Ideated Technological Vision (ITV) : Reality of the future

There have been two kinds of people throughout the History. The ones who have stood aloof from the world. The others who have travelled along the world. The former is obsessed with ideas and vision, the latter just  reflected, order of the day.

The former evolved patterns for the future. The latter recorded the days in history. The former were deep thinkers the latter were lateral thinkers. The former were with endless possible opters and the latter were limited with their  application of knowledge. Just take a historical voyage of 50 years back. We did not have many technological options. During that time we have had these two types of people who were busy christening our nowadays life. 

Martin Luther king jr. was assassinated (1968) It was around the same time  Apollo8,  a manned spacecraft to orbit the moon was made. Bangladesh was freed (1971) and it was around the same period most of the technological advancement began to enter Asia. The tech giant Google was invented in the year 1998 and around this time (2001) social networking platform Facebook was started. Incidents like these are few examples where both idea and technology were shaping in a different yet in a dynamic manner. 

Which one is important. To have ideas that will shape humanity in the future or ideas that will shape day to day life and keep on changing its face. Almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu trace their ideological background with Perarignar Anna. The implications of Anna’s presence is seen in the history down the line. How is it possible for parties to get major ideologies from one person and yet differ in their views and functions? In contrast, the invention of the computer is a major gift to visible platforms yet the same face of the computer is  changing into many formless arenas. 

How could one simply explain this? Here comes a pertinent question as to whether we need to be ideating new philosophical concepts  for humanity to think and prod on or shall we limit ourselves in exploiting the day in our hand. I am sure most of today’s youngsters prefer the latter. We are seemingly losing interest in giving a deep thought. Historically, legacies of famous personalities are waning. Nowadays we have fewer thinkers.Now a  days  we have more techies. People are after learning about established codes of virtual platforms and accustomed to live in it as an end user.

I would say that this is the point where income inequality comes in. Only a handful of few want to invent or go for new things while the majority of us just imagine and character ourselves as an end user.

Limitation of gadgets:

People of this Artificial Intelligence (AI) age have to believe that conceptualisation and its reality is possible only with technology. You are undoubtedly wrong and be aware that if you think so you need to be restrained.

Imagine, how have people toiled to liberate themselves from the shackles of slavery. How have people suppressed the heinous crime of the caste system? How have women got most of their equal rights? How have children got their protection and how have the minority of many nation-states been the major concern of the majority?

They were all possible because of ideas. Person who saw things from a different viewpoint and laid the foundation for a new chapter, thereby ensuring equality, right and privilege. With technology we are making a virtual world of every physicality and we are trying to be more than what we are even thinking. Always remember that it is only  ideas that shaped humanity.

Technology will shape aspects of time and its facets. But technology can never be bening. It should be only controllable.  There is evidence that machines may try to operate on their own. Clearly, there is a danger here. The danger might look like  intangible but it’s going to be evident one day.

Give power to ideas 

Even to invent something one requires deep thought and new ideas. Remember ideas for humanity are going to be paramount  and bening. The world will one day fall at the hands of machines and we will wake up from the sleep of lust with technology. It’s going to be a humane idea that will save the world from the danger posed by technology.

Giving power to ideas doesn’t mean to be in a state completely devoid of technology. it’s a way to give calculated and measurable access to technology. I believe in the future the government/ a  specialized agency will allow us only a specific level of data and technology. To put it simply, technology will be rationed in the future.

We need a balancing act here. The present generation should realise that we need both futuristic technology as well as deeper thoughtful ideas to manage multi level intervention of today’s life. Leaders of today must show the seeds of a deep vision for humanity before imagining any form of technology or technological upgradation .

IDEATED TECHNOLOGICAL VISION (ITV)

Ideated Technological Vision(ITV) is comprehended to address a range of problems posed by machines or technology. For a long time we have been fearing that technology will engulp human thinking and outperform almost all human tasks.

Let’s first understand the concept of machine Learning (ML). It is the study of computer algorithms that can improve automatically through experience and by the use of data. When we want to understand problems posed by technology we should also understand a concept called artificial intelligence (AI). It is the theory and development of a computer system able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between languages.

Both Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (Al) have been shaping our today’s life, much of the impacts are unseen.  According to Smith Gambrell Russell (SGR) a legal service firm following are the 10 challenges posed by technology. 

1. Data security 
2. Big data 
3. Cloud Computing
4. Open source software 
5. Mobile payments 
6. Social media related liabilities 
7. Wearable computing
8. The internet of things (IoT)
9. Virtual currencies 
10. Remote automation and control 

All the above mentioned topics have pertinent questions. All these ten areas of technological advancement are both great opportunities as well as an extended threat to humanity. Ideated technological vision (ITV) is the solution for the technology which is not overpowering. We are all responsible for the effects of past and future generations.

Taking responsible inventions, well thought application, emergency exit like human control is the need of the hour. How can we walk tightrope here? Instead of complaining we have to find a solution. The solution lies in restricting possible dangers posed by their technological advancement. 

Here are a few suggestions to control over – powering technology. 

1. Introducing Product Safe Features (PSF)
2. Emergency exit 
3. Technology that suggest healthy lifestyle practice
4. Imbuit advisories on every aspects of technology usages 
5. Rationing of technological access to different age group 
6. To reduce the online dependency and make an effort to access essential contents offline.

Making sure that the human safety aspects even when the technology is being programmed is to be seen as a possible outcome of ITV. Already we have theories and practical evidence that the Earth may become inhospitable.  But the situation could be prevented if technology is viewed from the lens of ITV.

Credits: Smith Gambrell Russell (SGR) , Wikipedia

The Author is Kannan Periyanayagam, Founder and CEO, IASR a specialised academy of skills and research.