Technology: A magnificent servant, a dangerous master

Technology can process information. It cannot live life on our behalf, love for us, understand for us, or grow for us.

- ACHARYA PRASHANT

In the past few decades, humanity has seen remarkable technological advancement. Behind these developments are people of sharp intellect, working with skill and precision.

Yet, as technology becomes more powerful, society seems to be dividing into two groups: those who create and understand these systems, and those who depend on them so much that even simple tasks are being done by machines.

Studies now indicate declining attention spans and cognitive ability. The human brain, like any part of the body, becomes dysfunctional if not used. Many people who have lived in the same city for years cannot reach even familiar places without navigation assistance. Our ability to navigate and think independently is no longer being exercised. We are increasingly placing ourselves in the hands of technology, but technology in itself cannot guide or clarify the inner world of a human being.

We first outsourced knowledge-seeking to search engines. Even then, one needed discretion; one had to choose among many possibilities. Now, with artificial intelligence, we are outsourcing not just information but thinking and decision-making itself.

Technology is a wonderful tool, but it functions on data, and data is generated by human beings. If we are ignorant, prejudiced, or fragmented within, our machines will reflect the same. It is garbage in, garbage out.