Claiming Our Humanity — Managing in the Digital
Age
Humanity and Technology- let us not see it as humanity versus technology and fall into the same pitfalls of Religion versus Science instead of Religion and Science.
The relationship between humanity and technology is so firm that no one can even disturb it.
What is meant by Humanity? Is it in
possession of someone or somewhere? Has humanity
lost in something so bad that there is an imminent need for anyone of us to claim
it to restore it to golden old days of violent invasions in the frenzy to
acquire some additional real estate space to redraw national boundaries, blind
beliefs forced to be followed based on certain scriptures, selectively fed
information through limited channels etc?
Let us find out the facts as honest
human beings, not proceed as academicians with some confirmation bias, even if
the process tends to be long and leads us into various territories because we
are talking about claiming our humanity [whose?] and
managing something we have branded as defining the age itself as Age of Wars,
Age of Reason, Age of Science etc ‘The Digital Age’.
So the premise requires covering many
facets and a very vast area and depth of aspects /factors to consider understanding
Humanity and Digital Age much less claim, manage, unravel them etc.
The topic manifests a few glaring
perceptions and blaring declarations:-
A] Some thought of concern has
popped out about humanity,
B] Something is
viewed, either real or presumed, as an issue/or a problem/ or at least as
something causing greater impact and dominating over the rest, namely the overwhelming
digital influence called as digital age.
C] Reactions
based on the thought have come into play.
Humanity is more humble, happy, haughty,
hopeful and highly connected thanks more due to technology born out of
scientific temper meant to make life more comfortable. More importantly and
interestingly humanity is better off with greater awareness and consciousness
to the whole environment facilitated through more easy access to information to
the greater number of people again thanks to the availability of advanced and
affordable technologies.
This very theme triggers the usual
uneasiness created/assumed due to sense of insecurity born out of generalizing and
associating whole of humanity in terms of some ideological identities and
incidents.
Let us
get it clear whether we like it or not, whether it is right or wrong, whether
it is used or misused that technology is religion and gadgets are the new gods.
[1]
Life is made of relationships. How we relate with others,
with things, with society, with environment etc.
Neither life nor relationships are concrete they are fluid
like water with lot of excellent properties but vulnerable to be polluted and misused
like water. It depends on the user to prevent misuse and pollution.
There are many other aspects like personal commitment,
involvement, responsibilities etc, even if we do not care about social
pressures, religious obligations and legal requirements.
The cardinal principal is we can neither deny nor defy the
importance of anything. This includes many human activities, sentiments,
emotions, thoughts etc each of it is forming some part of the evolutionary
process of the jigsaw puzzle of life.
How else can we explain the many stupidities that get
glorified for reasons which are beyond any human comprehension?
We did not consciously choose our life and in normal
circumstances we won’t consciously choose to die either. Life is not a planned
project from the beginning till the end however much we may try or wish it to
be. We came from nothing and we go back to nothing. In the interim period we
like to decorate ourselves with whatever we
can, we want or we are destined to. Sometimes
different aspects predominate i.e. what we can do, want to do or destined to do
and we too tend to prioritize or to prefer or to influence one/ some of these
at different times.
But it would be proper and practical to acknowledge some
simple facts without being too hypocritically questioning them like it is
better to be unhappy with money than to be unhappy without money; better to be
sick with a treatment available rather than being sick without any treatment;
it is better to be hypocritical with a socially respectable employment ensuring
or survival guaranteeing qualification rather than to be hypocritical without
any such qualification etc. [2]
Every age and every walk of life has or involves some steps
but these steps are various types of
status quo addictions, comfort zones, identity cages which take possession of
our psyche and operates through it almost as a matter of habit or sometimes
even as an automatic reflex movement. They then manifest in all spheres of our
relationships. Our culture, our religious practices, our food habits, our life
styles etc and we get used to the comfort of relaxing in these steps without
moving up. [3]
Reactions,
sometimes aggressive or fanatical happen due to mass hysteria creating brain
washing which push many into some identity cages and if they happen to venerate
then they virtually entwine the entire life in that cage and venerate the walls
of the cage that and end up getting agitated when someone tries to shake the
cage or worse still break the wall of the cage.
This
happens with all religions, ideological, political affiliations and
religious practices manifesting itself with varying degrees of fanaticism and
intolerance.
Levels
of scrutiny, extent of criticism, limits of tolerance, philosophical
consolations etc, everything becomes very elastic or rigid depending upon whom
it affects at that particular instant and how the affected people take
it.
Depending
on the nature, circumstances, situations, nurtured attitudes etc proportionately
the reactions, retributions, revenge etc will manifest. [4]
Life is
an unmapped atlas which gets its maps based on our innate attributes, choices,
beliefs, actions, reactions, thoughts, attitudes etc either as individuals or
as a collective group with some identity, and it is in our hands to make each
one of these continents as great and as good as possible.
Greatest
contribution that one can make to the pride of ancestry is to not merely give
hope for future but bequeath values, comforts, wisdom, wealth, happiness, great
wisdom etc to posterity. [5]
Because of
digital age people across the globe are at least remotely participating or
aware of what is going on in the world, otherwise it was a monopoly of media
mafia which censored, controlled, endorsed and directed the whole news. [6]
Digital by
itself cannot settle disputes with axiomatic certitude it is more useful at
unsettling blind beliefs and help humans to explore and experiment with an open
mind.[7]
Digital age has an excess of individual opinions, ideas that
inundate the social media space must be followed, observed and encouraged
because after all they manifest reactions and participation of individuals.
They can at best produce islands of 'micro beliefs leading
to macro behavior' or confirmation bias enhancing group coherence but not
homogenizing madness insisting on ignoring variety and marrying up with
specific identity which was what the mass opinion molding and belief
manufacturing and marketing domains mentioned above do namely religion,
politics, media etc. [8]
Literature and philosophy associate
thinking /thoughts mostly with ideas, concepts etc which are not thoughts per
se, but intellectualized presentation of thoughts. [9]
While a
large volume of data can throw up lot of ideas it cannot interpret or suggest
proper utilization of those ideas.
While a
large volume of data can throw up lot of thoughts it cannot do the thinking
beyond a certain extent and besides a specified path of predefined command.
While a
large volume of data can throw up lot of knowledge/information inputs it cannot
initiate or ensure to neither enhance understanding nor can even restrict
frames of reference for understanding.
While a
large volume of data can throw up lot of insights into the working patterns
based on permutations it cannot provide the wisdom to choose that comes with
churning that life undergoes chronologically in the form of experience. [10]
The
beauty of life consists in the unknowns and the unending searches and
researches –the unending process of evolutionary trends in everything.
Let us
get our facts clear that personal sentiments and emotional binding will
impact every human being- only the degrees of impact may vary from person to
person and situation to situation. We all must acknowledge that we are neither
sure about all the ingredients in the cauldron of life nor can we claim to know
the complete process of churning. [11]
Some
word about the fallibility of our very perception itself in general. [12]
Every Age acquires its unique
advantage and digital is no exception. [13]
Classifying
everyone and everything under any single generalization must less expect
similar reactions is not at all possible [14] and that [tendency
to homogenize has been one of the main reasons for lack of peace. [15]
