Technology: Convenience or communication?

Created by Shankar Manakkal - 20th Jun, 2013

Yesterday I was watching WALL-E, an animated film about the future of mankind and a very touching love story of two machines. If that's the future for human beings (which is quite possible) then WALL-E is quite a scary flick.

For those of you who haven't watched the film - Humans are living many miles away from earth on a spaceship because planet Earth is no longer habitable. But what's truly scary is the plight of human life on the spaceship.

The human body has changed. Our hands and legs have become smaller and we pretty much look like obese toddlers. No human is require to walk or do any kind of physical activity as there are millions of machines which have been programmed to run errands for humans.

In this super comfortable life on the spaceship, humans float around on air filled couches with an interactive screen before their eyes. They communicate with other humans through these screens. Friend talks to friend only through the virtual medium, wife complains to husband over video chat. They are all oblivious to the world beyond their virtual screens.

Aren't we inching close to such a future? Ever observed people around you? Everyone is so engrossed in their smart-phones and laptops that they have forgotten to look around at the world, at others. Technology promotes socialization but encourages isolation. If we don't look up from our screens soon we might forget we can actually look up from those screens.

We will buy what we see on the screen, we will eat what we see on the screen and we will think what the screen wants us to think. No WALL-E might come to snap us out of our reverie. We might need to wake up on our own. And we might not be able to.