wealth; by 2014, they had
48 percent. By 2020, it is estimated that the 1 percent will own 54 percent of global
wealth[ CITATION Ian16 \l 1033 ]. In overall perspective, we can see the huge impact
technology has on all aspects of life.
1.2 Link the topic to a problem/issue
Presently, society is indistinguishable from how it was in the past. This is thanks to the leaps
made in the digital world. When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar
turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar (George
Westerman, 2014). It is clearly apparent that all sectors are rapidly changing with the
enhancement of technology. The digital world is a world of its own, if industries fail to adapt
to the digital world, they will struggle to find success.
1.3 Cause/effect of issue/problem
Technology has become a hot topic to debate due to the variety of drawbacks and
benefits. Personally, disadvantages seem to be more prominent than benefits.
Research shows the majority of businesses have evolved in order to have an
advantage in their field. However, not every company is successful in their
transformation. 90% of CEOs believe the digital economy will impact their industry,
but less than 15% are executing on a digital strategy (MIT Sloan and Capgemini,
2019). This tells us 75% of CEOs are not executing the vital changes. In contrast,
many businesses are becoming over-reliant on technology, this in turn creates a huge
drawback for the economic sector. At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next
10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate
new technologies (John Chambers, 2015). Moreover, the effects technology has on
society is either extremely negative or in another way, convenient. To be precise,
youth today struggle interacting with the peers due to being encapsulate by devices.
Furthermore, everything done online stay online. This becomes a problem when
people share negative thought or ideas without knowing that it can be saved. This can
lead to character assassination and could destroy someone's career. In addition,
addiction and egocentric behavior can also occur with a large presence on social
 media, cyber bullying is rampant as ever. With little restriction in accessing social
media site, children are expose to verbal abuse which can lead to physical abuse.

1.4 Focus question introduction

Since the devices are developing unceasing over the years, people start asking
themselves “Is there a limit to where technology can take humanity?”. In the recent
years, technology has shaped our society in a very short space of time. Nevertheless,
we are left questioning what role technology will have in our survival and in our
development. Perhaps, the development of technology is a part of human evolution. If
this is the case, we will have to rely on technology to survive.

“Is there a limit to where technology can take humanity?”

Best-case scenario

The advancements in technology have caused many industries to run a lot smoother without
human error. This in turn will strengthen economies around the world. An estimated 70% of
new value created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled
platform business models (WE forum, 2020). Traditional jobs carried out by people will
decrease due to the advancement of technology in the future. Technology will be
responsible for carrying manufacturing and Labor-intensive jobs, this along with re-
educating workers will increase people’s standard of living since the workers have more
time to pursue life goals.

Global perspective

It is globally known that technology is the driving force responsible for the rapid growth of
economies all over the world. Production efficiency becomes more streamline which create
better goods and services. This in turn makes prosperity. During my lifetime, innovations in
business, science, and technology have energized the global market economy in
unprecedented ways. The world economy is 500 percent bigger than in 1960 (Bill Gate,
2020). To be precise, construction will become a synchronized sequence of manufacturing
processes, delivering control, change and production at scale. It will be a safer, faster and
more cost-effective way to build the homes, offices, factories and other structures we need
to thrive in cities and beyond (Meirav Oren, 2016). The world is changing due to technology
at a pace that is outstandingly fast.

National perspective

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Vietnam’s economy has shown strong
growth in 2019, as a result of high domestic demand, a strong manufacturing and processing
industry (Asian Development Bank, 2019). Meanwhile, Vietnam is coming to an important
part of development, for Vietnam GDP to grow under the labor and capital constraints, the
country must depend on profits made from productivity which requires entrepreneurial
innovation from within Vietnam.

Personal perspective:

Vingroup (one of the most successful corporations in Vietnam) has taken massive leaps
towards positioning itself in the forefront of the tech sectors with its new branches such as
VinTech Technology Development Enterprise, the Institute of Big Data, and the Vin Hi-
Tech Research Institute. It is clearly apparent that all successful companies must get
involved in the tech sector if they wish to grow further. Pham Nhat Vuong, the Vingroup
CEO, proved that technology advancement is essential to survive in the business world and
also a potential sector to enhance the economy by investing more money into his existing
company, creating Vintech.

Solution:

Progressions within the computer industry, coupled with progressions in broadcast

communications, have expanded job opportunities and reinforced economic development.
Nevertheless, to keep this influence of technology continuously benefit economic sector, we
need to encourage more company to invest in technology. As a matter of fact, what
companies are really doing is cutting back on an important investment that could create the
next growth wave and, in many instances, that investment could generate huge leverage,
helping to lower costs and expenses much faster than technology spending rises (Cavallo,
2016). Moreover, in order to successfully navigate the technology economics scenario and
leverage optimum business performance, executives must create, measure, and track virtual
economic measures just as carefully as they follow metrics about the physical world
(Cavallo, 2016). This in turn will effectively increase the productivity and effectiveness of
technology on economic sector.

Worst case scenario:

As technology develops and advances rapidly, as does, our reliance on technology.

