Question: What would you say if glass is partly filled with water?
Answer 1: Its half full
Answer 2: Its half empty
Answer 3: Glass is over sized to hold required amount of water
My Answer: Its partly filled with water and partly with air
This is what happens when somebody starts discussing weather Technology is Boon or Curse. Everybody depending on his/her experience will argue for or against the topic. Most of the time it so happens that we forget to see others point of view just because of our ego problems and make a very big mistake that cannot be rectified later on and what is left is nothing but guilt.
I am not going to say weather it’s a boon or curse but would like to present pros and cons of the technology and leave it to readers to decide what they think about technology.
Boon
I still remember those days when I was a kid, and when I used to sit with my grandfather at night 8:30 to see TV. Guess what, only channel that we used to get in early eighty’s is Pakistani Channel as there were no TV station in or around Bhuj. Nearest transmission center was in Pakistan and with the help of ariel, we used to see that channel, .mostly news in Urdu. At that time we had a phone and number was 74.. Yeah , , just 74 and every time you want to call, you pick up the phone, operator will get connected and ask for the number that you need to be connected with and he/she will manually connect it to you.
Years passed and TV station came into existence and we started getting DD channels in mid eighties. Now we used to hear news in Hindi and were happy to see Hindi movies on Sunday. Just after 1987, I was glad that our school got computers, one of the first institution to get computers. One was what was called Home Computer and another one was PC. It used to be kept in a AC room, nobody was suppose to enter that room and once in a while we were taken there to play computer games that were loaded on cassettes. Now at this time phone number changed to 20084 because they installed automatic exchange and now people were happy that they don’t have to talk to the operator.
Years passed, and cable came in Bhuj. Everybody got the connection so that they can watch Zee TV and then other channels followed. New technology came into markets and computers started becoming more and more popular. One more upgrade came and the number change to 53084 and recently they installed new heavy telephone exchange and numbers changed to 253084.
I still remember 4 years back when I visited India, it took me 30 min to open hotmail home page and today, I see all my friends, families and people who still have no clue about this technology, chatting and surfing on the net. Another major change came is phones got replaced by cell phones. Each college going person is having a cell phone. Its not only just showoff thing, it has become part of life and necessity. Now I can contact my friends and families without time restrictions.
All this things happened because of the technical advancement in the satellite technology and telecomm industry. Not only that, it has become so popular that without it, its like life has come to a stand still. Not only that, at one time there were only Ambassador and Fiats, but today in India there are so many more models and variety of vehicles that I myself has lost track of.
Another major change came in technology is the fuel and electricity. At one point of time, there were only fossil fuels and hydro fuels. Now we have nuclear fuel which generates so much energy that it can be replaced with acres of deforestation. Not only that, there are newer technologies for building dams, reservoirs and other construction materials.
Medical line got more advanced and more and more sophisticated instruments came to life. Not only that there are breakthrough in the field of once known incurable diseases. Once only degree in the field MBBS has been replaced by MS and other field came into existence like genetic engineering and Bio medical engineering.
Once only fields in Engineering: Civil, Electrical and Mechanical, is considered as outdated and out of trend. Today, everybody is running after these Engineering branches: Computer, Electronics, Bio-Medical, Chemical, Instrumentation, Genetic, Aviation etc etc. You think of a name and there will be a course and degree associated with it.
All these occurred not only in India but around the world. Today we have technology to go and explore other planets, building International Space stations, Video chatting, making conference calls, alternate technology to replace fossil fuels, more sophisticated means of transportation etc. Not only this, we have technology to predict weather, position ourselves using global positioning systems and advance warning systems.
Looking at all this it seems Technology is nothing but a Boon ....But wait, , don’t rush, , you have to read the other half...
Curse
Lets start from the time TV station came to Bhuj. Yes people were excited, but that lead to people going out for walks to the parks and lakes on Sunday. People sat at home and did not do anything else. This cut down their physical exercise and going out in fresh air. They stayed at home and just sat and watch movies.
Times changed and vehicles become more and more easily available and thus communication became easy. But this led to people getting less and less physical exercise. Not only that, demand for fuel increased and more and more trees are cut to meet the fuel demand. More extraction of fuel from subsurface led to imbalance resulting in air pollution. Once there were trees and birds, now we see concrete jungles. Even in the night, air does not circulate and get diluted. Now we have problems of smog and smoke. There are more traffic jams and more accidents. People dying on roads have increased exponentially compared to what it was 2 decades back.
Now we have technology of mass destruction. We have nuclear, biological and chemical weapons who can wipe out a whole city or town in no time. We have missiles that can travel between continents and distrust among people is increasing. This is because of stress that has resulted due to his lifestyle. Under stress to get false security, we have developed these weapons and to boost our ego.
Another big problem of technology is Plastics. We have created something that we cant destroy and people are producing it even now not realizing its consequences. The rate it is being produced, it is going to be major problem in next few years.
We carry out tons of experiments in the labs and research facilities not realizing how many animals we are killing and sacrificing for our needs. Not realizing we are creating imbalance on this earth. Not only that due to help of genetic engineering we are now producing plants and vegetables with unknown gene in it, not knowing how human or animals will be affected.
We have technology advancement so much that we have stopped communicating with each other in person. Everything has become so virtual that instead of knocking next door, we call them and say Hi. This has led to more mis-communication and failing to understand others point of view.
Continue in Comments..