On 6th August 1945, the world woke up to the inhuman side of technology. USA dropped nuclear bomb on Hiroshima , Japan, killing thousands of people and marking the beginning of the end of Second World War. But one question has remained since then, if one has such lethal technology, must they use it, regardless of its repercussions ?
Sensitivity of human spirit should always be given an upper hand over the technology. Technology is not an end in itself, it is a tool to further human interests and in that sense, technology should be bounded by human rationality. Mahatma Gandhi was not a big supporter of heavy industries based on technology. He, in fact, supported cottage industries because he viewed technology not as something which has to grow to its grandeur divorced from the actual purpose it intends to serve. For Mahatma Gandhi heavy industries cause harm to the environment and increased mechanization would cause higher unemployment and thus, serves very little purpose.
Wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi is equally relevant today, if not more. It serves as a reminder to all organisations wielding technological power. There are countries such as China, which censors internet traffic in the country by the Great Firewall denying people benign freedom of expression. Citizens are surveilled through facial recognition system for Social Credit System. Then there are Multi National Companies, with cutting edge technology and deep pockets, who seek to unfairly dominate the market. They stifle competition by lobbying government or by not allowing start-ups to come up by inflicting loss on them. Such practices go against the Law Of Competition in market and reduce customers to dependents. All these are examples of technology being agnostic to the human values and emotions.
But, there are many reasons as to why human spirit should prevail over technology. Technology is an output of scientific and empirical exercise. Artificial Intelligence, for example, has an algorithm based on science and a training mechanism for that algorithm, based on empirical data. But, the thing about data is that they are collected from our society which has biases present in it and these biases also creep into the collected data. While on the other hand, human spirit is based on logic, rationality and ethics, even though it may not be the majority view. Case study of Amazon, the American MNC, recruitment is worth mentioning here. Amazon employed AI to screen job applications between 2014-2017. Since, women were smaller proportion of the existing workforce, the algorithm disproportionately rejected women candidate's application. This case study shows how technology can go wrong and thus needs to be tempered with human reasoning
Another reason is that many times the changes in law can't match the rapid changes in technology. Take for example, the recent controversy over Cambridge Analytica case and data privacy issues across the globe. Many countries, including India, don't have a data protection law which provides greater maneuverability to tech. companies and in doing so they breach the line of propriety. It is in such cases that human values are needed to fill the void created between the technological advancement and the legislative advancement.
And whenever, technology meets with right intentions wonders happen. Our recent experience of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) based on the architecture of Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) trinity, specially during COVID-19 underscores this idea. Under DBT, the benefits of government's welfare schemes are passed on directly to beneficiary's bank account without any intermediaries. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi once famously said, "If I send 100 Paisa from Delhi, only 16 Paisa reaches the beneficiary." This statement from former Prime Minister highlights how deep was the corruption and leakage. But, now will to deliver best services converged with technological innovation in the from of DBT has ensured that complete 100 Paisa reaches intended beneficiary, that too on time.
As prevalence of human spirit over technology ensures that latter meets its desired objective. It is necessary for all stakeholders in the triple helix model of innovation - Government, Industry and Academia - to do their part. Government should ensure that legal framework is adequately equipped with relevant and age appropriate laws, balancing technical creativity and human dignity, like fine tuning Information Technology Act keeping in mind the hate speeches online and bringing in data protection law.
Government schemes apart from applying technology should also keep in mind people's concerns and their culture to ensure its acceptability. For example, just less than 40% of India's children are stunted and need nutritional food. But, many of them don't prefer foods like meat due to their cultural preferences. But, this problem can be solved by fortification of food acceptable to them.
Companies too should ensure that they do not overplay the power of technologies they have invented. Each company should have a Chief Ethics Officer, to verify that they are not only law compliant but also ethical in their conduct by evaluating their product, terms and conditions in the light of ethical considerations.
True technological development lies at the intersection of innovation, legality and ethicality. This maxim can be the guiding light for the future which awaits many technological disruptions. We must be mindful of the ultimate aim of the technology which is human betterment, else there could be another Hiroshima moment, much more devastating. After all technology is a good servant but a bad master.
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