Week 1 Technology and Leadership

For your initial post (which counts as your written assignment for this week), reflect on Friedman’s opening chapters from the synopsis as compared to Florida’s article.  Which resonated with you?  Factor in Bostrom's talk...does his warnings about control align with either Friedman or Florida...or is this evidence of the continued evolution of the web?  Given this evolution since Friedman's book and Florida's article, are these sources still relevant...or relevant within your work environment?

Each of the three required readings and/or sources, including Nick Bostrom’s Ted Talk, were unique in their own respects, yet, interwoven in an underlying theme.  What first struck a chord was the realization that Friedman discovered when spending time with Nandan Nilekani, the Chief Executive Office (CEO), of Infosys in India, the reality that America is being challenged technologically and economically and that “The playing field is being flattened” (Friedman, 2005).  Furthermore, the CEO insinuated, this to be a good thing, “or a new milestone in human progress and a great opportunity for India and the world” (p. 7).  Therefore, it can be construed that as Americans we are victims of our own doing, where those outside our borders are finding ways to level the playing field.  

This phenomenon though is more complicated than just economic systems merging, according to Friedman (2005) it began with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but even more importantly came the emergence of technologies that connected the world where communications now take place in an instantly via mobile phones, email, instant messaging.  Yet, with the world being more “Flat,” Florida (2005) in the article, The World is Spiky, insists that even though progress is being made in other parts of the world, a completely flat field is not likely yet.  The United States still is the world’s leader economically with many cities like New York and Chicago having economies as big as some countries.  In addition, even with the influx of innovation throughout the world, according to Florida (2005) “Creative people have to travel to Silicon Valley and be absorbed into its innovative ecosystem before their ideas become economically viable” (p. 49).  On the other hand though, American and European, and Japanese companies are increasingly taking heat for outsourcing, or shifting business and or factories beyond their borders.  In terms of business this is justified when Reuters can pay $15,000 in total compensation to an analyst in Bangalore as opposed to $80,000 in New York and London (Freidman, 2005).  Or, a simple example of outsourcing, according to Friedman (2005) is a doctor’s digitized voice late one day can be transcribed the next day by outsourcing it to a housewife in India, because of the twelve hour time difference, the notes can be ready the following morning.

So, the last piece of the puzzle is Nick Bostrom’s presentation on Ted Talk.  The talk departed from the overall themes presented by Friedman and Florida, in my opinion.  With the emergence of what Bostrom called, Superintelligence, I think this has transformed our society and agree with Freidman that it has “flattened” our world.  Furthermore, Bostrom explained this superintelligence in a positive tone, and if the motivation system matched that of man’s, the world would possibly be a better place.  However, in Bostrom’s presentation the image that stuck out to me was the explosion of the atomic bomb, this superintelligence he spoke of depends on the intentions of “what” man?  The primary example of this was the comparison between Osama Bin Laden and David Neeleman the founder of JetBlue, both men had a dream of involving airplanes and a savvy to do something about it” (p. 609).  According to Friedman, one used the opportunity to “use his optimistic visions and technologies of the flat world to lift up people” (p. 613).  While the other, “used his disciples and twisted imagination, to bring two enormous symbols of American power down to their level” (p. 613).  In other words, I am not sure I am so confident with this idea of so called “superintelligence” in the hands of “man.”  I agree with Friedman’s idea of a flat world and really took to heart his suggestions of what our young people need to do to prepare to compete against those engineers who are coming out of especially China and India, the question becomes “how can our kids compete?”  This rings true for me, both as a teacher and a parent.

References

Florida, R. (2005, October). The world is spiky. Atlantic Monthly, 48-51.

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? [Television series episode]. (2015, March). In N. Bostrom (Producer), Ted Talk. Vancouver BC, Canada: National Public Radio.