What
happens when suddenly the whole world starts depending on just one thing? When
the world starts depending more on that than even oxygen or water; when the
power centers start fighting for that, instead of gold and diamonds; when asylums
become empty; but every home has that tendency. What would really happen if
this becomes the reason for the third world war? And you would be dragged into
it, whether you like it or not.
I am
generally not a pessimist, but for some reason this is giving me a bad feeling.
I am a person with principles and discipline. My diet, workout, habits,
sleeping habits, everything is regulated. I believe in doing right things, than
doing it right. So, for a person like me who come from this school of thought,
an unbalanced world looks very weird. Its difficult for me to digest the fact
that how can the world be so unbalanced!
I still
remember an article that I wrote about 12 years back where I mentioned that
though there is a lot of scope to increase the internet bandwidth, we really don’t
have good content that can enhance the growth of internet penetration. I also
mentioned that the next decade will need a lot of content and only then all the
money that is being spent on building a robust and heavy infrastructure would
make sense. Frankly, I didn’t see this coming. And today, look at the amount of
content that is being generated!! Some of it is truly remarkable, while a lot
of it is mediocre; but that’s what happens in any revolution.
We have
solved many problems with the advent of internet in the last decade. Be it in
health care, communication, transportation, retail industry, manufacturing,
pharma and even in our day-to-day life style. There is not even an iota of
doubt that internet is a boon to mankind, but like every other successful
industry, this is also being compromised. More so because, this is now at par
with the value of oxygen, if not more. This is so very powerful that when
companies like Tata, Birla, Reliance had taken two to three decades to build
billion dollar companies, while in today’s internet world, companies like
Flipkart, Paytm, took just a quarter of it. This is the greatness and true
power of internet. Well, I haven’t compared Google and Facebook yet. From a student
in a remote village who could now learn rocket science directly from NASA; to a
merchant sitting in a small town in India can sell his products to a buyer in
New York are just few examples of how internet has evolved and helped millions
fulfill their dreams. So my point is, like how you don’t advertise or make a
business model out of oxygen, let internet also be used for the right reasons,
not sell it.
With the
advent of smart phones and tablets, we now have a million reasons to be busy,
for no reason. The amount of games that are being developed is a fact known all,
be it for smart phones, tabs, Xbox, Wii or PlayStation. Unfortunately, today’s kids
like to play tennis, fly kites, practice boxing and many more games only on TV.
While the intent is good, the outcome is a little sad. I feel that the people
living in villages are lucky for still being in touch with nature and I find
them a lot happier. They teach us that happiness is not money, internet or a bungalow.
Recently,
in an interview, Larry Page said that compared to the true potential of
internet, we haven’t really reached anywhere, even in the last 15 years of its
inception. He talks about how Artificial Intelligence is such an interesting
subject and the true power of it can take us to greater heights. Well, my only
worry is that we shouldn’t see a day where we need to send a signal to the chip
on the wrist via wifi asking it to lift the glass of water and pour it in the
mouth. I definitely don’t want my clone with all my intelligence to go to
office as my proxy; while I am busy playing games on the lazy couch at home.
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