robot-human

It would be wrong to predict the future, but some of my observations guide me to project a very assumptive scenario based on my understanding now. Probably that’s why sometimes I try to convey a point under category- Vision. True or untrue- time can judge!

After reading comments in my last log, I was drawn to a point where I had no reason to say, “No we cannot live without machines and our world will be without them.” Meanwhile, I was also re-questioning myself: WHY DO WE NEED MACHINES? The idea of us AND machines is tricky and it seems inevitable. It’s like getting real married with non-real, yet we need them…

WHERE HAVE WE GONE WRONG? Have we REALLY gone wrong? Or is it the VARIETY in US?

Let’s move back in time and understand some facts:

Until Newton discovered why apple fell down from tree, people knew that apples simply fall (things fall, what else!). It’s not that force of gravity never existed before Newton, but he was the one who discovered the fact. Later, Einstein came with theory of relativity, which guided us on relative perceptions of reality. Prior to this people were falling for multi-faceted truths of realities! Ashby’s Law (of requisite variety), as acknowledged by Stafford Beer, helped to guide managers with this fact:

VARIETY ABSORBS VARIETY

What is variety? What does it mean to us?

In simple terms, Ashby put it as: Variety is a set of possibilities. It means a lot to us, because WE, as human beings, have an extremely high capacity of generating different sets of possibilities. Probably, it would be wrong for me to quantify and say how much! But you might not disagree with my statement.

Why is variety in limelight and where are machines?

Look at a very common scenario from our daily lives:

Mr ABC wakes up, puts on the geyser so that water can boil. Once he’s done taking a hot shower, he puts bread in a toaster. He takes out butter from fridge and spreads it smoothly on his bread. He leaves for office in his car.

This scene is very pedestrian, yet complicated to say what’s going on in background with help of technology. We have lot many machines to fill-in our tasks so that we can make our lives easier and manage more number of things around us. Look at cell phones, computers, super cool gadgets, etc. – all these are examples of objects or machines that help us to manage our lives!

But, US, human beings, are much more complicated than what we have or can see. Our thirst for varieties never end (of that which I am aware of!). So, inventions and discoveries keep happening. That’s when you can plug-in ‘Variety absorbs variety’! We need more machines as well. (Ah, Catch-22!).

Are we really trapping varieties?

When people say our product adds value, in clearer terms, it increases your options/ varieties. But human beings have endless varieties (that’s what I assume to know till this point of time).  I’m also thinking whether we could think of any other thing, but machines…Or we had already decided our fates long back?

Does that mean we keep on building more machines?

Probably we’re not stopping as of now! Though, idea of men getting more choices sounds completely fine, many sociologists like Barry Schwartz argue that the abundance of choice in modern society is actually making us miserable. I would put their point differently as: Sociologists have different varieties of thinking, which remain unfulfilled by a wider group of machine makers. They made a choice.

Have you made your choice? Or, you are looking for more?

Stafford Beer had said:

“It is my deeply considered view that the consequences for humanity will probably be cataclysmic.”

Long back, in my log I had said: Brain rules and Feelings die..Cry Cry Cry

My friend had messaged me these words of wisdom:

“It’s the choices that make us what we are and we can always choose to be right. Remember- the choice still lies in one’s own hands…”

What do you think?

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