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? ;-)

Conflictuence

Laila got up from her workstation, threw her wireless mouse onto the office wall 10 meters from her seat, cursed aloud, took a few steps out of her cubicle and kicked a seat in her way really hard. Bad way to vent anger; not familiar with kicking-styles she cracked her shin quite deeply. Pain, uncertainty and shame overwhelming she fell unconscious.

Her colleagues sympathized with her thinking it might be that she was also on the 'fired' list and this was her reaction. They also knew that she had lost all her savings recently in the stock market crash AND that 6 months ago her boyfriend left her.

 

In belief-rich countries (South East Asia and especially India), if we were to interview different people of their opinions on why people behave the way they are and why such things happen (like in the case of Laila) we would get a fantastic variety of replies:

• A good handful of people will give occultism as explanation. It does establish its credibility to believers with its own evidences.
• Vaasthu Pandit Sharmaji had predicted, seven months back, mental problems for Laila since the septic tank of her house was situated in the North-West corner of the plot
• Also as per Feng-Shui the sharp corners within her house was inimical to her good luck
• Laila was ignorant of the fact that a door-to-door broom seller, who was the first person she met in the morning, was a bad omen condensing an impending downfall
• Baba Kalkiji, her neighbourhood tantric, confirmed that an evil spirit is after Laila. He foresaw this and had warned her; Exorcism was needed
• Laila's boss, being generally superstitious, had participated in a Sudarshanahomam that very morning to vanquish all his enemies and to reflect back 'evil eyes'. To top it, Laila hated her boss and had voiced it many times.
• One of Laila’s subordinates, Tarun, had cursed her when he gathered that she was getting all the credits for his hard work
• As per astrology, a debilitated Saturn and moon in her natal chart. Moreover she is going through the worst dasa (period) of her life
• Her palm also shows a line of terrible misfortune at this time of her life.
• More people associated her case in religious terms. All religions asserts that this is as usual was a case of Divine intervention.
• Mono-theistically oriented colleagues, Karim and Hannah, strongly asserted that it was God’s will for breaking a commandment
• Hindu Vikram pointed the finger to a particular deity (in whose portfolio of responsibilities the kind of misfortune is listed) who needs to be propitiated. He also preached a karmic connection to the misfortune. “As you sow so shall you reap” therefore this incident is an effect of causes Laila affected in either past life or past actions in this life.
• Local evangelist Dr. Ravi Moses had told her Jesus is the only way!
• A few people attributed the case to nothing but pure rationalistic and logical reasons such as
• Simple economics such as that the recession was imminent and therefore the stock market crashes, so Laila should have taken necessary precautions and not lose mental stability on this.
• On sociological reasons as per Mrs. Anderson. “After all the effect of society on an individual is tremendous, it shapes one’s mind and attitude”
• Upbringing and family background is paramount to the individual’s emotional makeup. Laila was a victim of parental abuse and therefore her violently reactive nature.
• Positive and/or negative environment surrounding the individual. Laila lives in a tough neighbourhood even now.
• A statistical matter as per colleague Joe. One in so-many individuals just had to encounter this problem.
• A medical case
• As per ayurvedic Dr. Vaidyaratnam, Laila has a dosha combination that makes her vulnerable to constipation(!) which in turn is the reason for her extreme reactions.
• Her allopathic doctor blamed it all on Laila’s addiction on sleeping pills.
• People like Deepak Chopra would give an holistic medicinal theory with an explanation on the basis that whole of cosmos has conspired for the situation
• Psychologist Dr. Rampal ascertained that Laila was of a neurotic type and the misfortune(s) of these sort is an obvious result

While reading the above list, one would have preferred a reason over the the ‘nonsensical’ others. That choice is based on YOUR experiences, YOUR understanding, YOUR beliefs and YOUR conditionings.

 But, what if ALL of them are concurrent reasons for the misfortune?! Can ALL these reasoning tally at the same time?

I opine Yes; Because each of the above is only one perception to the working of nature. And we are blind and ignorant to the existence of other parallel forces.

ForWarD

I feel that destiny is the resultant force that effects from the confluence of fate and freewill. And for this reason the actual future, i.e. destiny, cannot be predicted by any means to total accuracy. Have a look at the included diagrammatic representation on my idea of the mechanics of destiny. To simplify the upcoming technicalities, let’s abbreviate Destiny to D.

First let’s start with what is Fate. Fate is a circumstance thrust upon one, at any point of one's life. We may call this circumstance either fortunate or unfortunate. Some schools of thought believe that the nature of fate depends on one’s past-life or past (of present-life) performances. Actions even thoughts are said to cause an effect in the universe. Let’s call Fate F.

Many occult sciences; as the many as I have come across like astrology, divination, palmistry, omens-reading, entrails-readings, psychic reading, tarot, etc.; do a fairly good job of detecting and measuring this F force in one’s life. If one is lucky enough not to meet up with a fraud or a half-baked-self-promoted occultist then chances are that one will get quite an interesting insight of oneself, a read of life so far (past), present and future. But this reading is ONLY the pure F in one’s life. The reading assumes the individual allows only F to affect one's life in the coming future. Similar to what would happen if we allow a river to take us where it wants to when we don’t bother to swim at all. Therefore most occult sciences ‘see’ the F leg in the above diagram alone.

Next, there is another force that can interfere with F at any time, which I have not yet fully understood. And it is called Free will. This, I believe, is the force that created the most powerful people in the world. Also maybe the cause of the much progressed Western world front ended by USA. It is also the force that can kick impossibilities to the possible realm. Let’s call this Freewill force W.

With my classical christian upbringing I have learnt that only W matters. And this is what we all like to believe because then we have the confidence of being in control. The Bhagavad-Gita also tries to tilt the scales towards the W way though the book doesn’t explicitly say F is irrelevant.

F and W can interfere with each other at any time during one’s life to produce resultant D. This D CANNOT be clearly predicted by ANY known means (as far as I know). D is the best kept secret in the universe. And for this reason life is exciting. To know D you will have to be GOD himself! (Maybe in those enlightened higher states of consciousness one may fathom an individual’s D)

Back to the diagram, if you don’t use W then only F remains. Therefore D will be equal to F. So it's like going with the flow. Leaving everything to fate or God. But if one wants to consciously alter destiny then use W strongly at every point…to almost nullify F. And in this way an ambitious individual can chart (or so it appears to) his own destiny. This because then D 'will tend to' W as W > F.

 

Inspirations:

1. Synchrodestiny by Deepak Chopra
2. The Greatness of Saturn by Robert E. Svoboda
3. Autobiography of a Yoga by Paramhamsa Yogananda