By: Neerja Caprihan
Another year has come to a close, giving way to yet another one. Time does seem determined to be taking its restless nature seriously. Or maybe we have been too busy surviving each day to realize that the years have been passing by. It has been forgivably easy to get distracted amid the excesses of information and conveniences in the daily mundane routines of life.
In a world of social media friends, and curated projections of lives, humans are connected technologically like never before. And it might not be far from the truth to observe that at the same time, they are also isolated emotionally like never before. While it may now be simpler to keep a tab on someone physically, it is more difficult to gauge the real thoughts and feelings driving them. Value systems are questioned on a recurring basis and boundaries get redrawn before you have even opened the rulebooks.
In simple terms, the whole point of technology was to make lives easier. And the whole point of gathering information and deploying AI was to take that ease a step further. Taking further though, is not the same as taking over. The blurring of real and fake is beginning to become disturbing on so many levels. Consider how certain chatbots have been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons – reasons that prove that the humans stopped thinking way before the bot did.
The celebrated poet T.S Eliot captured this crisis quite well when he wrote1:
“Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
As humans, we need to wake up to the fact that we still hold the reins. Having been bestowed by a higher consciousness that AI can never grasp, we need to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions before it gets too late. A world that is already simmering, hardly needs more negativity.
What it needs is a little more kindness and cheer.
This new year, let’s recall nuggets of wisdom from ancient world literature. And the timeless lessons that emphasize the importance of peace, empathy, and cooperation. Let’s gift ourselves a brighter, happier future.
This new year, may we all be our best selves, with or without an asterisk2.
FOOTNOTES AND SOURCES
1.https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9769127-all-our-knowledge-brings-us-nearer-to-our-ignorance-all
2.https://www.moneycontrol.com/entertainment/elon-musk-slams-oscars-diversity-standards-should-be-who-is-best-not-best-with-an-asterisk-article-12954640.html
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