Are We Progressing???

I write this post, sitting in the morning of the new year, trying to confront a thought, that has behold me for the last two days. And the thought is -

“Are we humans, progressing???” “What lies ahead???”

You think am crazy? Read on…

If we plot a graph of the evolution and advancement of the human race, we’ll find an amazing, steep upward rise of the slope after 1800s.

The industrial revolution happened, when man started digging in to nature, that made way to many revolutionising inventions.

As if we had broken our cocoon, man, who by then couldn’t imagine of travelling a few thousand kilometres, was suddenly finding inside a railway coach, speeding at fifty miles an hour.

In 1800 A.D., horses were the fastest way to travel.

The London Underground Metro, started its operations in 1863.

In 1900 A.D., two supposedly “mad” brothers flew a few metres above in air.

Fourteen years later, single engine powered planes fought against one another in the First World War.

1969. Man’s first step on moon; a giant leap for mankind.

A room sized machine is converted into a kilogram weighing, sleek and portable, laptop.

The point, I want to make is, that, since the last 150 years, man has advanced at a very rapid rate. The animal who travelled in a cart, now has breakfast in London, and dinner in New York.

Everything has revolutionised.

Now you communicate with your friends thousand kilometres away. Never before, inter-nation trade, has seen such volumes.

That is it.

What is the current scenario, of technology and the advancement of the humans, in circa 2010?

The picture, to me, is bit grim.

                                                   (Click here, to have a clear view.)

Discarding Utility; Innovation for Convenience

The inventions that took place in the last hundred years, have been primarily caused by their need, utility.

Air Travel has a great utility.

So does the IT revolution.

But, can anyone explain, what’s the utility of an N-97 mobile phone, when there’s already an N-96??

Let me elucidate more clearly.

Till now, we were engaged in the technological advancement, because the end result used to be of great utility. But now, it seems, that science and its guardians have discarded the purpose of creating a device that has some utility; have now started spending their minds, time, energy and resources to innovate for convenience.

Today I like a Honda CRV, and given the purchasing the power, I may buy it right away. Now, the geeks at Honda, those scientists, one of the best brains in the current stock of human population, passouts from MIT and IITs, must be investing their brains, not in inventing something useful, but just to enhance the current entity.

In a year or two, Honda may launch, CRV-2, with some minute changes. What happens then? CRV, the older version gets dumped.

DVDs have great utility. You can store large amount of data… Blah.. Blah… Blah… But, then technology, just to mint money, offers convenience by creating Blu-Ray. A single disc that can store six times data, than the poor DVD.

At the moment, a Blu-Ray disc is being used to store a single movie, costing $40.

Creation of Obsolescence

The whole science and technology community, at present, is involved in making its earlier inventions obsolete.

An N- 97 mobile is created, with features that are state-of-the-art, and which is of a “complete” thing in itself. You just can’t add something more to it.

But then, an N- 98 mobile shall be launched in a year or two, leaving the earlier version in desolation.

The whole economics of a company stands on this logic.

“Continue to Create Obsolescence” “Always deliver something new”

Hang on!

Am not saying, that one should be happy with his/her archaic phone model. But the argument is, we have hit a plateau region in the overall advancement of the human race.

Our whole energy is going into creating something that’s not new, not of any better utility. We are just re-packaging the same old thing.

The rate at which we advancement from 1850 to 1999, has dramatically slowed in the last decade.

Humans are not progressing, in the real sense…

We desperately need another revolution, to set ourselves to a higher, advanced level.