“Technology is a good
slave but a bad master”
Articles are not written these
days. They are more likely “marketed” to their target readership. The typical
English newspaper is not the target readership for this article that I am about
to share with you.
At the Indian Institute of
Management Calcutta, where I studied nearly 15 years back, they do teach about
the tale of two marketers who are both sent to a remote island where no one
wears shoes. One of them comes back to report that it’s most unlikely that they
shall ever buy shoes.
The other however sees a great
opportunity in what she believes is a virgin market. With changing lifestyle
and work routines, she pitches that each one of them is a potential customer
now or later. That was an important lesson for me that I still steadfastly hold
on to.
Another interesting thing
happened a day after I sat to write down this article. An article titled
“Techno-vision: Solving humanity’s grand challenges” (TOI,
18th Aug.’13)
written by Silicon Valley evangelist Mr. Vivek Wadhwa appeared in the press the next day.
This is a grandstanding article
that firstly portends a scenario where the only kind of water may be left to
drink or for potable uses is sewage water and such yucky water which will be
“Slingshot” for an initial price of a few thousand dollars and electricity cost
of one kilowatt for 30 litres. He forgets to mention a likely annual
maintenance cost and the fact that human beings do not consume sanitized
distilled water but natural mineral water. There is certain extra costs to be
incurred if any company were to provide water of the same composition as
natural mineral water from natural sources, that’s been available for a long time
before we began to rapidly pollute river and ground water a few decades or so
back. This also varies every 20kms. according to geo-climatic conditions.
He cites several such examples
of how “artificial meat” for burgers are going to be manufactured in laboratories,
how solar energy is going to be dirt cheap and with similar such pipe dreams of
unlimited “free” energy, food is soon going to be unlimited with the help of
advances in medicine, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and
other fields. He does mention that there will be some problems but fails to
learn again and again and again that many of his techno-wizardry driven
solutions may be worse than the problems that they are targeting at.
Mr. Wadhwa and the cottage
industry of such techno-evangelists that he belongs to are a third kind of
marketer, who presume that we are all born with two left feet and that too,
these are feet of the same size for everyone on the island. This echoes Henry
Ford’s “any color of car as long as it’s black” over a century back. Haven’t we
moved on!
Technology today has pervaded
every walk of our life. Motor cars, smart phones, Hi-definition television
sets, blue ray audio, automatic washing machines, pressure cookers, microwave,
oven, toaster and grill, digital cameras – they are no longer merely status
symbols. Life seems so difficult to imagine without several or even one of
these in the hustle-bustle of city life. What came as a surprise is how they
are making way into the rural areas, as I experienced in a village stay near
Wardha in Maharashtra, a town where Gandhi started his experiments with Gram
Udyog or Village Industries, 75 years back.
There are essentially two kinds
of technologies. One is Wadhwa’s technology which is built on lies, cunning and
videotapes. That’s conducted in the “Closed Source” confines of the office and
the laboratory. This may be initially developed by entrepreneurs as Mr. Wadhwa
is quick to point out, but is soon controlled by a handful of corporate in a
remote location. The work is mostly done in uniform air-conditioned ambience
that defies the wide diversity of geo-climatic conditions around the world.
This also therefore leaves behind so much of “grey goo” that Mr. Wadhwa perils
at, before he starts belting out another set of his techno-solutions that will
create an even worse kind of grey goo and even faster. This may be lucrative
for him but comes at a great cost to the humanity today and more so for our
children and future generations.
The other is Gandhi’s
technology on which the Gram Swaraj model is based. This is “Open Source”
technology that’s built on truth, perseverance and a sharing of knowledge
without any barriers. This will also be developed by entrepreneurs but not in
the closed confines of the office and the laboratory, but in the open fields
around the world with its diverse geo-climatic conditions. Unlike Wadhwa’s
technology which seeks to first dirty and then purify water, Gandhi’s
technology gets down to the field and assesses the sources of water pollution. The
polluter must clean up the water before releasing it in the open. If it cannot
it must close down.
Next, Gandhi’s technology seek
to tap all natural sources of water including rainwater and explore ways of
storing them so that they are available throughout the year. Ponds and wells
are made at appropriate locations and of sizes guided by the topography of the
place.
It even deploys practices such
as reducing the use of water in washing in certain months, which coincides with
the holiday season for the local washer-families. By keeping the village well a
little away from the house block, it also developed camaraderie among the water
carrying folks. The use of earthen pots also ensured that there is good
handling of water besides their sanitizing properties, unlike plastic pots that
are in use today. This also creates the market for the local
potter-entrepreneur. In the winter months, water is stored in copper or brass
pots which beneficiates the water in those seasons. Water is also stored in
storage bags made of dead animal’s skin which was suitable for irrigation and
even for drinking in some areas. This also created a market for the local
cobbler-entrepreneur.
On the whole, clean natural
mineral water with great quality and purity is made available throughout the
year. This is strictly not sold even as its storage and upkeep generated
plentiful of market for entrepreneurs who are paid in local currencies, in
grains or other useful or aesthetic stuff that they may need. They didn’t have
to ask for a return. People gift each other as honor and in dignity of their
service for each other. The houses are designed in such a way that water is
accessible to any passer-by who may need it.
Wake up Mr. Wadhwa and all
other techno-blinded folks and get your PET “mineral water” checked. It may be
missing a statutory warning that water stored in plastic bottles for a length
may be carcinogenic. In several tests they have even been found to be more
contaminated than the local tap water. What else have you been drinking?
Are we already so blinded by
technology to see how Mr. Wadhwa’s “techno-vision” technology blinds us?
Chandra Vikash is a management
consultant and social activist. He is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and MBA
from IIM Calcutta. He can be reached at chandra.vikash@gmail.com.
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