The Power Of Modern Technology

Sipping over a hot cup of coffee over a lazy monsoon afternoon I came across an article in the newspaper which left me astonished but confounded over the future that modern technology holds for us. Truly technology has helped millions of helpless around the world, but at the same time it has trapped us into a violent vortex, and it does seem strenuous to get out.

But first, let’s assume the glass to be half full and consider the zenith that modern technology brings along with it. Long ago, conversing with people outside your immediate location was a cumbersome process requiring communication by letters and a virtue called patience. Today, internet has transformed the fat world flat, by connecting people sitting on the two opposite poles of the planet Earth with a process called click. In the field of medical science there has been a hulk improvement in technological tools allowing doctors to detect and thus diagnose diseases earlier. This is not just limited to physiological illnesses but also includes psychological ailments. For instance an increasing number of people these days are taking Prozac for depression and Paxil as an antidote for shyness. For the weaker section of students, doctors have also been suggesting Ritalin to stimulate concentration.

Modern technology has also been extensively applied to international sports thereby reducing the error rate and thus delivering consistently better results. Snickometer, a tech designed to detect the slightest change in sound waves to pick out if the batsman has edged the ball, is used widely in national and international cricket tournaments. Additionally technology such as heart rate monitors and GPS are even used extensively to mentor the day to day training of players suggesting the pertinent type and amount of exercises that players must undergo between matches.

The future looks promising as well, with much more proliferation and much more sophisticated systems employed to serve the human race. One of my brothers, who works at a senior consultant in one of the top notch hospitals of Delhi suggested that in the time to come people could be fitted with a cochlear implant- a device that converts sound waves into electronic impulses and enable the deaf to hear-and a skull mounted microprocessor which would convert brain waves into words. A prototype for the same is already under research. “If we could connect, both the devices to the internet, we would arrive at a point which fiction writers have been getting excited about for decades. Mind reading!” he said. He was being frivolous, but for how long the joke remains funny, is far from clear.

Undoubtedly the supremacy of modern technology cannot be neglected, but it is equally important to turn the coin over and ask, What if the glass is not half full? What if it is all a mirage..a delusion? What if there is nothing actually left in the glass? It has been experimentally proven that electronic devices and pharmaceutical drugs all have profound repercussions on the cellular structure and the complex biochemistry of our brains. This in turns affect our personality and our traits. In order words, modern technology might as well be acting as a fillip to the metamorphosis which could be altering our human identity itself. Virtual friends and relationships on virtual networks such as Facebook and My Space leads to, among other things, the increased capacity of people to be melancholy as spending too much time on these virtual and artificial friendships results in much lesser time being saved which could otherwise be spent on true meaningful relationships. This also has adverse consequences for the international economy let alone be individual nations as the mushrooming of technology has led to a much decreased demand for human interventions which every year leads to millions of people losing their jobs. Drawing an analogy, our generation in a parallel universe are actually participating in a behemoth, unintentional social experiment the aftermath of which is not entirely predictable.

It is hard to say which side could clutter more points as opposed to the other but I do vision prospects in one particular aspect. I believe that we might someday would be able to yoke outside energy in a way that productivity- the supreme mask of individuality- is actually burgeoned rather than demeaned.

Summing it up with the famously quoted words of Ann Brown,

“Time is running out for most antique paper,

Modern technology is a part of God’s plan to help not only with remembering the past,

But creating future possibilities which at this time we cannot imagine”.