The Advent of Modern Technologies!

Where are we heading to?

It's been about 21 years since we entered the 21st century. Entering the 21st century was a milestone of its own, as it has witnessed the rise of the ‘Dot-Com Bubble’, and on corollary led the IT revolution in the world (Once Again) - Well this was the era of the Internet, and still, it is, rather it has become profound!!

The late ’90s and early 2000s have seen a significant revolution in the world, it helped the world understand where the future is heading to. The computers which were earlier not very much popular to the eastern world or say not in the reach of common people started attracting the common people to understand its "wizard", to look beyond traditional working culture and aspire to something to work on, which can be regarded as ‘exotic’, and the most sought after the job was the jobs of ‘Software Engineers’ ( In India, after Government Jobs!!? :D)

(I understand how and when the computer was invented and how it revolutionized the world, but back in 2000, it was not well within the reach of common people, not because people lacked money, but were not aware of its application, and capabilities).

I remember our computer classes in early 2000 when the programming languages introduced to us were DOS and FoxPro. Then, it failed to create any excitement among us, but the interesting part was gaming - which we loved to play. Though it was similar to video games, playing it on the computer was a different experience.

If you’re born in India, and not from Metro Cities, you would not have seen people using computers a lot, though it was slowly added into the school curriculum. As I said, computers were not very popular, and during the year 2000, about 50 Million window’s PC was infected by the virus ‘ILOVEYOU’, the love bug ( Well, it's still a bug!! :D). And, people, there were a few I know, thought that computers are dangerous. They give birth to some of the deadliest viruses in the world ( well their dream will come true in 2019, with the launch of COVID19, unfortunately, computers are not the reason.)

The interesting part is, the computers did not evolve in silos, but it was a global revolution of technology, when the computers, the processors, the hardware were improved day by day ( Moore’s law), and alongside Telecom sector was booming too, and slowing capturing the market and people’s footprint with 2G and 2.5G Technology. And, then there was the launch of 3G, which significantly changed the way people use the internet on their cell phones. And, now cellphones ‘to be called smartphones’ in future started making much more sense than personal computers or laptops. Now, mobile has become mobility ( Mobility: given the context of this article, let's not argue on definition ) - it more or less allowed people to work, and travel together - I have been doing it since 2013 :)?

What do you think, why 3G Technology was no less than a revolution? It brought people closer, it helped people make video calls with great Image and voice clarity. Now we are living in the Era of 4G, which is on the verge of losing its importance as 5G Technology is knocking at the door, which should revolutionise the Internet Speed in mobile phones. ( I haven’t forgotten Artificial Intelligence ?'AI’? yet? )

The first internet-enabled phone was launched in 1996, by Nokia in Finland, and the handset was Nokia 9000 Communicator, and now almost every mobile phone has internet. In the journey so far, what we have observed is that humans are slowly but firmly inclined ( or say Pushed) towards Mobile phones and the Internet, it has become an integral part of it. And, today for a normal human being, it's not just difficult, but rather next to impossible to live without mobile and internet. That’s how we have embraced it, or say we are handcuffed.?

The advent of modern technologies, not only overwhelmed the normal human being but also opened the door for newer and better technologies. Here I would like to talk a little about Artificial Intelligence, the word Artificial Intelligence was coined by Alan Turning in 1956, he was a mathematician. There is a famous Turing Test, which says “ It can only be called as Artificial Intelligence ‘AI’ if a Natural Language Conversation Between a Human and Machine Designed to generate a human-like response”.?

Well, now we are living in the world of technology, and I think this was the right time to reinforce the “word” Artificial Intelligence, which is an umbrella term encompassing Machine Learning and Deep Learning to add a few. ( Now you know how to test a machine right? Before we give it a tag of Artificial Intelligence, let's run it through the Turing Test -? not everything floating in the market is? AI).

With the advent of AI, it gave room to entrepreneurs to get into a war room where they can explore and embark on new dimensions, new directions - and, here they come with Driverless Car and Space Technology ( In future, cloud 9 would not be a myth. If you want to be in Cloud 9, hire Blue Origine, SpaceX or Virgin Atlantic ISRO has not started the service yet :D )

I do not exactly understand why legends are fighting for space, though one of the dreams of Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantics was to give people an affordable experience of space, where they can take a tour of the world in a few hours.?

Besides this, competition for driverless cars is becoming stiff. Keeping traditional car manufactures aside, companies like Facebook, Amazon, Apple are also venturing into the market. What could be the possible reason? Hope you understand, the USA is a capitalist market, and no market in the world is purely socialist. These companies are business leaders, why would they want you to sit idle in the car. Whereas companies like BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota ever tried to make your driving experience better, and now imagine a driverless car.?

Isn’t it a radical change, not just for the automobile industry but for humans in general too? It will surely shift the way people work today. When most of the automobile companies are running in loss, or merely making a single-digit profit, what’s there for these companies to venture into a new domain when their existing business is doing absolutely fine?

If you have lived in Bangalore, you would know the traffic situation (can’t complain about the infrastructure because Bangalore or say ‘Namma Bengaluru’ is overloaded, and the government is trying to meet the demand), to cover a distance of 10~15 Kilometer during the peak hours it would take about 2 hours. So ideally, a person spends about 3~4 hours a day commuting to the office, and also 9 hours of the workday. ( Ideally, time taken to commute should be considered as working hours, but anyway leaving it aside for now…? a study says The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime )

Considering an ideal situation, if research and practicals are done well, if we commute in driverless cars, it would surely save 3~4 hours a day. Now, where can you utilise these many hours, think? I guess, you will get this right - the hours saved can be used to complete office work, or you would rather spend it watching a video on Netflix, Youtube (it's no less than OTT, not free anymore) or maybe end up doing shopping on Amazon. Hope you understand how smartly your time is being converted into a Business Opportunity.

Not sure, how right it would be if I say not only you’re employed but your time is also working on something, making something better while you’re busy enhancing your experience, but it won’t let you sit idle ( don’t you dream of leisure now :D). Also, it will not happen in isolation, but these technologies will also change the way the world is working. It might disrupt the whole Job Structure, the job we have will be replaced with the job probably we are not aware of yet, to be unveiled in the future ( we might have to restructure our Human Capital, and also Human Capital Management). As, the advent of one technology would lead to the origin of another, and so on… it will be a sequential process, in an Integrated World, In an Integrated Economy!!! ( We are already one )

I understand it might be too early to think about the future, but it might not be too late!

( Just my experience, and personal opinion, thoughts are nothing but the outcome of the way I look at things, the way I observe it.? I hope, it's not too late to understand that humans are not the priority, rather we have become the object of a capitalist economy. Is it good? Is it Bad? I don’t know - let the time be the wisest counsellor, as a techie, let's work on our skills )

Everything is shared.

Disclaimer - Thoughts, and write up can be similar - no plagiarism intended!

~ Hridayesh

Originally Published at -

The Advent of Modern Technologies!