March 8, 2018

Internet of Humans

March 08, 2018 Posted by Vijay , No comments
I have blogged a lot before, on topics ranging from personal, political and even gibberish. But never ventured into anything which our life has become today. The online world. That internet has now transformed into a 'right' for every human is almost a given. But imagining humans as mere ‘things’ is beginning to increasingly take shape.

A few years back it used to be common to see rickshaw wallahs flaunting and speaking on feature phones. Now the transformation is complete with smartphone prices plummeting. With the advent of ultra affordable data plans in India, the world as also India is truly transforming into a data munching machine. But wait ..

Something odd just struck me. There are many places in India where there is no water or electricity. But data thrives. The looming water wars don't seem to worry or bother anyone. Can internet or mobile data replace water? Several times in our apartment the water tankers wouldn't show up and the taps would be dry. But internet is still accessible.

Are we in a world where the priorities of life are misplaced? The focus is more on tapping zillions of bytes of data for our new age businesses. And no one is spared from this, not even that newborn whose photo gets uploaded within seconds of birth.

The fact is, humans are increasingly becoming bots. Our needs are being analysed and automatically fulfilled faster and faster. What would be left of our so called emotions, if the machines predict everything for us. Sometimes I dream of mobile borne humans as mere bots who can be tracked by multinationals - to predict their next buy, to predict their next destination and in future even suggest what to emote!