Are we becoming Robots
Are we becoming Robots?:-
Few months back I had been to a college workshop on robotics. The session was being concluded. The learned professor explained how robots will play an important part in the future life. She concluded her lecture with a lighter note – “Beware students, while we design robots, we should not ourselves become robots”. There was a little laughter in the audience followed by an applause. This was followed by prize distribution ceremony by the hands of a celebrity. After the function was over, it was the celebrity who got the attention of the media. The photo sessions were over and the students dispersed.
The words of the professor played around in my mind as I walked around the campus. A series of images from daily life flashed in my mind. Those words did represent partial reality in modern life.
I remembered a similar function where another glamor model chased by thousands of her fans had committed suicide just within few days after the function. Fame and money were not enough for her to live her life. Magazines were claiming her to be “amongst most desirable woman”. But she was herself feeling unwanted after her relationship was broken. Mere existence on social media did not help her. Were her smiles, gestures, appearance on the stage and greetings virtual? Was she a robot?
There was another shocking event recently in Mumbai. Two young girls were knocked down by a bus in the evening rush hours. Unfortunately the girls were left to die on the road without any help or treatment. The crowd was busy recording video images of the girls that were to be posted on social media. They didn’t bother to help them. Social media did not connect the people–it disconnected them.
There seemed to be striking similarity between the two unconnected events. There was a crowd, media, news, information on the internet and availability of urban facilities but no humanity. The sensory organs worked mechanically. Hearts did not bleed, eyes had no tears. Empathy was lost. I realized that the way we are supposed to sense events naturally as human beings has undergone change.
There is great disconnect between action and emotions, relationship and sense of belonging, external demands and internal value systems. Such behavior I feel is robotic behavior.
As I walked around the campus, I passed by classrooms of various subjects and thought of the interviews I had taken of graduate students.
Physics had been reduced to velocity calculations. The mystery of how the same laws of motion govern both, movement of electrons and planets moving in their respective orbits didn’t arouse their passion. Periodic charts were displayed in Chemistry laboratories but the question why iron or inert gases follow the same molecular theory was not answered. These questions were not a part of their syllabus. History was taught as chronology of events and not as constant struggle of humanity to establish better value systems. The power of the language was evaluated based on grammar and format and not on its ability to revolutionize the human thought process.
Management theories continued to teach how productivity norms are to be measured with perfection. They failed to teach that the real productivity is an output of passion. They taught how to calculate sales value of the product but not how to measure the value of creation. Papers on the adverse effects of climate change were submitted but the way an uneducated gardener in the campus nurtured plants like his children was unnoticed.
There is disconnect between what is learnt and what is experienced. The “little professor” ego state of a student was killed by education system to produce labels without identity. This is exactly how information is fed to a robot, not to a human being.
I reached home, switched on the TV and started surfing channels. A sports channel was covering a cricket match. It was almost certain that some part of the match was fixed. I wondered what thrill any sport would have if sportsmanship was missing. To me, players who played fixed match behave like pre-programmed robot with a sales value.
Another channel was reporting that a renowned film star was acquitted from a heinous crime. Lawyers had won the arguments on technical grounds. The law had won; justice was derailed. It was a case of technical perfection like an algorithm written for a robotic machine that only took inputs and processed them with a logical flow but not realizing the consequences of the outcome.
One more channel had an entertainment show with pre-recorded sounds of laughter rather than spontaneous ones. Another channel was hosting a noisy debate where lung power mattered more than substance. The positions of all the participants including the anchor were frozen. Spokespersons seemed to speak like parrots without any self-conviction. There was neither enlightenment nor conclusion. Surf more, some other channel captured a long protest march and participants did not seem to have link to the cause. Media was above everything including human sensibilities. They wanted all have the freedom of expression but not necessarily a proportionate sense of responsibility.
Truth seemed to be lost in terabytes of information produced every moment in the modern world. Human social identity was split. Virtual image on the screen mattered more than behind the screen realities. True knowledge is what liberates us from ignorance. Here was the reverse effect. Continuous flow of information seemed to make us one numb. We start losing our identity as human beings.
When there is disconnect between image and message, knowledge and wisdom, we lose our ability to distinguish ourselves as humans from robot.
I surfed through some of the political news. An extremely radical cult was training youngsters to behead dolls as part of “future role” they would play in changing world order. This apparently was not new. In the “we against them” battle, history has created many cults.
There are cults of suicide bombers, crusaders, zealots, leftist, comrades, proletariat’s, capitalists, each compartmentalizing life. Great philosophies are reduced to a certain “ism” by followers distorting the very foundation of the ideal. It is evident how people in cults lose their power of independent thinking. In fact, the notion of independent thinking itself is nowadays distorted by so call rationalists embracing anarchy and insensitivity. Their rationalism is devoid of curiosity and respect for human and social values. Sometimes, I wonder if the people who refuse to appreciate the great power of devotion are as closed minded as followers of cult. They have so much faith in their intellectual power that they also do not believe anything exists beyond it.
As an example “modern rationalists” may write thesis on judicial integrity. But they will never understand why a common man will trust the words of the Chief Justice of India who had the great humility to bow in front of his aged mother moments after he took his oath in office. Legal proceeding are only expressions of his inner value systems within constitutional framework when the person acquires such sense of humility. No news anchor running after TRP rating will ever unearth this truth, as this is not a breaking news.
Followers of cults see life from a single prism like a pre-programmed robot. They fail to appreciate life as a kaleidoscope with different aspects. Their behaviour is predictable. They always want to fit diversities of life into logical compartments. They are labels without identities. Their program aborts when they come across new experience in life. The cults are unable to modify their narratives.
I switched to another channel. This one was playing the movie Gandhi. There was a small scene with a lighter moment. Gandhiji was deciding the strategy to counter British proposal along with other Indian leaders. He suddenly got up and went out of the room to feed a hungry goat tied outside. It seems to be a very small gesture but meant a lot. His idea of freedom, love for small creatures created by nature, interpretation of universal values, his spirituality rooted in pious religiosity, thoughts and actions all seemed well-connected. I feel this was the reason why he was called Mahatma.
We follow narratives that do not change with different life experiences and disconnected from larger value systems. These narratives make us behave like pre-programmed robot.
The virus of great disconnect has started affecting our personal lives also. I wonder how highly educated couples fail to experience the charm of marriage through evolving relationship and lock their positions in life in the self-created notion of “individuality”. Relationship without love, love without bond, bond without acceptance make them lead a mechanical life irrespective of whether relation is broken or is carried through compulsion. I am amazed to see in this extrovert world, presentations matter more than substance, being a hot man or a hot woman is thought to be more successful than being a warm and considerate person. I always felt that the modern trend of an item girls on ramp walk and sad tradition of “Sati” on a pyre are two sides of the same coin. Both are rooted into the idea that denies a woman of her independent existence as human. Mere acceptance of prevailing social customs is merely an excuse.
I turned back to the movie Gandhi. Uneducated people in their small huts were spinning Charkha in dim light. The act seemed monotonous but it had rhythm. They had complete faith that they were taking on the mighty British regime. They had found purpose for life, they defied all ideologies, logic, labels, egos, social status. Their sensory organs were at their command, they had willingly surrendered themselves to the cause they believed in. They were not robots. They represented thousands of human beings across the world and centuries who truly shaped up human civilization.
The professor was right. It was easy to create a robot but difficult not become one. In the world exploded with information with unsustainable narratives, it is even becoming increasingly more difficult to preserve human identity.
Disclaimer : Views expressed in this article are personal.:-
Bol Madhavache 