Triple Stream
Super Technology – Boon or
Bane?
Prof. I.V. Chalapati Rao
Based on the new knowledge break-throughs, technological innovations
will make their dramatic appearance.
New millenium will usher in tremendous advances in High-tech. It may bring improved electronic gadgets,
inter-planetary travel, double-decker aircraft and trains which float over the
track at a speed of 3000 k.ms per hour without touching the rails. There can be major miracles like
bio-transportation of cattle.
New age technologies will find alternative fuels to replace and improve
on the existing ones which are fast disappearing from the world. Our energy needs can be met by developing
anti-matter as alternative fuel. It
will develop magnetic containers to hold anti- matter. Super Conductors are now available but
developing countries cannot afford the cost.
Flying cars and motor cycles will ease the present-day traffic
congestions on roads! The existing fly-overs
will become obsolete.
Sea water which is available in abundance in our country, can be
converted into fuel. It gets power
through controlled fusion reaction.
Fuel cells can be pressed into more economical service. Nano technology
is being used even now in advanced countries. Nano tubes which are hollow are
extraordinarily strong when compared to steel and at the same time very
light. What will be the cost?
There will be spectacular improvement in computers. Within a decade the world will witness
almond-size computers, even invisible computers. We will get three-in-one ‘Computer, T.V. and Phone’. There will be 700 T.V. Channels for the
votaries of the idiot box. New
generation spectacles will carry 3 dimensional displays that will produce virtual
visual environment over the actual environment. Already WEB has replaced the traditional cable
communication. There will be
revolutionary developments in robot technology. At present there is scarcity of servant maids to help Indian
wives. Their hire charges are
prohibitive. In a decade or two they
will be replaced by robots which will perform all the domestic chores including
dish washing, cleaning etc. Offices do
not need clerks and attenders, and colleges can manage with robot
lecturers. Computers will do their job
in perfection.
The most wonderful thing is, man can live for 140 years, crossing the
scriptural limit of 100 envisaged by ISA Upanishad. What is the use of living with a decrepit body, pouches under the
eyes and wrinkles in the face?
Therefore super technology will discover the secret of rejuvenation and
youthfulness. There will be a second
spring in old age! Molecular medicines
and genome will help human beings to retain youth and conquer all kinds of
diseases including the killer diseases – Aids and Cancer. Artificial intelligence will replace human
intelligence. Even idiots can manifest
remarkable intelligence! Cloning will
be in wide use. DOLLY the sheep was the
first cloning done by IAN WILMOT.
(Latest news is that this first cloned mammal has developed
arthritis). Now a scientist called
STEVE GRAND is creating history by fabricating the first conscious robot called
LUCY. She will use her eyes, ears and
limbs without any programme being fed into it.
Space Travel taxis will take passengers regularly. Dennis Tito was the first to go. Mark Shuttleworth will be the next man!
By manipulating the genes, winged constables may be commissioned into
use, to regulate traffic in the sky routes!
Human cloning will produce ‘designer children’. Every where there will be split-second
efficiency and stream-lined perfection.
Is not Science stranger than fiction?
What a rosy picture! Heaven on
earth! However a question arises. How many people can afford these
luxuries? Will they be within the reach
of the common man, especially in a country like India with a population of a
billion plus? What will happen to human
beings whom machines replace? Let us
consider the negative side as well. In
his book ‘One Dimensional Man’, Herbert Marcuse advances the thesis that in a
modern technological society so-called free institutions and democratic
liberties are used to limit freedom, repress individuality, disguise
exploitation and restrict the scope of human experience. Society is controlled through manipulation
of false needs created by vested interests.
The domination of bosses and owners (who are not robots!) is screened by
their transfiguration into bureaucrats and corporations. Critics are ruthlessly silenced by
channeling their protests through the escape route of institutionalised
democracy.
As E.F. Schumacher said in ‘Small is Beautiful’ Economics has become
the modern religion – the idol worship of material possessions of consumption
as the so-called standard of living.
The system of nature is self-balancing, self-adjusting and
self-cleansing. Technology is not like
this. Technology recognises no
self-limiting principle in terms of speed, size and virulence. In the delicate and beneficient system of
Nature, super technology such as the one envisaged in the fore-going
paragraphs, acts like a foreign body which will be rejected. We find in all areas that the problem grows
faster than the solution. The end
result will be what John Galbraith talks about “Private affluence and public
squalor”. Super Technology with a human
face is as real as a moderate Taliban!
However, Technology is not bad provided it functions within
limits. We should not allow ourselves
to become high flyers, being hijacked from our ancient culture into a Five-Star
Hotel culture which consists in relishing Macdonald’s burgers and Kentucky
fried Chicken and slaking our thirst at the fashionable fountain of Burgundy or
Pepsi, when the poor are denied their meagre meal and aqua pura! It is good to remember Tolstoy’s meaningful
short story ‘How much land does man need?’
Is there no difference between comfort and happiness, IQ and wisdom?
Wisdom is seen in the way knowledge is held - and used.
Nothing fails like success! Let
us stop, listen and proceed.