We are living in an era where scientists are inventing new things every day. But will man become redundant? No! ‘Man’ can never be dispensed with Priya S Tandon The other day my children were discussing ‘the drone’. It seems that drones are going to be the new thing for transportation and delivering stuff to people’s homes. Another thing they talked about was self-driven (driverless) cars. Robots, it seems, are taking the place of cleaners, maids and cooks. The machine revolution perhaps started with the invention of the wheel in its humblest form. We have been a witness to the evolution of cars, trains and planes. In our childhood, our grandmothers would grind wheat in a wheat-mill (chakki) by hand. They would make mint chutney in a dauri or kundi that was made out of a single stone. Today, everything is automated. Now we have mixers and grinders. Pullovers were hand-knitted. Babies wore cloth nappies. At present, computers do calculations, keep records and make projections. All this has been aimed at making our lives more comfortable. So, the indisputable purpose of invention is to make man comfortable, right? Or is it to make man redundant? If machines take over everything, what will man do? Man’s quest for the unknown is insatiable. Someone said, “Man will just think and invent.” Well, to think and invent, is it possible for man to sit behind closed doors and just switch on the think-tank? Thoughts and ideas too, formulate as you muse over things, ruminate over situations, solve problems, enjoy happy times, tide over sad times and fight through trying times. If you keep sitting for a year in a room, you would surely have grown one year older, but would you have grown up? Or learnt or matured or become wiser or gained anything? Or would you have lost? Our physical and mental faculties have to be in constant use to remain in a running condition. One needs to walk, breathe, work, move around, laugh and cry, love and express happiness and sorrow, because all this and more, is important for holistic development. ‘Man is a social animal’, said Aristotle. Why and how has that changed? Man needs human interaction. It is situations and human interactions that provide stimulus for expansion and growth. Interestingly, it is in vogue to be going back to the basics. Like never before, are people talking about Yoga, Pranayaam, simple and healthy foods, such as sprouts and fruits, salads and greens, detox by means of yogic kriyas and living close to the nature. People are standing up against pollution to stop trees from felling, saying no to crackers; not using disposable plates, straws and cutlery, saying no to printouts, resorting to reading online; saying no to plastics and so on … People talk about the goodness of walking, cycling and climbing stairs as opposed to driving or taking elevators. This makes me think that the world is moving in two opposite directions. Perhaps this has been so since long. The sages and spiritualists preferred the concept of withdrawal into oblivion; hence the concept of zero was discovered. The masses preferred the concept of embracing everything; they wanted expansion and growth; hence the concept of infinity evolved. We are living in an era where scientists are inventing new things every day. But will man become redundant? No! ‘Man’ can never be dispensed with. Man is the jewel in the crown of God’s creation. Nothing is even remotely comparable with the human brain! Nothing! Without the human input, nothing works. And all answers to the questions that plague the human mind are available within the man himself! Surfing the inner-net, can be more gratifying and incredible than surfing the internet! The quest for the unknown begins as well as ends with peering into the inner-net!

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