The S-Bahn goes right on time at 19.23 PM from the main train station in Munich, the direction of the airport. 12 hours of flight and a week in Singapore are in front of me. Germany definitely has development potential in the digitization, is already evident on the 43-minute journey. Halfway between the Central station and the Airport, my conversation breaks off and the “I’m gone”messages. Radio hole.
At the Singapore airport and it smells like heavy perfume, the thick brown carpet cannot imagine, that I am one of the most modern airports in the world. But then a gigantic, flashing LED Screen that leaves me full of impressions of Singapore stands in the arrival hall. My phone shows me 20 different Wi-Fi Connections, and within seconds rings my phone in front of messages. Fingerprints and Anti-drug signed statement, and I stand at the ticket machines for the metro in the direction of Singapore Downtown.
FOCUS Online 14 countries, 14 Reporter – solutions, which can be for our society as a model
FOCUS Online launches a new and constructive Reportage series. The target: perspectives for Germany’s social and societal future. What other countries do better and what you can learn Germany from international models? To find answers, travel 14 FOCUS-Online-a Reporter in 14 different countries.
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In my German style I have as the first at the airport money. 100 Singapore dollars, roughly 62 euros, for the Start. But the ticket machine does not want to have my bond. An employee comes in, looks at my cash and asks irritated, why I just use my phone or credit card. Because I have cash! But the machine is not more than four dollars change. At a price of 1.60 dollars, I can’t get a ticket. E-Payment is Standard.
camera surveillance à la “1984”
After 30 minutes of travel in the frozen U-Bahn, I’m in Little India. It smells of India, the women wear Sari and the Restaurants, Hindu echoes-music. But the roads are Chaos-free. In front of my Hotel there is even a traffic light, both motorists as well as pedestrians. After checking in, I decide to drive towards the city center. At the reception, I question whether it is as a woman was safe to go in the dark alone through the streets. The young man behind the counter grins at me and points to several cameras that are visible through the glass entrance door on the street. Camera monitoring.
Again, I am confronted with my English: camera surveillance in public space reminds me of the book “1984” from my school time. Big Brother is watching you. A kind of Superiority in me wide. The idea of “In Germany, we are still free!” flits through my head. That Singapore has become, thanks to camera surveillance to the second-safest city in the world, and no German city is represented in the Top 10, it leaves me completely cold. FOCUS Online signs point to the camera monitoring
digitizing is more than just broadband
The Marina Bay Sands Hotel with its three towers and surfboard on the roof, a landmark in the city, I get directly to the ears popped that digitisation is more than just broadband or camera surveillance. A light and water show, accompanied by impressive music, flickering in front of the Hotel. Meters high, bright birds flying to the “water Screens” across the Bay. Shortly thereafter, the steel “super trees light up on the other side of the hotel”. I feel like I’m in an animated disney film. FOCUS Online The illuminated super trees in a Park in Singapore
$ 500 for a Toast,
drenched in sweat, I sit on the next day in the subway. 80 percent humidity for reminding me that Singapore is in the tropics, just above the Equator. 100 meters walk to the underground station to the open-air Sauna. In the train all – really all – have your phone in Hand. The approximately 70-year-old woman next to me Candy Crush “plays”, on the other hand, a young man is watching a Thai Soap on his Smartphone. FOCUS Online In a Singapore subway and all the passengers are almost on the phone
I grab my dry Toast from the Breakfast and bite. Immediately they all look at me – three people stand up and away from me. When I get off at the next Station, I think I know why. A subway employee comes to wag the finger at me and shot. 500 Singapore dollars (about 314 Euro) cost of the piece of Toast that I’ve pushed me in the mouth. Because food and Drink is prohibited in buses and trains strictly. As in Germany, only much more expensive. The tourists are a bonus, saves me just before the penalty.
had warned Everywhere chew, prohibition and information signs
Prior to the chewing gum in Germany in Germany. Before dinner in the subway. I see now everywhere, the ban, and signs. Hundreds of people stand behind the red lines and wait for the next train. Green lines show the Descending the way Out. The escalator needs alone 12 rules of conduct, and left-hand traffic applies also for pedestrians in the corridors of the subway stations.
After all, public transport in the 5.6-million-city works pretty smoothly, the trains are clean and the people don’t have to Dodge constantly to each other. No matter, my rebellious I prevails and I walk to the marker, the two streams of People separate from each other. So much self-determination and freedom must be. I will still be on the signs-looking – in a Singaporean with a view of the cell phone over. The rebel in me, with feet kicked. FOCUS Online In Singapore everything clear rules of the Park: The Bike or the food at the Diner
Artificial intelligence instead of the robot
In the hospital of the National University I’m in search of robots, one of which I had read. You bring the patient the food on trays, to the blood samples-and-forth and help with the cleaning. However, after a short period of time I find myself on an exhibition for Doctors, at the hospital of the future will be shown. The future here means that the digital technologies should be at the end of 2018 will be introduced. For me they seem more like ideas from a futuristic movie.
When I ask a Professor to the robots, grins at me, he mild: “robots? We are talking here about artificial intelligence!“ The Professor is only half as big as me, but I flatter myself that his Hand is my hair and pats my grandpa earlier, when I asked him why children do not just awake can stay as adults. Yeah, it’s okay, child. Robots were yesterday.
My personal (German)
now, I want to test all the technologies. Heart rate measurement via cell phone, the recognition of disease patterns through the use of digital medical records. And facial recognition at the entrance to the hospital. I trust, however, to my (German) boundaries. The camera scans my face, and I have to enter my data. The device would register me, then when you Enter the clinic and show to me where and when I would have to be the doctor. The hospital is supposed to be more efficient. FOCUS Online visitors to the exhibition can test the face detection
But I refuse. My data I want to associate not with my scanned face. Directly, I have directed the attention of all the visitors of the exhibition to me. I’m irritated that a doctor asks me if I have a Facebook profile. I have. He shakes his head, says: “And since you’re Worried about facial recognition in the field of medical technology?” Yes. The man was probably right, and I’m scared. Afraid to jump over to my digital shadow. The technology, I do not test. FOCUS Online/Vivica Mildner My pulse by phone fairs, the exhibitors but then – here I need to specify also not my name
Singapore holds me in the mirror in front of
Though I belong to the Generation that had 12 already their own mobile phone, I feel in Singapore, old-fashioned and backward. It is already so: The people in this small city-state have learned that the digital change is coming. And fast. Not in the morning. Now. The awareness and the openness of the population towards new technologies and innovations are impressive. This is not to say, however, that we should accept technologies unconditionally. Yet, criticism and skepticism should be, and can’t slow the digital transition with us, but taxes. Because digitisation is a lot of tape more than the pure wide-Expansion, will change all areas of life. I’ve experienced in Singapore.
in Germany,
After 12 hours flight I’m back in the S-Bahn to Munich Central station. Still at the airport I bought a sandwich, I’ll bite now and take pleasure. It has rarely tasted so good. The Internet breaks down again and when I get Off colliding with one batter. I’m back in Germany. In the digital stone age.
All stories from Singapore: In Singapore, I learned that we giant delighted German in the digital stone age lebenWie the Mini-state of Singapore as a High-Tech – and what we learn from this jam-the Chaos in German cities: Singapore shows how to create a Bonus-toll, the collapse is prevented safe feeling on the road at night: How Big Data women in Singapore home hilftAlt and alone: In Singapore, Surveillance and rescue Sensors life
In the FOCUS Online/Wochit Estonians can do 99 percent of public services from the Couch online
