Walking the tight rope called "Technology"

The nineties were amazing and exciting, lives were simple, who can forget melodies from Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, and Ashiqui the musical or Sreedevi from Chandani and Chalbaaz, or Maine Pyar Kiya, this was the era of magic for many of us while growing up in our teens. All of these in audio cassettes and walkman to play them with limited 60-90 minutes tapes.

Or, when we could memorize about 30-50 telephone numbers. during that time, the telecom was limited to a few households and the concept of PP(Padosi ka phone number) was prevalent and we would share their number as our own with pride, and neighbors obliged with a smile and a cup of tea.

PCO booths were the place to call and people’s identity was easily associated, identified, and verified with a thick yellow book called a telephone directory.

Friends were real, not virtual and people always found time to meet in person.

Today, We live in a smart society with access to a high-tech internet world with smartwatches and smartphones, and since one does not need to memorize the telephone/mobile numbers as Alexa / Siri can help locate almost anyone who wants to be found.
It's like having a memory stored in 0101 (bits and bytes) which is not in your brain. Smartphone has replaced many objects which were considered important in the past, such as music players, alarm clock, wristwatch, books or encyclopedia, tour guides, booking agents, TV, and Camera and most important Real friends.

AI (artificial intelligence) bots have evolved to write blogs or interact with you like real people and you would never know the difference. 

One of the most followed celebrity virtual influencers in the advertising world is Lil Miquela who is forever 19 years old and has 1.5 million subscribers. You guessed it right its an AI-bot.

you can check the latest ad of Calvin Klein where Lilmiquela is kissing the real-life supermodel Bella Hadid.

Social Media Marketing uses CHATBOTS to interact and offer customer support for many service industries, thus removing any human error and chance of low-level jobs.

Many HR tools are AI-driven where the employees can share their experiences and issues faced in the organization. The Algorithms are 99% accurate to predict employee satisfaction or chances of losing an employee.

This is Evolution and can not be stopped, a reality accepted but should be used with smartness and caution. It cannot be allowed to replace the human mind and its power to think.

Which brings me to an interesting Analogy in General Insurance, of Master-Servant relationship.

In a Master-Servant relationship, the master employs the services of the servant and he works on the command of the Master and thus a special relation exists between the two and in case of a tort committed by the servant, his master is also held liable.

The above term is defined as Vicarious Liability.

In laymen terms servant called “Technology” as deployed today has become our “Master” and we have willingly given it all our rights at the cost of privacy.

(By signing on all the applications used in today’s internet world for free by accepting terms and conditions without even reading them)

The Irony here is any breach by master affects the techno-servant that is "us" in many ways financially, mentally, and legally.

People living fake lives on social media and problems like the following are greatly impacting millennials:

1. FOMO- Fear of missing out

2. Fake Happiness- Moments posted on social media looks too good to be true but creates the illusion of reality.

3. Tech Interruption- How many times we miss calling our dear ones by just sending the texts or emoji. what does it take to call a friend or relative and greet them? though unintentional but technology has made it easy to miss the opportunity on the assumption of social media superiority over a personal call.

Technology is like the discovery of fire by ancient man but has miles to go to put it in the right use. 

I would like to add my final thoughts here, we will have all kind of scenarios which sounds scary like personal devices being hacked for ransom in bitcoins or in IoT (internet of things) machines and devices interacting amongst themselves to facilitate or make our lives easy/miserable.

We need to use technology wisely as Masters and be in control.

Dear Readers, I would like your thoughts, criticism, and inputs on the ideas shared in the blog.