I was feeding my
neighbour’s chickens and putting out some water for them, while they were away on
an overseas trip. The chickens had more freedom of movement around their yard
when their owners were in. I was instructed to keep them within a smaller
stretch which was fenced in. The birds - “Ladies” as I called them, soon got
used to my being their carer. They repaid me with eggs. I could sense their working
out trying to get their usual privileges from me. The signals they sent out,
they were helpless to move the doors or gates but knew enough to try and let me
know through their clucking and moves. They missed the usual leftovers they
used to get from the kitchen when their owners were in. They appreciated the
occasional clump of grass clippings I dropped over for them. While they were
handicapped/prevented from looking out for themselves and developing all their
native intelligence and skills to their best level, one of them still looked
for challenges and tried to sneak past me when I came into the enclosure. She always
showed initiative, courage and risk taking. I would have to push her back. She
also tried to take me around the enclosure to try and show me something that I
could never figure out. It must have been something bothering or interesting to
her. She tried her best. She was the ‘rebel chick’. The other chickens sort of
resigned themselves to their fate and just lived a more routine, submissive
life. I was starting to note that in the evolution of chickens, this one still
held out hope for the future of chicken intelligence.
It struck me that our
human condition today is not very different from that of these chickens. We
just are slaves of a different master - technology. The best example of this I
find timely now - AI (or Artificial Intelligence) which has been in the news
more and more recently. It has already been a while since Google keeps drafting
multiple, sensible and possible responses to the emails I receive and all I
need is to click on one and I am done. I shudder to think of the day it
actually sends it without my clicking on it. I suppose then we would have two
email accounts writing and replying to each other on behalf of their human owners
without them even being aware of it!! It may be shocking for those two humans
to meet not knowing all the things they have already exchanged in email.
Technology has long
made things more convenient, easier, less expensive, more consistently of a
higher standard and less error prone for humans to the point where it is no
longer acceptable for a human to even try, learn and do things that we were
once capable of. Those efforts and chores developed our intelligence and
physical skills. There are societies now with more than a couple of generations,
particularly in wealthy, developed and supposedly advanced societies who cannot,
on the average, add four numbers to figure out a bill, calculate the cost of
what they bought at a given stated price, to deal humanely and safely with a
spider in their house or yard, to carry water safely in a pot from a well or
stream, to climb a tree to retrieve a Frisbee or ball stuck it in, walk a kilometre
to the market and bring back a couple of bags of groceries, tell a ripe fruit or
good vegetable from a not so good one from a heap at the market, tell a lemon
tree from an apple unless the ripe fruits are hanging in front of their faces,
mix flour to make a batter or dough. Of course, they can do a lot by ‘Googling’
if there is Wi-Fi and enough battery power on their smartphones. But without
their smart phones they are not so smart in many simple life skills.
Let me, upfront,
admit that I am not all that good myself in old-world skills myself. I grew up
in cities mostly and still do not know a whole lot about country life and
details. I am only realizing what all I missed now. But, even growing up in big
cities, in India, I had plenty of opportunity to exercise my own imagination, explore,
find things around me, figure out things in play or doing chores that were
expected of me and of most children my age. I am not sure such is available to
the children of today and tomorrow.
Since a few very smart
and clever humans figured out how to put complex mathematical calculations at
our fingertips, the long term result has been that a large number of humans
cannot and don’t see the need to know how to do even simple calculations in
simple, day -to-day life. While satellites and drones can give us almost
real-time accurate view from above of everything that is happening, most cannot
tell what is happening in their neighbourhood or where is North-West by looking
around outside. The direction or season of water flow in a nearby creek stumps
most unless it is flooding at their doorstep.
So, we have a small
set of super-smart, highly knowledgeable humans in any field and a large number
who are ‘below average’ of what would have otherwise been in many areas. It
seems there is a maximum quota of wisdom or skills that a species can develop.
With ‘progress’ it seems new knowledge and old wisdom gets distributed in a
different way, that’s all!
Our dependency on
technology has been growing to a disturbing extent in my opinion. I remember
about 30 years ago, when I returned home from a walk to the shops one weekend,
my neighbour’s grandkids - aged mostly in single digits were all sitting glumly
on the doorstep.
“Why the glum faces? I asked.
“We are bored.
Uncle!,” said one
“The electricity is
out. Can’t watch our favourite TV programs,” said another.
“Don’t know what we
can do until it comes back on, Uncle,” said another.
I still remember the
shock I felt seeing a bunch of kids all sitting together wondering what to do
to pass time!! I was their age not long before and as a kid had never seen a
TV. I or my friends could never imagine being bored especially when together,
ever. We always found something fun to do.
I remember
immediately initiating a mass ‘sword’ fight and ‘rocket launching’ using the fronds
from the coconut trees under which my neighbour’s grandkids were sitting. They
were surprised but entertained for a couple of hours.
This was in India
where TV has just become widespread and affordable for just about a decade
then. Those kids are grown now and have kids of their own!
It is not so much for
attaining perfection in our products and services or high profits, the human -‘sapient’
as we describe ourselves, needs to constantly be challenged physically and
mentally to learn, acquire, retain, use and even flaunt with a sense of pride (while
still being humble). While special talents and skills can be rare - advanced juggling,
high-level acrobatics, playing the harp or piano or solving complex equations,
many of the human skills that brought us to this level as a species or
civilization are more widespread and mundane. I think we are in danger of
losing them.
The thought of my kids
or grandkids just glancing at a bag of vegetables displayed on their virtual
reality screen and the AI telling them the exact biological name, weight, expiration
date, the price and ordering the whole thing and having it delivered within 30
minutes by drone at our doorstep (or even into our future refrigerators
automatically with their backs open outdoors) does not exactly thrill me. Soon there
will be not a need for, if not a prohibition on, humans actually driving vehicles. All
the skills associated with that will become progressively rare. I hope walking,
asking directions, knowing North-South and East-West in one’s neighbourhood
becomes fashionable once more as a side-effect!
When asked how things
work, most can tell me names and labels - WiFi, Infra-red Scanner, Drone, some
WonderApp, but not exactly how? Only a few will ever know. They rarely know
what to do if the network is down, if the power is off. How will they go about
doing something with what is left? That requires simple, basic skills,
knowledge and wisdom that we have had for thousands of years, but are losing rapidly
in a few decades. I am sure there will always be the ‘rebel chicken’ equivalent
among us humans. They give me hope.
What are your
thoughts? Let me know if you think I am being overly nostalgic or pessimistic.
I am quite accepting of change, I know it is inevitable.
Copyright © Kannan
Narayanamurthy 2017
All rights reserved
