Technolo-ch'i

Economists, Financial Analysts, Statisticians, Demographers, Climatologists, Astrologers and of course Business consultants do this all the time...Assume (make an ASS out of U and ME) and then predict the future. The whole world eagerly wait to eat up what they are about to vomit; ultimately sending economies to recession, share prices berserk, dumb public to panic, create new trends, countries to war and people generally direction less.
Another observation is surprisingly we do not challenge these predictors when their advices, which are almost always wrong, don't work. Obelix comments 'People are crazy'.
 

I have a few armchair (ass-at-rest) predictions too ... without any assumptions. They are so obvious that I am sure that I am safe :-)

• In a few decades, we will have dumb terminals hooked to the one big server: 'The Web'. No more operating Systems, no more pirated MS-Office, no more installation CDs & drivers and no more Hard disks. So we will see the end of the 'Personal' Computer.
• Many customers will realize that the entities: computers, automation, software, hardware and consultants had taken them for a ride. The implementation wizard was a lie, Business never improved, processes never got streamlined, the softwares were not easy to use, it was neither adaptive nor flexible and Total Cost of Ownership was always high. They will feel cheated and will seriously challenge the sales of the then software houses.
• The Age of custom developments and in-house software will return.
• Technology changed so fast but not its acceptance! Customers (sometimes excluding the IT manager) still don't understand whats ERP, Business Intelligence, work flow and pervasive technology. These concepts were too futuristic for today but they will sell tomorrow.
• Like the electronics industry the world will then have just a few big software giants. The minnows will either be swallowed by the giants or will perish.
• Entrepreneurs and software houses will then stop developing out-of-the-world and way-over-the-head applications but instead will pursue the development of very basic databases, integrative applications and infrastructures for the web.

Anyone dare challenge these? ;-)

Narcissist Era

George Romero should be smiling at the way the world is progressing or rather regressing. The situation now is almost like in one of his creations: it is hell on earth. Though a fan of horror flix, I first watched one of his zombie movies with a sense of disgust; I thought: whose perverted imagination is this? But in 2004 when I watched one of the most mind-troubling movies I have seen, Dawn of the Dead *, I realized! The seemingly nonsensical theme turned interesting, as I was able to sync with its creator's mind.

Maybe the concept of the Kaliyug is right; it seems everyone (not excluding myself) is now vehemently only after money, power, respect and recognition.

• We want money to be able to indulge and to buy respect
• We want to control but not to be controlled
• We want to covet, we covet and want to be coveted.

Unfortunately the motivators and their liners have only added feul to the raging fire: the "Just do it", "I make the rules", "Do whatever" and "Go get it" attitude we have imbibed from the environment around us has only fostered self-centeredness and ruthlessness.

If that’s on one end what’s happening at the other?

One does not not see much morality prevailing anywhere let alone spirituality. Not even in the new-age reformists/apostles let alone the traditionalists. Faith is lost, distrust is in.

As if it isnt chaos already out there we are all also becoming like the zombies, infected by the majority around us. Hope in the near future is bleak but some serious damage to mankind is probable. Detachment seems like the only prevention from insanity; Surfing the chaotic waves seems like the only way to live.

On the bright side, everything that has a beginning has an end. Epidemics, slowdowns, fads et al should eventually dip. At least thats what Malcolm Gladwell’s and Steve Levitt’s books infers so. Such situations cannot be last but that they can do a lot of damage before they subside. Fungi colonies (watch them on rotting food) are like these. They spread/multiply and grow astonishingly fast. But one fine morning they seem to disappear. The most common reason for this sudden disappearing act is that the very base on which they grew got transformed. Sad thing is this will take some time in such a world situation.

 

* The apocalyptic feeling and the hopelessness portrayed in the film were too nightmarish for me. To top it all, in the theatre seat I forced to sit put while I was being bitten and sucked blood off…. all over my body by bugs :-)

Spiritual Zombie

The title makes no sense and so does the ‘faiths’ of the times. Not targeting the mushrooming Christian evangelist sects alone, which of course am not in agreement with. It is widely known that the situation in other religious streams are not any soulful. But it’s always easier and accepted to criticize one’s own.

