Humanity and Technology

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 The Druk Journal talks to Gerd Leonhard, a well known Europeanfuturist, keynote speaker, author and filmmaker who specialises in the debate between humanity and technology. The Druk Journal: We Bhutanese are asking how far behind are we in technology? The digital literacy in our society is relatively low and...

A Pebble in the AI Race

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 Bhutan is sometimes described as “a pebble between two boulders”, a small country caught between the two most populous nations on earth — India and China. This pebble is, however, about to be caught up in a vortex — the transformation of our economic, political and social orders by...

Privacy and Security

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 When the internet was invented, privacy was not the main issue. Everyone was too nice, and behaved themselves. Those days, sadly, have gone. The internet that emerged in the 1960s and early 70s was primarily a place for academics, and those technical and curious enough to scale the barriers...

When Your Personal Data Becomes Everyone’s Property

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 How the EU adopted a legal framework to protect their citizens’ personal data from being misused or carelessly handled, and to what extent Bhutan can benefit from these (hard earned) experiences. In May, 2018, the European Union implemented a common set of data protection laws — General Data Protection...

The Technology Trap

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 An Unashamed Editorial Opinion It is possible that we are lost. From the outside looking in, an interested observer, lacking access to the privy conversation of the nation’s leadership, could be excused for thinking that the drive to bring technology to Bhutan resembles nothing so much as wandering in...

Good, Bad, Neither: Some Reflections on Technology and Culture

Spring Edition , May 4th, 2020 “From the Buddhist point of view, there are two types of mechanisation which must be clearly distinguished — one that enhances a man’s skill and power, and one that turns the work of man over to a mechanical slave, leaving man in a position of having to serve the...

A Steep Learning Curve: Bhutanese on Social Media

Spring Edition , May 1st, 2020 Teeming Millions As of March 2020, 3.8 billion people in the world (49 percent of 7.7 billion people) are on social media. Of the 7.7 billion, 2.4 billion people (33 percent) are on Facebook, the world’s most widely used social media platform. According to www.datareportal.com, an online digital data...

Science, Technology, and Innovation: Finding a Bhutanese Path

Spring Edition , May 1st, 2020 A Case in Point for Developing Economies Amid changes and challenges lie opportunities. In the last 300 years, when human civilisation has undergone three industrial revolutions, unprecedented innovation has taken place at fundamental and applied levels. As our civilisation adopts and adapts to the 4th Industrial Revolution, largely leveraging...

Stepping Up Technology to Improve Health Care

Spring Edition , May 1st, 2020 “…Technologies excite me, as they present immense opportunities for the future. Among the many countries in the world, those which prepare for this change and build the foundations to take advantage of such technological advancements will prosper and develop. Those which are not able to do so will invariably...

ICT Education in Bhutan’s Tertiary Institution

Spring Edition , May 1st, 2020 Industry 4.0 The new Industrial Revolution has dawned. Industry 4.0 has brought about unprecedented changes across economies. Technological disruption in the market, through automation and artificial intelligence and the like, has machines replacing humans in unimaginable ways. Scholars predict that about “five million jobs will be lost within 2020”....