Man's worst enemy... is his best friend?

Writing my previous post - The age old dilemma - science or ethics?, left me thinking more about how man has helped himself evolve over the generations. Every single step taken, each small discovery made, all the inventions created, have resulted in the world we see and live in. To think of what we have achieved, how far we have advanced, and to think of the potential we have, to do things previously believed to be impossible, is frankly overwhelming.

From discovering fire, to creating forges for melting metal.
From creating the wheel, to building hovercrafts.
It was only some centuries ago when sailors discovered new continents, and now we are already sending unmanned vehicles to outer space.

And it looks like this is just the beginning. The quest to make life easier for man has, and will always be, a continuous, ongoing process. Technology has been advancing at such a rapid rate, and has been in such widespread use, that we have had no time to stop ourselves, and think - Is this really making our lives easier?? Has technology really made a positive impact on everyone?

As they say, technology is just like fire. Control it, and you can use it to create wonders. But let it control you, and it can destroy you.
Well, what I'm referring to above is NOT the making of an atom bomb or advance weaponry.
But yeah, it is the issue of how the creator has succumbed to his creations, how the technology we have created has backfired in many ways.
And please, I'm not thinking of a matrix-like scenario where AI takes over the earth.
I am talking about something that is happening to the common man, every single day of his life.
This is about how technology has changed the world, such that it is now impossible to imagine life without it.

This is something which everyone has thought of, something which everyone has experienced at some time or another. A computer, mobile phones, calculators, television, the internet - to name a few. These were devices which were created to make life simple, to help us better ourselves. However, these have become the bane of the modern man. Our dependence on these have increased to such a dramatic extent, that people have have started putting faith on these, which in many cases is more than the faith they have in themselves.

To illustrate this, I can give you an example of what happened to me a couple of months back. I went to a nearby shop to purchase 4 items (i think). The shopkeeper (SK) whips out his calculator, sums up the cost of each item, and tells me the total. Our conversation goes this way (which was in our local language kannada, translated below in english)

SK : Sir, the total is Rs.85.
Me : Rs.85?? Did you calculate correctly?
SK : Yes sir, it comes to 85.
Me : This is not alright, I bought all these. --- and i show him all that I bought
SK : Yes sir I have included everything. The total came to 85. Look at this if you want. --- and he shows me the calculator displaying the number 85 on it
Me : Something is not right here. This cake that i bought costs Rs.120 by itself!! --- and I show him the cake with a price tag of Rs.120 - its one of the 4 items i bought
SK : Yes sir, the total has come up to Rs 85 including that!
I am pretty bewildered and mildly irritated by this time.
Me : Can you calculate once more?
SK : OK Sir.
I see him hit the 'C' button to refresh the calculator. He then types in the numbers again which takes a few seconds, hits the '=' button, looks at the result, then looks up at me, and shows the calculator
SK : Look at this sir. The total came to 85!
Me : [Whhaaaattt???!!! OK... I've had enough] Oh! Ok. Take the 85.
I pay him the 85, and happily walk away.
A couple of days later, I've forgotten about this, and I go there again for a purchase. He comes towards me, staring at his feet, looking very shy while scratching beneath his ear. I'm a bit confused as to what is happening.
SK : Sir I calculated wrong that day. That day's total amount was Rs.___. You are supposed to pay Rs.___ more. [This sounded a lot more reasonable, and was probably right]
Me : Oh ok.
And I give him the remaining amount.

I am pretty sure that quite a few of you are laughing while reading this, but for me, this whole episode was very irritating (and yeah, a bit funny, now that I think of it). However, the conclusion I drew here is the same as what I have stated above - people have become extremely dependant on technology, to the point where machines have replaced what was once called 'common sense' to people. You might say that I cannot draw conclusions because of an honest mistake made by one person. Well if that is so, I still cannot understand the reasoning behind the following incidents that I have witnessed (and these are not fictitious)

1. We had asked a fellow engineering student the question "which is heavier - a ton of cotton or a ton of iron". And as expected, he says its a ton of iron. We have a good laugh, and tell him that both weigh the same as they both weigh a ton each. Well, this is not surprising, but what comes next is. The guy actually takes a pen and paper, starts writing formulae for the gravitational force exerted on a body, and tells us that he will prove a ton of iron to be heavier than a ton of cotton!! And to top it all, he was a mechanical engineering student!! The branch of engineering which has everything to deal with gravity and forces.

2. This is something which I guess most of us have seen, but which irritates me to no end. 5 of us, software engineers, go to have lunch together. We have a good hearty meal, after which the bill arrives. Immediately, people remove their mobile phones and open the calculator to calculate the cost per head. Come on guys!! We have studied advanced math for a minimum of 6-7 years. A simple division by 5 does not need a calculator! Take your time to calculate, no one is in a hurry to empty their pockets.

