Technology, Innovation and Obsolescence

                                         Technology, Innovation and Obsolescence

I know that a majority of those who read (luckily for me, even that is a small number) will consign this article to the wastebasket as it flies in the face of all that is modern and up-to-date.  It will appear to them as old fashioned, antediluvian and blasphemous, going against the spirit of modernity. I do concede that I am in my mid-seventies, the right age to be labeled antiquated and criticized for living ostrich like in the hollow sands of the past. But I refuse to be so labeled as my spirit is still young and strong though I may lack the energy needed to keep pace with the modern times. It is also true that I am overawed by the technological advances and feel frightened to be a back-number as my mental agility to understand and use new gadgets is on the decline. As a result I hold onto whatever I had bought a decade ago since familiarity with these new toys breeds self confidence.

But over the last year and a half I have been badgered by my friends and younger members in the family for using the old basic Nokia that well serves my limited purpose to make and receive a call, to send and get SMS. They have been embarrassed to go out with me carrying this antiquated museum- worthy phone in my hands which makes me look still more ancient than what my age warrants. They smirked at  my protests that I had no use for cell mail, cell photo and cell music since I have a PC, a camera( Japanese make) and a cassette player and I was constantly bombarded to buy a smart phone.

I finally made my way to the Mobile Junction where I was warmly welcomed and made to sit  a special geriatric hospitality)and then given a non-stop technological discourse on the merits and demerits of mobile phones of different makes, interspersed with technical terms such as 2Gs,3Gs,4Gs, What’s APP, Self-healing pack, PDA,4G LTE internet  etc- terms I couldn’t  understand, leave aside making use of them. Still  I pretended to be very knowledgeable by having a poker face ,occasionally enlivening it with an all knowing smile, though all the time my mind was swirling how to extricate myself from a situation where not to buy would  reflect my economic status while to buy demanded a fair degree of understanding of the complexities of the new era gadget. The shop assistant must have seen through my ignorance and came up with the most expensive phone saying, with the technological savviness I had displayed, I should not go in for anything less than that. I demurred sheepishly.  I knew after all this flattery, I could not return without purchasing a smart phone. Nonchalantly I asked for the most expensive phone and went home, drained in mind and money both suffering from a state of depletion.

I read through the manual and started using the new instrument in my hands. I felt like Dr.Faustus who asked Mephistopheles (the devil’s assistant) to grant him all he desired. Here this tiny little box could give me instant news, instant mail, instant music, instant photos- and I realized why my friends smirked when I spoke about my prize possessions such as a PC, a cassette player, a camera. All of them in one sweep have now been rendered obsolete and useless by this tiny gadget which doubles and trebles up, functioning in multiple ways.  I was pleased as Punch and could show off my new acquisition before the younger group at home and outside.

But the pride and joy were short lived as I saw the front page newspaper advertisement about a new wrist watch that had the touch screen and all the features of the smart phone. The advertisement said “Most Powerful Waterproof Android 4.4 OS 3G Smart Watch Cell Phone with 1.54-inch Touch Screen WiFi Bluetooth GPS Google Play Store 5.0MP Spy Camera Video Recorder.” My nephew, hardly four, saw the newspaper in my hand and  said that he would like to get this watch for his birthday. My jaw dropped and I wondered if I shouldn’t have waited a little longer!  Certainly the cards had been stacked against me. First the PC, then the Cassette player, the camera, the I-pod and I phone( luckily I had not purchased them) and now this smart phone- one after the other, I have been a victim of obsolescence. This is total technological cruelty inflicted on me ( and I am sure I am one among billions). Even as I write this article, I learn that Google is working on a virtual reality headset that does not need a computer or a smart phone.  No doubt, discovery, invention and technological advancement are at the core of human development. Even we in India have our own “make in India” innovation called the “Jugad”( a colloquial Hindi and Punjabi word that can mean an innovative fix or a simple work-around, used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue). Human progress is measured by the invention of new gadgets that would provide us comfort and relief from manual chores that drain our energy. But what do we do with all those gadgets that were the pride of yesterday and the despair of today?  

How to dispose off the ones that have become obsolete, giving me the creeping fear that I will also become one like them!  “No buyers, we are modern”, thunder  the younger generation. I will have to seek the assistance of online classifieds like OLX or Quicker and dispose them of  for whatever price they may fetch.  The big question is do we need such gadgets replacing one another in succession? Do these fancy phones add to quality improvement of our daily existence and a still bigger question is do we need such innovations?  Internet and mobile phones have made communication easier and faster.  Human ingenuity cannot rest on one invention and seeks to go farther to manufacture new gadgets but most of these new gadgets are just old wine in new bottles. The car manufacturing industry turns out new models, but they are new only in name. It is certainly a welcome innovation if cars based on solar cells take to the roads. This will be a right step in preserving our environment. But new cars on display with nothing of significant difference pander to the basic human desire to go for the ‘new’.  There is no inventiveness in such production, only competitiveness that works on human greed and human vanity  to own all things new. We can well recall how the simple Radio was displaced by transistor, gramophone  by cassette player and spool tape recorder followed by VCP and VCR, Home TV, I Pad and I phone and the list is endless. Maybe every invention would have bettered the fidelity and quality of music, nonetheless the fact remains that all gadgets have a very limited shelf value.

 There is no denying the fact that the impact of scientific and technological advancements has certainly made life more comfortable, more pleasurable and more exciting. Transport, communication, entertainment, daily domestic grind have become easy, enjoyable and less demanding of our mental and physical energies. But we have not devised productive ways of occupying the time we have gained and even at the cost of annoying the modern generation, I have to truthfully say that most of the young adults have turned lotus eaters. We see them in malls and hang out joints with the headphones, listening to non-stop music without pausing to wonder about its effect on the auditory nerves.  Seeking knowledge and discovering new theories of path breaking importance is different from improvising changes for augmenting comfort that is already guaranteed by existing gadgets. The latter involves waste of material adding to environmental destruction besides changing men and women into restless consumers, adopting a lazy life style; on the other hand, the former is insightful towards understanding the planet we live in.  Scientific experiments bolstered by technology help Man to understand and appreciate the universe around him which in turn will have far reaching effective consequences towards preservation and sustainability of our Environment.

             Today’s newspapers are replete with news about gravitational pulls vindicating Einstein’s theory predicted by him a hundred years ago. Physicists have concluded that “the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed. The ground breaking discovery means we can see some of the strangest part of space giving a deep insight into the beginnings of our universe.” The discovery could lead to huge steps forward in understanding how the universe was formed and exploring its very deepest and darkest edges.

I wonder if obsolescence is progressive or regressive. At my age when I am nearing obsolescence (critics of this article may say that I have already reached that stage)  I question the propriety of greedy manufacturers to systematically engineer obsolescence, unmindful of its lethal and harmful effect on our minds, attitude, economy and environment. Maybe it is my way of affirming that time does not necessarily make humans obsolescent but continuous efforts at manufacturing obsolescence may make them reach that stage rather before time. Knowledge must be for the sake of knowledge, for the advancement of the mind, for the nurturing of civilization, for the preservation of the planet and not become an obsession to cater to human greed and vanity.