Our dependance on the internet grows linearly year on year. Soon we would be at a point where we would be connected all the time everywhere. Our dependance on bandwidth would come to a point where it would be ‘roti, kapda, (pani …I included that), makaan aur bandwidth’.
I remember a lesson in our 1st PU kannada text book which made such a deep impression on me that I kept thinking about it for years. The lesson was on an incident in Goa …….where the bridge over the Mandovi river collapsed. The bridge was a critical lifeline for the Panaji city. Soon everything stopped coming into Panaji and the residents had to go thru hell. Water, fuel, electricity stopped and life got miserable. The point which was being made is that there are a few critical things on which we are extremely dependant on.
– Water
– Electricity
– Fuel
and to add to this list now we have
– Bandwidth!!!!
Along with bandwidth comes a whole host of issues. What if we were victims of a cyber-attack from an enemy country, what if our privacy was grossly misused on the internet etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6290102.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6289410.stm
And then we have the confluence of mobile technology and internet technology which would make us all the more vulnerable. This just takes me to the scene of Terminator – Part 3 where all networks suddenly blank out and that is the starting point of doomsday.
Then again the movie “I Robot” talks about networks getting on their own intelligence …..to the extant that they decide to exterminate the human race …..in a slow, sure, subtle manner – plan murders, robot mob attacks …what have you. The climax scene of “I Robot” is very moving. This just reminds me of Issac Asimovs….. Foundation series of science fiction books.
We are the generation who is witness to the transition from the industrial age to the information age. We look forward to the future with a lot of excitement …………..and again there is as much vice which changes shape and form in this new era……….. which we have to face with discretion and caution.
Life.. 