There have been plentiful speculations about the impingement of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, just around the corner. Futurists like Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and many more experts of A.I are opposing the genesis and bettering of A.I technology. Since many years this issue have been a burning topic which has kept many people on their toes, startling them about the very fate of mankind.
To get a clear picture of the subject, let us get to know what AI is and what is it capable of doing?
In simple language, artificial intelligence is the outcrop of human intelligence wherein the data gets processed by the machines. Even now we all are surrounded by this hi-tech science. The security of your phone in the form of face recognition or fingerprint is an example of A.I. Not just this but the language translators, phone assistance such as Siri of Apple and autonomous cars are all forms of A.I. Now you might wonder how these conveniences are a threat to us. To answer it, the current form of artificial intelligence that we are currently using is the least efficient version of artificial technology, also known as narrow artificial technology which is not even 20% of the potential that A.I carries; this makes us appreciate its possibilities and abilities of A.I.
Narrow artificial intelligence is a tailor made intelligence which is confined for a peculiar operation. The main complication is the "strong artificial intelligence” which is the upgraded version of it and this is what is making the humankind face the perils. This system is not only capable of doing basic tasks but it can also be programmed in such a manner that it mirrors the human mind. The programs of this intelligence can enable it to have its own mind rather than stimulating the human intelligence, which will make it a cake walk to surpass the human wisdom. The proclamation about A.I not feeling human emotions and sentiments is a sincere myth. There will be only one thing which will make humans different from A.I and that would be INTELLIGENCE. On the other hand the upcoming technology could be superior to us in terms of intellect and physical strength. Due to a heightened level of intelligence, they might as well dominate us.
There have been many alarming exposures of A.I Doings. One of them is, while Facebook was planning to develop chatbots that would be able to communicate in human language, they found an error and observed that the two of the chatbots were conversing in a language that was only understandable to them. And they were even able to end it with proper essence. Consequentially and almost immediately Facebook abandoned the project.
The bots created by artificial intelligence are not only taking our jobs but will soon be able to act as our sexual partners too. It is said that by the year 2050, copulation with robots will be an offhand phenomenon. The misuse of A.I as a weapon can jeopardize the lives of many and can prove to be another weapon of mass destruction, if fallen on wrong hands.
As of now we can only proliferate such theories. If A.I has to work in the favour of all, then those who handle it are to be the right ones. Thus before we venture out to develop it further we must give it a thought to develop its handlers first to be sensible and wise. In the future, if we make these technologies handle the survival of our lives and economies, human beings would have a lot of time in their hands to look beyond it and create something more fantastic which is beyond the capability of any machine.
UNCONTRIVED INTELLIGENCE
Cherishing Yoga With The World
Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.
- Bhagavad geeta
Yoga has always been there with us since ages. It is a well-remembered bestowal from India's ancient tradition. So, when on 21st June, we celebrate the world yoga day, it makes me remember the prolonged wandering of yoga.
The outset of yoga have been said to be unquestionably very senile. Shiva, a mythological character of India’s rich figmentation is said to be the begetter of this age old folklore. He is also known as Adiyogi, which means the first yogi, the first person to manifest the seeds of yoga in the world.
The legend goes about saying that about 15,000 years ago, a man appeared in the foothills of the northern Himalayas, where he sat for months, absolutely still even without a slight movement. He was a nine feet tall, well-built man. At first he attracted a lot of attention as people gathered in hope of some miracle but soon every one lost their interest except seven of them. These seven tailed the man and requested him to share with them what he knew. The man denied but they remained adamant on learning it. Finally, he agreed. The man is now known as Shiva and the 7 men are called as the "saptarishis" - The Seven Sages, who propagated yoga across the world in gratitude towards their preceptor. These stories remain uncertain due to oral transmission; however during the excavation of Indus-valley civilisation, various coins were found wherein Shiva is seen sitting in yogic postures. The science of yoga has been resilient for millenniums and this comes out to be apparent as the word, “yoga” finds mention in the sacred and the earliest written text of Rig Veda.
In the year 1893, when Swami Vivekananda represented India in the parliament of World’s Religions, he did give a clear insight of India’s tradition which included secularism and yoga. He lured the crowd into recognising the godsend blessing in the form of Yoga. He was confident that if the western world welcomes yoga then the whole world will follow its footsteps. This is what had been the endeavour of our honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi who, in the year 2014, proposed the idea of rejoicing the world yoga day on 21st June in the United Nations, which gladly accepted the proposal with 177 of its member states voting in favour of it, which so far had been the highest number of majority gained in the UN.
