All the futuristic movies one sees portray technology as an evil force out to destroy mankind and rule this planet. There are so many articles written on artificial intelligence that one tends to oversee the control that humans possess over technology. It is this discretion that bears the misfortune that has shadowed us in today’s age.
Questioning the clichéd argument of roles of master and slave between humans and machines is not something I wish to engage in. This article focuses on a more subtle aspect of everyday technology fitting so much a part of one’s life that conventional things that once took its place are now becoming superfluous. We are all prey to this fervent phenomenon, which is slowly eroding the very fundamentals of a living being. What separates humans from other less evolved species is their social life. It is now an over-used quote of man being a “social animal”. Society is an integral part of most rational individuals the world around.
However, our dependence and belief in the moral fiber of society is greatly degraded. In my own personal experience, I can vouch for my laptop and my mobile phone being such vital assets in my last year that I can hardly imagine a life without either of them. Although always being a fan of gadgets, I had never witnessed myself to be so helpless without these ‘essentials’. Atleast in a B-school atmosphere, where most, if not all the 20-somethings of this country hope to get to, a laptop is an extension of one’s one self. Especially in a day and age when each piece of information gained can lead to that ounce of advantage gained over contemporaries, the laptop combined with the internet, is increasingly the “weapon of choice” for these modern-day gladiators.
On the flipside, one loses out on maintaining a social life. The interaction one has with acquaintances, more often than not, happens over an instant messenger. And friends are reduced to fillers for the times when electricity or a technical snag comes in one’s way. With mobile phones to accomplish the same task that a real conversation would, convenience has aided the mobile’s ability to triumph over conventional forms of conversing. I can recollect several instances of really important words being lost over a text message, phone call or even an IM.
At the risk of rubbishing my degree in engineering, I beg to differ on some well-established facts of technology. When one thinks of something and speaks it out over the phone, or words it over IM or an SMS, this data is supposed to get translated into electronic data. In this process are a series of encoding and decoding procedures. Somehow, I believe we as a race, still haven’t mastered that. There is some amount of what one wants to communicate that is “lost in translation”. The other side may have heard exactly the words that one spoke, but will never get the true meaning of what it meant.
This is the price we pay for surviving in an over-competitive, opportunistic world. We all lose, in the process of pursuing this dream of convenience. Technology will never substitute our race, but will surely change the very ethos of what our society is based on. And this is such a subtle change that it would be too late before we realize the extent of its consequences.
So the next time you choose a phone call or a movie or a TV program over a walk with a loved one, stop and think. There may not be a next time…
Questioning the clichéd argument of roles of master and slave between humans and machines is not something I wish to engage in. This article focuses on a more subtle aspect of everyday technology fitting so much a part of one’s life that conventional things that once took its place are now becoming superfluous. We are all prey to this fervent phenomenon, which is slowly eroding the very fundamentals of a living being. What separates humans from other less evolved species is their social life. It is now an over-used quote of man being a “social animal”. Society is an integral part of most rational individuals the world around.
However, our dependence and belief in the moral fiber of society is greatly degraded. In my own personal experience, I can vouch for my laptop and my mobile phone being such vital assets in my last year that I can hardly imagine a life without either of them. Although always being a fan of gadgets, I had never witnessed myself to be so helpless without these ‘essentials’. Atleast in a B-school atmosphere, where most, if not all the 20-somethings of this country hope to get to, a laptop is an extension of one’s one self. Especially in a day and age when each piece of information gained can lead to that ounce of advantage gained over contemporaries, the laptop combined with the internet, is increasingly the “weapon of choice” for these modern-day gladiators.
On the flipside, one loses out on maintaining a social life. The interaction one has with acquaintances, more often than not, happens over an instant messenger. And friends are reduced to fillers for the times when electricity or a technical snag comes in one’s way. With mobile phones to accomplish the same task that a real conversation would, convenience has aided the mobile’s ability to triumph over conventional forms of conversing. I can recollect several instances of really important words being lost over a text message, phone call or even an IM.
At the risk of rubbishing my degree in engineering, I beg to differ on some well-established facts of technology. When one thinks of something and speaks it out over the phone, or words it over IM or an SMS, this data is supposed to get translated into electronic data. In this process are a series of encoding and decoding procedures. Somehow, I believe we as a race, still haven’t mastered that. There is some amount of what one wants to communicate that is “lost in translation”. The other side may have heard exactly the words that one spoke, but will never get the true meaning of what it meant.
This is the price we pay for surviving in an over-competitive, opportunistic world. We all lose, in the process of pursuing this dream of convenience. Technology will never substitute our race, but will surely change the very ethos of what our society is based on. And this is such a subtle change that it would be too late before we realize the extent of its consequences.
So the next time you choose a phone call or a movie or a TV program over a walk with a loved one, stop and think. There may not be a next time…
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