Well, I can go on and on, but I think you get the gist of what I am trying to tell here. It is true that we are in an age where we have gadgets to help us do anything we want. But the sad part is that people have started using these gadgets as a replacement for the one god has given us - our brain. The time has come for us to start using our potential, wherever we can, to the maximum possible extent it can be used. The world has shown us that the definition of impossible is fast changing, and it is now time that each and everyone of us show ourselves that, what we thought of as impossible is changing too!

Technology is limited by our understanding of the universe, and understanding comes from experimentation, the ability to experiment increases with our imagination, and imagination is what arises when we remove the shackles and doubts nagging inside us and give our brain a free rein!

Trust me, I am also one of the people hopelessly in the grip of modern gizmos. If not for computers, I would have been unemployed right after my engineering!!! But believe me when I say this, the next time I am tackling a problem, the very first treasure hunt for the answer will be within the gray matter, where I will try my hardest and probe the deepest to come up with something extra-ordinary and original. And as they say, the journey is always more interesting than the destination! Enjoy the journey to come up with something innovative, and the end result never matters!!

Signing off with another smile, another wink and yet another bow.

Enigmatically yours,

VAH

The age old dilemma - science or ethics?

Here I am, sitting in front of a screen right after turning the last page of Dan Brown's latest book - Inferno. And as a fan of Dan Brown's writing, I must say that this book is right up there with all his other books. Right from the page 1, where we read about the 'Shade' running through Florence, the book has kept me in a tight grip, travelling along with Robert Langdon (third time lucky with the Harvard's Art professor), who is accompanied this time by Sienne Brooks (a doctor with an off-the-chart IQ), in his latest heart-thumping, mind-boggling adventure through the streets of Florence, all the way to Venice and then to the Hagia Sophia in Turkey. A strong recommendation to all the Dan Brown fans out there!

This book, like all the other books that he has written, is not just about the adrenaline and nerves. This is another treasure trove of information, as every few chapters introduces us to something new and exciting. While it was the Holy Grail, the Priory of Sion, and the number Pi (something which I personally am very thankful for) in his book The Da Vinci code, he introduced us to the Illuminati, CERN and antimatter in his book Angels and Demons. With the Inferno, he takes us through Dantes Divine Comedy,  through the 9 stages of hell, and talks about stuff like Transhumanism and post-humans along the way. It is this last part which interested me a great deal, and about which I intend to focus on in this post.

A quick google search gave me a lot of information on Transhumanism. For those readers who have not heard of this (which I am guessing are quite a few in number) and who would rather read about it in this post than on google (which I really am hoping is very few - come on guys, open a new browser window and read about it a little, this post is always here), here is a very brief idea about it.
Copied directly from wikipedia, it says "Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities." Sounds pretty complicated, huh? What this basically means is that scientists are now toying around with technology, hoping to alter the human genetic makeup to create a new species (currently dubbed post-humans) which has superior intellect and strength. This seems like something straight out of a science fiction book, eh?! Somebody has been taking the X-men way too seriously!

As astonishing as the subject sounds, this area is being researched extensively. However, the main concern with this is that it is on the very edge (or some might say that it has crossed the boundary) of what people think is ethical. The rate of advancement of technology has been so phenomenal in the past few decades, that it has been impossible for a normal human to come to terms with the moral implications of some of these. What has been the stuff of movies and fantasy books is now being turned to reality, and any change this radical always come with some opposition. And like every other major breakthrough, this comes with its own set of pros and cons. If given a chance, who would not want to be superman? Wouldn't the world be a much better place to live in, if it was devoid of diseases and infections, where man uses his extra-ordinary abilities for the good of everything around? On the other hand, as pointed out in the book Inferno, wouldn't this bring about a wider gap between the rich and the poor, wherein the rich can afford such a costly procedure making them 'post-humans' while the poor are forced to suffer at their hands? Is it really in man's hands to accelerate evolution, something which, until now, only nature could perfect? Darwin's theory will have to be re-written, as 'Survival of the Fittest' just does not seem to be enough in this scenario.

The biggest concern here is that it might not be long before we have to start giving definitive answers to the questions posed. We are entering a point of no return, and unless the entirety of the human race is ready to take a stance, things may well go out of control. Just for the moment, imagine that we are at this turning point in history. Which side would you be on? Always a hard question to answer, but answer you must, because as Dante has said in the Divine Comedy - "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

As always, signing off with a smile, a wink and a bow.

Enigmatically yours,

VAH