Humanity will always take the convenient option. Personally, since there is so much
information at our finger tips, we have become over-reliant on our smart devices, which
therefore causes humans to lose their ability to critically think. This can also cause a
reduction in innovation. By the end of the next decade, Google’s Ray Kurzweil predicts,
artificial intelligence will outstrip the human variety (Ray Kurzweil, 2015). We’ll have been
made redundant by our machines (The Guardian, 2015).

Global perspective

The world is changing rapidly and with the evolution of technology so are people. Studies
have shown that technology addiction is indiscriminate and affects everyone regardless of
country. Whether it's from prolonged computer use or simply spending long durations of
time staring at your smartphone. “If we stay on the current path, we will doom ourselves to
less interesting work and a steady erosion of skills (Carr, 2015). The speed in which
Technology is evolving gives the impression that eventually most forms of technology will
surpass humans in many ways leaving people to do the more mundane tasks.

National perspectives

According to psychologist Nguyen Thi Tam, director of the Viet Nam Insight Applied
Psychology Company, “nomophobia has spread widely across Viet Nam as a result of the
increased acceptance of smartphones. At first, people used it for its basic functions. Then,
they gradually get hooked on finding more interesting programs and fail to notice their
growing addiction.” (Tam, 2020). Vietnam like every other country on the planet has
experienced similar issues with smartphone addiction. At first smartphone addiction seems
innocent until we realize people's lives are at stake. In Vietnam drivers have multiple
distractions on the road however smartphones have become the main distraction which in
turn causes serious road accidents. “Using a cellphone while driving is definitely a major
road hazard in Vietnam," Greig Craft, the founder of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation
(Craft, 2020)

Personal perspective:

Smartphone addiction was reported on the rise among college and university students. To be
precise, Wicks, Victoria and Sasha Boutilier who understood the concept of addiction said
that the addiction may result in unwanted consequences on their academic performance and
psychological health according to a study by BMC psychology. We can see that individuals
with mental health issues are more at risk than those without, however this does not mean if
you don’t have mental health issues that you’re not going to form a dependence on
technology. Technology can help connect people from across the globe however people are
feeling more isolated than ever from prolonged use of social media sites, games and general
distractions which comes with using technology every day.

Solution:

Behind the apps, games, and social media you regularly use is a whole team of individuals
who is trying to make their products become addictive. Numerous of the strategies they
utilize are ones sketched out by specialists in human behavior. Consequently, over-reliance
on technology became one of the most alarming issues throughout the world. Nevertheless,
there are still ways to reduce the rate of it. People can stop using technologies in a period of
time, instead, exploring what lessons about life, society, the natural world is much better.
This in turn will help you to understand more about yourself and the outside world.
Moreover, human will not be narrow in a vision of only the virtual world like robots since
their ability of critical thinking can be improved.

3.1 Individual perspective

It is apparent that the limitless rate in which technology is advancing has created massive
growth in all sectors. Personally, I believe tech innovation has a huge influence in all aspects
of my life. In the last decade, it is clear as day that healthcare has improved drastically.
From 1915 through 1997, the infant mortality rate declined greater than 90% to 7.2 per 1000
live births and from 1900 through 1997, the maternal mortality rate declined almost 99% to
less than 0.1 reported death per 1000 live births (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 1999). I feel so fortunate that I am born in a generation that has technology
which enables safe healthcare, the likelihood of me dying before birth is greatly decreased.
Moreover, it is evident that education has also improved through leaps and bounds. Literacy
statistics have increased with the development of technology. Literacy rates grew constantly
but rather slowly until the beginning of the twentieth century, and the rate of growth really
climbed after the middle of the 20th century, when the expansion of basic education became
a global priority (Worldindata, 2016). Furthermore, tech innovation gives us a greater
accessibility to information as well as adaptability and personalization which has become an
effective method of teaching. In my opinion, the impact of technology on education is a
huge advantage to me that can improve the quality of learning. Additionally, my future
might rely on crypto currencies. At the moment, there are many young investors beginning
to study virtual money. Since I’m planning to get involved in economics, there will be more
opportunities to seek alternative ways in gaining wealth. Besides, in economics, it is widely
accepted that technology is the key driver of economic growth of countries, regions and
cities. Technological progress allows for the more efficient production of more and better
goods and services, which is what prosperity depends on (Ricardo Hausmann, José
Domínguez, 2018). Before doing this project, I was unaware of how much technology
influenced society and my life personally, in other words, I believed that everything has its
own limit. However, currently, the limit of technology is beyond the view of humanity, we
can assume that it is limitless. Personally, it has changed my perspective and view of the
world.

Conclusion:

“Is there a limit to where technology can take humanity?”

Most individuals are thinking that everything has a limit, nonetheless, there are many
theories against their ideas. According to Nikolai S. Kardashev, Russian radio astronomer,
there are three types of civilizations. Type 1 is a society that uses all energy sources on the
planet. Type 2 is a society that uses its technology to take energy sources from around the
planet. Type 3 is a society that uses the galaxy to generate energy. As we can see here, these
theories lead me to believe that there is no limit to where technology can take humanity.
Technology has affected our evolution and with its advancement, this will probably
continue. Yet, it’s hard to know how fast our society will change with technology (Vidal,
2016)
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