Chronic Side Effects of Science & Technology

When we say Science, what is the first image or impression comes to our minds? The question will have different answers depending on place, period and person. So let's try to converge and ask a different one. When we say Science, what qualities\benefits come to your mind? Again the answers wold be contextual so here is the next question. What is the sole purpose of Science in this world if you have to pick one? Now I think we may start getting some convergence. The answers would be among these words - welfare, well being, convenience, comfort, prosperity. And looking at the history of the world we have seen that most of these objectives have been and are being getting achieved. However, as always there are two sides of the coin - Good and Bad, Black and White.

Scientific principles which is what we now call them, existed all along. Right from the formation of the galaxies and solar systems. We happen to unravel them one by one as our brains got bigger and bigger. We started using them to our benefit right from the invention of wheel. However bigger brains are not boon forever as sooner or later those will be applied in wrong direction. That's what happened. All the nouns listed above soon turned into proper nouns -  human welfare, human well being, human convenience, human comfort, human prosperity. And it is but natural that all this will come at cost of hardship and ill being of other lives on the planet Earth.

Patting our own backs, we humans went berserk, disregarding nature and disrespecting other LIFE on planet. With the tools and techniques discovered (not invented- see the footnote) we declared ourselves the species who has the right to ravenously chew out all resources available to us. We started mining earth, oceans and polluting air. We started to make mockery of nature and turned the reproduction into farming for the species like chicken, pigs, goats etc. at ridiculous volume just to meet our hunger and satisfy our taste buds. We have all seen the world progressing and developing and incredible technologies making our LIFE feel like heaven. However, this is only because, we are one of a kind selfish, self-centered and exclusive(antonym to inclusive) species. For non-human world, the living conditions in the world are deteriorating and deterioration has been accelerating.

Humans lived here before any scientific discoveries were made and they could live because they had acquired all required skills for survival. With no exception, every scientific discovery, made for comfort and convenience, has one good effect which is readily experienced and hence advertised by companies and one bad effect which can be experienced only in future once we have historical data to prove it. Every discovery puts us in dilemma whether to use it or not. You have a choice and choices are real problem because once you have a choice, you can make a wrong one.

Not satisfied enough screwing non-human existence in the world, we turned the guns on ourselves and discovered many more things which will make our lives, easier and sophisticated. Be it a flatiron to iron out your clothes, for what? Because the thoughts could not be ironed out so easily. Or be it a fan, to force the air to change course and help you cool down, for what? Because, we think nature is doing injustice to us, and we do not deserve to tolerate the scorching sun. So what, if it is the sun which has enabled and sustained LIFE on this planet. And many more such discoveries were bound to happen.

As we make our lives easier and comfortable and sophisticated, we seldom bother about the effects and consequences. Every convenience or comfort we get from discoveries, comes at a cost of loosing corresponding survival skill. Sometime changes are so subtle that we fail to see or we pretend to fail to see the consequences. Take an example of family shifting from fans to A\C in house. People who get used to elongated use of A\C are unable to stand normal weather condition. They become restless, get tired easily, perspire heavily - loss of survival skill. People who shift from motorbike to four wheeler vehicles, loose the skill to drive two wheelers in few days. Even if they did not truly forget how to drive, now they are scared to drive it, they start suffering traffic and pollution - loss of survival skill.

Let's see another interesting example - purifiers. Now-a-days there are purifier products for almost everything. Be it food, water or air. Safety conscious(cum-paranoid) people install the product in house as soon as it gets launched. They want their LIFE to be pure at any cost. Little do they know that they are actually making themselves vulnerable by delegating some of the body functions to these scientific instruments. Slowly the body's filtering mechanism and immunity system diminishes its functioning to adapt to this artificial purity. And since it is not possible to carry all these purifier appliances everywhere, when they get exposed to impure food, water and air, they catch infections\diseases badly.


There is also an interesting sociological angle to the journey of science. Science divides people into two classes - one who embrace it and one who doesn't. Not using science and its discoveries may be by choice or by limitations but still the divide is inevitable.

Here are some examples of science discoveries which were put to use to make our lives convenient and comfortable. However when we ponder on side effects we can get the glimpse how divide gets created.

• A lift offers a good service to avoid people in our building
• A car helps you avoid pedestrians and people travelling in buses
• A telephone cut down the need to visit people personally
• A cellphone enables you to pretend you are not at home when you do not want to be disturbed
• A vending machine is great as it relieve you from the hassles of talking to tea\coffee\coke vendors, the unwanted people in your LIFE.
• A\C coaches in train are good deterrent to common people, reduces human interaction on railway platforms.
• Internet allows you to shop, book tickets, do banking and almost everything without human interaction.

Although the discoveries took place in developed countries where population was minimal and these services made sense, due to the virtue of comfort and convenience they brought along made them popular all over the world. This happens with every discovery.

The chronic side effect of these discoveries on humanity is now evident. People seem to be increasingly getting uncomfortable when they are required to interact with their own species in day to day life and prefer interacting with a machine instead. Science did and will find more and more avenues to help humans with this. Recently robots are introduced in service sectors like hotels, hospitals and banking. Artificial Intelligence(AI) is going to enable more and more penetration of automation and robotics in human LIFE.

Although it would be a lot to expect from humans to enjoy pleasures of science without loosing any acquired survival skills, the choices should be made carefully. In this techno-revoluationary period, we will have to make conscious and significant efforts to:

1. Save our survival skills - Let the body do things it is built to do, do not spoil it. Be strong, be robust
2. Meet and talk to people, personally - Do not let the invisible divide drag you away from humanity

Else we will soon be living in the world where people are afraid to walk on the roads, afraid to talk to each other, always surrounded with one or more machines. I would hate to exist when this happen. What about you?

[Note] Discoveries Not Inventions: Nothing in this world is an invention. Everything was perfectly in place before homo sapiens walked the Earth. For e.g. Friction causes fire was first step discovery. Friction with sulfur causes fire easily was next which finally lead to a match box. We club these series of discoveries together and term it as invention. Humans, by virtue of the evolved brain muscles, started breaking and dissecting into things. And mysteries got resolved one after another like the crackling pop corns in the oven and pop corns will keep crackling. There are infinite secrets in the creation waiting to be discovered. If Newton was not born, the gravity would have been discovered by Oldton, Clinton, Cromton or Someton.

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