HOW WE EVER GOT BY WITHOUT IT?

 



“Someday, we are going to look back and wonder,

how we ever got by without AI.”

Derek Haoyang Li

 

It’s almost 9 p.m., here in India… and, it’s 7.30 p.m. there in Abu Dhabi. I just concluded my online (Zoom) session with a group of CBSE students. Such a routine of online classes for long-distance students has become a new normal for many like me. Yes, all thanks to the Pandemic. Even my local students have an option whenever they are unwell or out of station… They needn’t miss my class; they can join online…

And, as Derek Haoyank Li says about AI, I, too, find myself saying the same, looking back: “How I ever got by without these online platforms?”

Looking back, you and I have to say the same about every kind of technology… Imagine machines, transport facilities, phones, the internet, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ( ‘X’), malls, multiplexes, OTT platforms, Amazon, Swiggy, Wefast, GPay Paytm, Zomato, OLA, Uber, Urban Clap – there are scores of things – the technological marvels – which have become the way of life for us now… and, looking back, we are compelled to wonder: “How we ever got by without them?”

And, if we are ever assuming, that we are the only generation to wonder so, we are ignorant… The generations much before us have constantly wondered so, and generations much after us, too, will be constantly wondering so: “How we ever go by without them?”





I had taught Vishwas* when he was a T.Y. B. Com student in 2017. The graduation and the 2-year MBA were unable to provide him with the strength and intelligence needed to fix the ailing family business he was destined to inherit… It was a sinking ship, which he had to, somehow, learn to save. And, today, at 27, he is nowhere near that goal.

Vishwas has been coming to me, for nearly two weeks, to ‘re-learn’ some of the financial concepts, coupled with a few daily doses of motivation. I admire his sincerity and humility… I admire his grit and grace. I am sure, he will be able to turn the tide, sooner or later.

Incidentally, this morning, Vishwas was explaining to me how AI and virtual investments (like Crypto) are affecting the way we lived, loved and dreamed… “It’s just insane,” he was saying with tremendous force.

Well, a person like me finds it difficult to understand even a little of it. I am 66… and, with all my technical illiteracy, I have been able to come this far, doing all that I wanted to do – fairly well…

Maybe, someday, along with a sizable number of humans, I, too, may look back and wonder: “How I ever got by without all that's fast and furious?”

Perhaps, Steve Job’s prophetic words may provide some consolation: “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with humanities that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”




No artificial intelligence or virtual currency can bail out Vishwas from the trouble he is faced with… He has to rely on his own faith – ‘Vishwas’ …

Mercifully, he is ‘intelligent’ enough to know that…

 *Name changed

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s.: Pixabay

 

Video: Paisabazaar

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