Image Source : Gerd Leonhard |
Nicolas Negroponte, in his 1995
famous bestseller Being Digital [1], commented – “Computing is not about computers any
more. It is about living”. The Internet was in its infancy then and
predicting the future of technology and its impact on society was nothing short
of putting one’s head on the chopping block. Remarkably however, many
predictions made by Negroponte in his book came true with one of the most
famous of those predictions getting dubbed as the Negroponte Switch.
We are experiencing an
unparalleled time in human history where digital technologies have become all
pervasive and ubiquitous. Barring some hard core skeptics, most people would
readily agree that there is hardly any sphere of life today that is not
directly or indirectly digitally mediated. We are now at the cusp of an
exciting era that is promising a new wave of information interchange which till
a few years ago, was science fiction. One of the most exciting of these
developments pushing the frontiers of our connected digital world is the
emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is not a distant dream but a fast moving
reality as private enterprises see significant
opportunities in its emergence and growth.
While the evolution of the
digital world has been nothing short of being transformative, it has not been
without significant concerns on safety, health, privacy, censorship, free speech
and unemployment. Author Daniel Levitin discusses some of these issues in this article . With the evolution of information technology and it’s all
pervasive infusion in our lives, new addictions are taking root and impacting
human behaviour. The city of Antwerp in Belgium for example, has created a special lane on the road for Smartphone users who are addicted to
texting while walking. Recently, studies conducted at the University of
California Los Angeles and other schools have flagged many health concerns emanating out of constant consumption of digital
technology.
With technology opening new
possibilities, there are also deep concerns over individual privacy and
liberty. Civil society organizations around the world have questioned privacy
implications of supposedly benign and beneficial solutions created through
digital networks.The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a US based non-profit organization that is
actively engaged in advocacy and action against electronic surveillance and
citizen rights to digital privacy and free speech. In India, similar concerns
have been raised time and again on privacy issues related to Aadhar. Recently (May,2018), Mozilla, the maker of the open source browser
Firefox in a blog
post argued that exposure of Aadhar data might put Indians at significant privacy
risk. Issues pertaining to maintaining sanctity of the Aadhar enrollment process, its impact on the Aadhar database and ultimately on people have been widely reported in the media (23rd July 2018). There is also considerable
speculation around the world that artificial intelligence will be replacing humans in many skill areas.
So what’s the future of computing? Honestly
it’s pretty hard to speculate what the world is going to be like in a few years
from now given the rapid advancements in new and exciting technologies. What’s still
more hard to predict however is how human beings will respond to the new wave
of digital technologies that is about to hit us in the next few years. Colin Angel,
founder of iRobot puts it rather optimistically when he says: “It's going to
be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it
will definitely be cool.”
What say reader?
---------------------------------
[1] Interested readers can access a few pages of this book by clicking on Look Inside at Amazon and also read selected excerpts from a book summary posted on the Stanford University website.
[2] A 2014 TED talk by Nicoloas Negorponte titled A 30 Year History of the future can be viewed here if you are interested. You can also view an awesome 1984 Ted Talk by Negroponte that predicted what will happen to computing in a few years.
[1] Interested readers can access a few pages of this book by clicking on Look Inside at Amazon and also read selected excerpts from a book summary posted on the Stanford University website.
[2] A 2014 TED talk by Nicoloas Negorponte titled A 30 Year History of the future can be viewed here if you are interested. You can also view an awesome 1984 Ted Talk by Negroponte that predicted what will happen to computing in a few years.
6 comments:
we should adopt change. if we can't change we will become extinct.
Arvind Ahirwar
Roll no. 18014
As a privacy concern i would like to know is it possible to access anyones aadhar details from aadhar number only?
And what i think is we should learn how to use internet in such a way that we can have our privacy. Like as explained in class we should start using duckduckgo and should use Google baba to the minimum.
Its in our hands if we want to be in the control of technology or keep the technology in our control.
Nitesh kumar
Roll no 31
It's an insightful article. Undoubtedly, the Internet and its evolution over the years has revolutionised the way we live. But like any other thing, there are positives and negatives of Internet as well. But it's sad that there are very few avenues where these concerns (negatives) are seriously deliberated.
There are certain things which are directly perceptible - the sleeping patterns have altered - thanks to the JIO revolution, Children have found playgrounds in 5 - 6 inches FHD screens, concerns of low physical activity and obesity, and many more.
So, Contrary to the initiative by the Belgian Govt. in Antwerp, there needs to be some initiative like 'No mobile Hour', wherein people voluntarily turn off net in their mobiles for say even 30 minutes, much like the earth hour. And more importantly, people need to be made aware of how to use this potent tool responsibly.
We as a species have been continuously changing, adapting, growing, and digitalization, if anything, has been a catalyst in this process. With every change, with every invention, there are consequences involved, bad and good; some of which we only realize in hindsight. This may be one guy's opinion but take a look at AI - the possibilities this field holds, really make you wonder.
AI has been around for a while now but it's only started to emerge to the public in recent times and the results we're seeing right now... they're rudimentary! (Like whaaaat?) All this progress, the amazing things we're achieving right now, they're just the tip of the iceberg! This may seem like a good thing to some people, but really, we have to consider the angles here. Take, for example, Google Duplex. It has almost vanquished the need for a personal assistant and that's scary! Just take a moment and think about this: so many entry level jobs, jobs in call centres, low level unskilled labour and jobs in almost all fields are at risk of being replaced by intelligent machines.
Yes, technology opens up new possibilities but they're not all good. Another thing we have to establish here is that we cannot stop advancement. As individuals, we can only observe, adapt and grow along with it.
This was a very insightful article! I'm glad to have read it
what if someday all technologies die its natural death ? will we also die ? the answer is no, we will find some other way to solve our problems. the best thing about humans is they have always found a way for their problems since the inception of life on earth. so i hope we will find a way to fight with extreme use of AI also.
now a days technology is changing very rapidly. and we have to adopt these changes for productive working.
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