Today, more than 180 countries celebrate and participate in what is termed as the international yoga day. It is an ancient science which with its appropriate inner technologies makes it possible for a human being to function at his optimum level with a comprehensive sense of health opening up human’s physical, psychological and spiritual possibilities.
Break free from Depression
Once in a lifetime, we all go through it but we choose not to talk about it. We refuse to dig into the sensitivity of the topic.
Today, let’s talk about the elephant in the room,
DEPRESSION.
We human beings give more attention to physical illness than the mental ones. In spite of depression being a major contributor to the overall global burden of diseases, we still dismiss this plague as nothing important. About a century ago, people generally were more engrossed into physical activities which kept them physically fit, which in turn reduced the chances of a mental breakdown. At that time there were only a few, who suffered from mental illness. But today our lifestyles have become sedentary and people are using their brain, more than ever. This is now leading to a state wherein they are getting identified and overburdened by the knowledge they accumulate. The problem here is not our brain, we don’t know how to handle it – this is the problem. In order to dodge the suffering, people are getting into substance abuse at a large scale, which makes a part of their brain dull, when under its influence. This is a form of escapism rather than facing the problem.
One of the reasons of us not confronting the problem is that it is not physically apparent, but happens at a subtle level. Thus to understand it demands some attention. To revise the consequences of it, here are some key points.
1) More than 300 million people across the world are suffering from depression.
2) In many cases, it can lead to suicide.
3) 1 out of every 20 people in India is suffering from some sort of mental disability.
Even after all these alarming signs, we still consider depression in least of our concerns.
Now to understand depression precisely, we should know its ingredients. These are -:
Negativity
Defeatism
Pessimism
and Misguided perception
The dawn of depression, thus is negative thoughts. In this state of mind we attract pessimism. We feel defeated and worthless and hopeless about getting out of this mess. There is evidently a fine connection between our mental and physical wellbeing. A robust body leads to lively mind and similarly a body which is dull and wearisome all the time, leads to mental illnesses. There is a strong connection between these two faculties and the diseases of such aspects are known as the psychosomatic ones.
Now if you think that your daily mood swings and alien emotions count as depression then it is not so. Depression is much more than that. It’s a feeling of undeniable helplessness, where there appears not a single ray of hope. All the negative thoughts begins to accumulate and with time they start hampering our perception and happiness.
Depression is not something that can’t be cured. To get rid of this we first need to take it as a potential threat by an honest faceoff to be able to seek some help. It’s just like a quagmire; you can't get out of it, without seeking help. Talk to your closed ones about your mental state and get every ounce of negative toxic emotions out of your body and mind. It’s hard to open up the vulnerable side of ours to everyone but once we do it, we feel liberated and light hearted.
Depression is not as tough as you. Face it and talk about it.
Dynamic Education.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the current scenario, the heart of education is on materialistic improvement and peculiarly benefits rather than on the holistic growth of mind, body and spirit. Education is not just about things that are in books. What I have come across is that education is no more knowledge oriented, it has become job oriented now. We study not to learn new things but to grab a good job which offers us a handsome salary.
In many developed nations, like the Scandinavians, the education has shifted itself towards skills development rather than just grabbing a degree. But here we study in order to get a degree. And this is one of the main reasons why we are facing a crisis of unemployment as even after graduating, individuals lack the basic skills which are much needed.
About two centuries ago, when India was still a colony of the British, our education structure was changed meticulously by the British. They framed our education in such a way that we were only taught to fill the grey areas for clerical jobs. We were taught only to be followers, not leaders. The same structural changes were made to many colonies but as soon as they gained independence, many of them reframed their structures as per the requirements, however we as Indians were too naive to do so. To this date, we follow the legacy of the British.
To find a curious mind among a sea full of people who cram things up is difficult nowadays. Education is a potential mechanism through which, we can contribute towards the betterment of the society. Maybe this is why education is counted as one of the fundamental human rights, which allows us to gain primary education, free of cost. However we can’t say much about the quality of education.
Education has been commercialized due to which the teaching and learning process in schools and colleges have been disrupted to attain maximum profit. Whereas, it takes efforts to provide quality education to all.
It has also helped us to bring a major gap between those, who can afford it easily and those who cannot. To change the system completely is not possible on short term basis. It’s a gradual process which will happen if we invest appropriately upon bringing up quality teachers and other people involved in the sector of education. Therefore we should add elements that are more liberal and emphasize towards development of individuals as a whole.
Education is a lifelong process. We just can not stop it after a certain point. We learn at every phase of our life. The number of zeros behind our salary partially depicts our qualification. but a major part of it is constituted by how we behave with others, irrespective of their cast, religion or financial status. We should educate yourself, not just to earn money but to contribute towards the development of your society.