I'm not a robot, a checkbox that we tick every time we submit some request on the internet. Ever thought of it, that why is someone asking me that am i not a robot?, why should I prove that I am not a robot, that's a very simple answer, because those requests can be submitted by a robot too. Thinking if I am slowly on the way of becoming a robot, all the things we do today are governed by technology some or the other way, we see videos that have recommendations based on our likes and dislikes, we read news based on recommendations, we step outside our homes, we book a cab, we follow a map, that's very helpful, but its like even if we know the way, we'll follow the map even if that's showing the longer route, I don't know why we do this. Even if we know that this might be a fake news, we blindly forward it or share it. Even if we love a restaurant , we go somewhere else that's recommended more on the internet, not saying that its bad, I am just saying that we don't think nowadays, we just follow recommendations . Instead we might have thought, explored on the streets, rather than the internet , asked a friend about a good restaurant , and gone their, which is something natural . But just following technology, without thinking is not at all natural. Being a technologist, I know all the pros that artificial intelligence is bringing in to the world in the field of healthcare, or anything else that makes a better place to live in. But if these huge datasets and artificial intelligence lead to something negative, touched by the hands of people who don't want the world to be a good place to live, if it all it leads to manipulating our minds, our personal lives rather than making our lives easier, it will be of no good, if at all, will eventually lead to a technology disaster. We need technology to be our slave and not the master.We should just think before following it.
When I go out, I see 60 percent of the people with earphones on, hearing in their virtual world, I can imagine some years from now, people will be with their own oculus rift/ or some google glasses, seeing in their own virtual places, talking in their microphones, 3 sense organs straight away gone from being present really to virtually. That might be good or bad for the world, but just imagining, our 3 out of 5 sense organs present virtually and not really, we hearing , seeing and talking virtually, very difficult to see that as a natural evolution in human life.
Its like we are being governed by some robots, eventually we might become robots whose mind is controlled by someone more intelligent artificially, who has all the information about our lives, history and might be predicting our future as well. That might be good for some good reason, to help us, and for the betterment of our lives. But i am really scared that might turn out to dominating our lives in near future as technology or the owners of technology have accumulated so much data about us. The information that they have about us, our choices, likes and dislikes, things we are thinking of doing, its like someone is sitting in my virtual home recording everything that i am doing. We all have created our virtual homes on the internet, where we interact with number of people more than we can count, we don't remember the names, just skimming through their lives everyday, for no reason. Talking about our virtual home, we open more and more doors in this home whenever we create a new profile on a new website and tick that terms and conditions checkbox.
Pondering over this thought for some time, i came across an observation that our lives today, are almost completely immersed in the internet and the devices, interacting with some or the other device, some application, or some virtual assistant. the frequency of us talking to humans have significantly decreased. Might be because we think we would gain more by reading an article or seeing a video on the internet rather than talking to an unknown person. Is that really true? when we travel in trains, we talk to so many people, gain so much more knowledge from their experiences, instead surfing on the internet. Surfing on the internet has become like , we search for abcxyz, we open 10 different tabs , seeing that we have a lot to read now, we just skim over first 2-3 tabs, find something else interesting and then search for that pqrlmn thing, and the remaining tabs are never opened after. This way, we neither go in depth of abcxyz, nor we go in breadth for the same, we just jump from one topic to another. This way might be good for people who just want to get an idea of things, but just getting an idea and not knowing any more doesn't work for the whole life, and this habit is also affecting our real lives, when we dont talk to our closed ones deeply, we are just busy on social walls networking with 1000's of people, just skimming over their profiles, not knowing what good/bad our closed ones are going through that they dont post on social media and they dont want to , they just want to talk to you long through the nights. Another observation i made was, when we talk to someone on the internet , we make an overview about them seeing their social or professional profile, and then talk accordingly. The same way, we introduce ourselves, the other person checks out our professional/social profile, and then talks to us accordingly. Ever imagined how we limit ourselves while talking when we know the background of the other person. When we talk to unknown people in real, in trains, on some journey, on treks, etc, we just talk to them about any random topic in the world, we know them personally, their views about the world, and not talk according to their profiles. See, how different is it to talk really and virtually. Nowadays, talking to real people have reduced significantly, as on journeys, we have our earphones on, devices on, and just avoid talking to people. The former way of talking, where in we see their profile beforehand is actually correct when you are looking for networking and business opportunities, but frankly speaking, life is not just all about business and profit making, its about knowing world view of different people as well, its about seeing things from a different perspective.
Long gone is the time of kings. Where the king was the god for kingdom.A king was the one who everyone followed , who we went to when in need , who managed every happening in the state, who guided the kingdom , who could influence anyone, who governed the state, who had all the information about the kingdom, all the power to bring a change, and basically who everyone believed in.
Thinking of who is going to be the next significant king of the whole world , who will be able to do all these things, I figured out that one who is , or has the potential to become in near future, is the Technology or the one who will own the best technology. The one that we all live with, have in our hands all the time , who we follow every time , who has all the information about us , who manages our lives, who we go to when in need, who matches us with the people that can fulfill our requirements , give us services, and overall managing the entire world. Every morning we wake up, our phones know about our waking time more than our mothers, our phones and so the technology, knows when we are sleeping, going when and where, travelling where, meeting whom, eating what, by pictures obviously, what problems we are suffering from , through our google history, which doctors are we visiting, what means we are travelling, and what not, the list is countless. For all of these good things, giving us better and safer services, I really thank technology , also for its doings and all the sciences put into healthcare, environment, etc, that make the world a better place to live in. But thinking of the negatives, this might turn out to be really disastrous unless the world comes up with efficient cyber laws, information security laws and the faster technology with the governments to track and crack all the negatives and wrongdoings and prevent the same. There is actually tremendous need to do this.