It is interesting to read the blog of Mr.Rao.  The analogy that 'today's technology is tomorrow's nuisance',  is true only to a limited extent.  Without the technology existing today, the other innovations would not have evolved.  The biggest event in technology till today is the advent of harnessing fire by the primitive man.  The next big thing is the wheel.  These things are relevant even today.  The examples of eight track tape or the vinyl records can only termed as fore-runners of today's DVD.  Even the advent of 'tubes' and transistors are in a way distantly related to the nanotechnology, in which Mr. Rao is actively associated.  Therefore the old technologies need not be termed as a pain in the neck.  It can be compared to our old parents, who are not useful and productive, but still whom we Indians respect.  That is it.

S.R.Krishna Murthy

Hi,

Technology, a gain or a pain? Well, one of our management teachers came up to me the other day and said he couldn't, and wouldn't, take the scheduled class that day, because "there is no power".

I said he could open the windows to allow enough (natural) light inside the classroom and take the session. He said, "No, no; I cannot work the LCD, because there's no power. All my material for the session is in a .ppt file. Without power, I cannot use it; I'm cancelling the class." And, he did!

A man with over a decade of teaching experience turned instantly powerless, because of power failure!

Is the technology to blame? The kind and the extent of dependency we develop on technology may be a more fruitful area to reflect on.

M.J. Arul.
( www.geocities.com/arulmj/intro.html )

Thanks GVK for drawing my attention  to the subject. My knowledge  about technology is zero and I am an old world civil engineer.The greatest surprise for me is that I am still called upon to arbitrate disputes of civil works. Despite the bright kids that invade the profession I managed to get some crucial changes in bridge design which ahs benefitted Mysore. That is a measure of satisfaction for me as a Mysorean that I could do some service. My being a civil enginer in the present overwhelming and forbidding crowd  of IT and BT who have taken over the Empire civil engineer  is fast becoming an extinct species but I manage to survive purely by common sense. I realise that technolgy has played a great influence in making things easy, perhaps too easy and there lies its danger.I often engage in emotional argument about missing the art of letter writing, it is all e-mail now. Funny it is bulk greetings for this and that and emotional touch of individual contact is missing, that is technology for you and I can go on like this. Though I am called a prolific letter writer I always write in long hand first. That is  my way of keeping the gray cells ticking and possibly keep Parkinson disease away. This technology stuff  is like developing one side of the brain to the exclusion of the other and we may eventually become slaves of technology.But then that is progres is it not, Certainly juggernaut rolls on inexorably The relevant question is whether technolgy is for man or man is for technology and finally it impacts on the quality of life itself.  When push buttons controls our life I can imagine a situation when we just throw up out of sheer ennui setting in our life  and opt for almost primitive living amongst the nature, time to enjoy the cool breeze, watch the trees sway, hear the bird song in the silence of the night,look up to the sky to watch the magnificent spectacle of starstudded expanding canvas  and feel a sense of peace away from the frenetic living searching for what we know not. May be even meditate. GVK you asked for it and you have to tolerate my drivel. Thanks anyway.

S. R. Krishna Murthy,

I really do like your intent. Thank you.

 

The questions a good techie (ought to) ask are - Could we build it faster? Can we leap forward rather than take small steps? Do I need to repeat the same mistakes as others?

 

While the analogies you draw are reasonable, from a tech point, they bear little or no resemblance. The technologies you cite with examples are indeed far removed! The recording technologies in tape are totally governed by magnetics, the vinyl media is totally mechanical. Hence the recording methods, playback system and hardware bear small resemblance. And yet the media content would be the same. Spiritually this would be akin to ‘intent’. The intent should always be to do good!

 

The nuisance I cover as technologist in my blog is the price one pays for inadequate deliberation. The knife that one uses in surgery is no different from the one that a local ‘hoodlum’ may flash. This is not a technology fiasco, it is about misguided ‘intent’.

 

While ‘nano’ refers to small dimensions the principles are governed largely by quantum effects. Once again the technologies are vastly different.

 

I most certainly respect the spiritual side of your statement. Like you I label this technology thing as ‘dharma’. Once you understand the photon, or electron ‘dharma’ you can harness their power attractively!

 

SR