TWC Lesson 2

1. Influence of Technology on global dominance

Global dominance may come in different dimensions for example military power, economic might, Social and Cultural Dominance. In order to achieve dominance in any of the various spheres in today’s world, technology is imperative for obvious reasons. Depending on governments, the amount of technology they use to achieve such goals would ultimately determine the strength or dominance a country would have in the different areas. For example, America. Today, it is still the country which possesses the greatest and most advanced types of fire power as compared to China or Russia (although the latter two are catching up very quickly) hence the world is still very much unipolar. Nevertheless, as we all know, China is catching up very quickly in terms of military might and it has been discussed that the world is tending towards a more bi-polar stance. Where the US and China will be the future major powers in the world. Of course, this does not occur solely because of military might, there is a combination of factors such as economic prosperity and political might that may actually deem China to be more dominant globally. As we all know, China is probably the 3rd largest economy in the world today. It has managed to go so far since it opened its doors to capitalism in 1989, with the help of technology and its processes hence from the above example, we are able to see how technology is able to influence global dominance, bringing a country that is a “rising star” to become a “dominant power”.

2. Role of technology in human development

Improvements in technology have made it possible to feed the world’s population because it is now possible to grow more sturdy crops (through some genetic modifications), greater quantity of crops and definitely better quality of crops. Yet, why is there famine and starvation in some countries when other countries have an excess quantity of food? I think the answer lies in the differences in technological development in each country which has made some more able to produce better food and crops as compared to the others. Transportation may also be another factor where in a Developed Country (DC) there is definitely better and faster modes of transport to ensure that food gets to people fresh as compared to a Less Developed Country (LDC) which may have food that arrives only after a week of travelling. Nutrition affects the health of people which might then also affect social demographic of a country. Hence, from the small but crucial area of food and nutrition above, we may see how technology affects human development.