Minding the Machines

My cousin sister was proud to show to me on the webcam the different gifts her friend had sent for her from Germany, which included some silly items as a nail-cutter, and a Swiss knife (why does she need a Swiss knife, anyway?). She was overjoyed that he had taken the trouble to send them across through a common friend, who was coming from there. Earlier she had told me about the laptop which he had left behind for her, when he packed his things to leave for Germany for the next five years. Why would he need a laptop in Germany; he would as well purchase one on reaching there, and it was given to my sister, who was more than overjoyed to receive it!

Now she is online often during the day and even night, most probably chatting with him over the net, sometimes even neglecting her responsibilities; but that is not my business to ask her if she is wasting her time with the laptop with internet connection and webcam facilities. The modern electronic gadgets are a big blessing to humanity, but they can also become a big hindrance to us, who are not fully conscious of their utility. When we begin to give them more importance than they deserve, we are bordering on viciating from the purpose they are made. The sooner we realize it, the better it is for us to save ourselves from insanity.

For the uninitiated, having round the clock internet connection is a dream come true, and they may give up regular exercise of body and mind, skip meals, cut short rest in order to drown in the limitless ocean of the internet. They may not mind losing their sleep, and losing their way in the highways of the sites, only to realize here on the net, one desire leads them to another, and they are initiated into a vicious circle, and later find that it is not easy for them to free from this circle. The same is also true with any sophisticated electronic gadget; one of the biggest craze today seem to be for cellular phones, which have all and more than what an ordinary person would require.

So for we had been talking in terms of "need" of these gadgets, and squeeze ourselves in order to purchase them; today they are no more needs, but "necessity", which cannot be dispensed with. But how can I go around without a mobile phone, because my friends want to be in touch with me all the time! This is their theme song; I should be available to all those who require my help! Is this a fact or a mere imagination? What were we doing before the advent of mobile phone boom in the country? Were we not in touch with the people who needed our help and assistance?

In the modern times, the human persons have too many masters; there were times when we were masters and today the roles are fast reversing, and if we are not careful then the machines will give marching orders to us, and we too might follow their order blindly. Today the machines seem to have far more capacity to compute, calculate and process the data than a normal human mind can, but that does not make the machines superior to human persons; there is a danger today facing humanity to give more importance to mindless machines than human persons with mind and souls. If this danger catches up with us, then even God may not be able to save us from this peril!