About the Course

Advances in technology have played a key role in human progress since human pre-history. We live today in exponential time. Scientific and technological breakthroughs with world changing potential are coming at us at an ever increasing pace, each promising to shape our future lives and livelihoods in ways we have only begun to imagine.

Technology innovation is central to ensuring the wealth of corporations and nations as we move rapidly into the realm of the “knowledge” economy. It is both a driver of world change and a response to changing economic and social realities. It may well also be our best hope for dealing with issues and concerns of global significance as well as the consequences of past human experiments in industrial development.

This course focuses on how technology innovation has worked, and will work, to change the world (both positively and negatively): past, present and future. Among other things, we will examine technology innovation in the context of the need for world change including: dealing with poverty and creating wealth; fighting death and disease; feeding the world; meeting our energy needs, controlling pollution and managing wastes more effectively; ensuring sustainable development, etc. We will also address the opportunity and need for new products, services and technologies as human aspirations and desires change.

A primary goal of this course is to equip the student with a conceptual framework for intelligently considering the potential economic, social and commercial impact and significance of technology innovation; and a solid foundation for considering issues of development, technology policy, change management, and the management of technology.