As technology seems to supercede humanity and digitisation threatens to convert mankind into living robots, a very basic question arises — what is the future of mankind? Already, the growing interference of digital technology in human lives is fast converting human beings into mechanical devices, though with flesh and blood. A warning bell was already rung in the famous fictional account Frankenstein. The increasingly excessive interference of technology in our lives indicates that a Frankenstein may become a real threat in not too distant a future.
Glimpses can already be seen. Interestingly, an analogy can be drawn from the ancient tale of Bhashmasura as given in our Puranas. The story is that Lord Shiva, pleased with the bhakti of demon Bhashmasura, gave him the boon that he can burn anybody by putting his hand on his head. And the next thing that the demon did was to try to keep his hand on the God’s head, forcing him to flee. It was with great difficulty that Lord Vishnu could kill the demon by coaxing him to put his hand on his own head.
In modern times, however, this may not be possible to replicate. The supremacy of technology would signal the defeat of humanity, rendering mankind ineffective and helpless, and finally finished. While the prospect may sound too pessimistic and fearsome to be true, it may well be within the realms of possibility.
Let us try to visualise what will become of mankind. Way back in the year 1900, Swami Vivekananda in a letter to Shrimati Mrinalini Bose makes a mention of the scenario, though in a different context. Yes, he is talking of India of those days but the description appears eerily similar. Relevant portion from the letter is quoted below:
“Our motherland is a growing example of the results and consequences of the eternal subjections of the individual to society and forced self-sacrifice by dint of institution and discipline. But all these things are done by people guided like lifeless machines — there is no mental activity, no unfoldment of the heart, no vibration of life, no flux of hope, there is no stimulation of the will, no experience of keen pressure, nor the contact of intense sorrow, there is no stir of inventive genius, no desire for novelty, no appreciations of new things. Clouds never pass away from this mankind, the radiant picture of the morning sun never charms this heart. It never even occurs to the mind if there is any better state than this; where it does, it cannot convince; in the event of conviction effort is lacking; and even where there is effort, lack of enthusiasm kills it out.”
The Swami gives a beautiful analogy. He says: “The huge steamer, the mighty railway engine — they are non intelligent. They move, turn and run, but they are without intelligence. And yonder, the tiny worm which moved away from the railway line to save its life, why is it intelligent.”
When machines will think and human beings would follow diktats, animals would naturally prove more intelligent. They will have the thinking will, which the humans would have surrendered to machine power. Naturally, humans would lose their supremacy. Incidentally, views similar to these have been expressed in an article in the Forbes magazine by none other than Vinod Khosla, an IT wizard.
The writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand) & can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com
