I believe : Blog # 76

I believe  

             I used to watch the earlier Harry Potter films and wonder will our newspapers ever give that kind of live –moving image reporting. Starting last week, TOI has been featuring an application called ‘Alive’ where you can watch the video featuring a news item through an App in your cellphone. I say, we have come pretty close. It wouldn’t take much time for the newsprint to come to life every morning in front of our eyes.

         We all know all those futuristic technologies which we can possibly imagine would have reached at least a nascent stage in the labs of the likes of CERN or NASA or better, the military HQs across the world. But the day these technologies become ubiquitous is when it starts helping us, the lesser mortals.

           Earlier, when we watched an English Sci-Fi film, we used to say this technology will come to our lives in the next 50 years. Now the maximum that the soothsayer in us will go is 5 years. Such is the pace with which the technology has been developing.

            There is no such field in our lives which is untouched by the evolution of technology.            Until late 90s, there used to be an exodus of young graduates from the southern states to Bombay and beyond in search of a job. Then arrived, the Information Technology industry. That put a virtual end to this migration in under 5 years. This has lasting impacts on the socio – cultural fabric of the societies of those states. Not to mention the obvious economic changes.

 The USA has discovered large reserves of Shale gas –using technology. In the years to come, let us hope it will develop a means to extract it efficiently – using technology. This means the dependence on oil reduces which in turn means as end to the never ending search for “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Also the Arab spring might attain full bloom given the lesser influence the royal families have owing to drop in the black gold’s price. The whole dynamics of the International politics and diplomatic relations will change!

            So if someone were to tell me technology is going to dictate the way you perceive and inhabit the world, I believe, eyes shut!

                                                                                                              Arun Babu

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