There is no faith left, religions have become redundant. Church seems like a mass drama. The clergy is looked upon like a bunch of clowns. To 'save’ mankind from these deteriorating religions and the chocking intra-religion politics, we have now even more Preachers, Pastors, Philosophers and Priests. Not over: blind fundamentalists, bigots and fanatics; the noise from their rallies, media channels and conventions; their littering posters, pamphlets and banners; and their chauvinism, persuasiveness and narrow-minded reasoning.

I suggest one does some introspection and a course in spirituality before looking for these new-age quick fixes. To start with read H.G. Well’s book 'Country of the Blind’. The work gives insight into the difference between religion and spirituality.

Spirituality and faith, I feel, are very personal things and are not other peoples’ business. Spirituality is one’s journey to find the truth. Religion, on the other hand, is like a generic ‘template’ for spirituality, which suffices for some for whom habits and routines are powerful enough to transform. But for many this approach with spirituality is evidently ineffective. Then religion becomes only the hinderance to salvation and a mask one puts on for identity.

My stand: There are as many paths for spirituality as there are the numbers of humans!

One savior or prophet or church may not be the only way. Religion is but ONE path for spirituality and on the flip side it breed can chauvinism. The act of persuading another to spiritually think/act alike is as stupid as persuading another to like one’s favorite foods.

The Hubulkok Effect

The hubulkok is a colourful bird. It travels a long distance, on an instinctive route, to mate and nest. En route this long flight, only some 700 kilometers before touch down, it passes over the hot and sunny beaches near the Great Pillar cliffs. Here, if the sea lashing the cliffs brews up something special a few hubulkoks may stop for a travel break. An oceanic rubbish sludge current sometimes crosses the local gulf eddies to cough up a humid stench. A very thick storm of flies hovers over the seas. The swarms of flies and the stench also attract fishes of all kinds and in turn these fishes attract the sharks. The situation normally stays only for a couple of hours or a day if it happens at all. If coincidently the hubulkoks fly over this place at this time, then the some of the hungry hubulkoks dives down into the fly clouds to swallow in mouthfuls. Then these snacking hubulkoks with their bellies full are unable to continue with their overhead friends on the remainder of the journey. They decide to nest on the nearby land itself. They fly an hour inwards into the greener parts of this land and settles near a farming village. A reason to select this place is also the access to seeds, grains et al in plenty in the barns. Just before the mating there is a cooing-the-female ritual with a display of its pinkish wings and a cry that goes 'hulhulhul'. Now, the villagers who heard this cry are tense! The elders of the village have taught them that to hear the 'hulhulhul' sound is inauspicious. And it is not wholly false; they were hit the following day with the news that one of their beloved was killed in a shark attack the day before!

Local Superstition: Hubulkoks augurs death.

How can the harmless hubulkok signal deaths?
The islanders here are mostly agricultural and close knit, mostly related one way or another. They have their own religion, traditions and superstitions. One such superstition their grandparents passed on to them is the relation between death and hubulkoks based on actual sea death incidences observed through the centuries. Many islanders have also lost their fishermen folks to the notorious whirlpools. This too happened after sighting the hubulkoks nesting near their villages. They accused hubulkoks to be death itself.
The reality is that: it is the time of year when the islanders' produce are brought to the old market ten miles off the beautiful sandy white beach near the Great Pillar cliffs. Having made their sell many of them decide to take a day off and go swimming or boating. Normally it is quite safe but not if it is the sea mood is as explained above.

Rationality: Hubulkoks sightings on that island may signal dangerous seas nearby.

Musings: Thankfully, for this particular case we can observe and understand the whole scene on a macro level. It can be explained with appropriate scientific principles we know. But imagine a situation where it involves sciences beyond our understanding or maybe even those we haven't yet formalized. Then superstitions and omen readings could just be reliable.

Morals of the story: Don’t ignore everything you can’t explain today, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Am Back…

…after more than an year of hibernation.

I may never use this facility to log my daily moods as many others do but I will definitely write once in a while. Problem is I am not gifted with writing fluency. I wait to well in my head to fill up before I can 'flow' it out; each of my post is the culmination of many man-years of observance, discussion, thought and experiences.