Ever thought of THQM?

The much anticipated 21st century arrived with great technological breakthroughs tagging along the way. We boast about unbelievable innovations (which were definitely not on our ancestors’ minds when they discovered fire) that have become real with modern science and technology.

The human being is such a mysterious creature. He or she (mind the gender equality) possesses the one thing that no other living being does: the power of thought. This is the reason behind all the transformations. Today we are capable of doing millions of things that were not possible to do if we were born hundred years ago (or even ten years ago). Today we talk about information technology, genetic engineering, robotic mechanism and artificial intelligence, aeronautics, biological transplants (and the list goes on and on). It is our strong belief that all these fascinating technological advances intend to make human life better. But is it the real case or is it otherwise? May be it was the original intention at first, but along the way it seems like the creators/experimenters/users of such technologies have deviated from it (it is a common belief that great scientists and professors are quite absent minded).

With the novel concept of ‘humans-going-techno’, it is hard to predict how the future would be. The world is undergoing rapid changes with new components being added and old ones being removed, replaced or upgraded. Or rather is it the whole world that is changing or is it only a part of it? It is a known fact that (though some may not want to admit it) the ones who utilize almost all of high technologies are the ones known as ‘developed countries’. They skim off all the benefits and blow their trumpet while the poor African children (or rather child skeletons) suffer and die out of starvation. This is only one instance. (Even during their short period of suffering life, I wonder if they have ever heard of a computer.) If the intention of introducing technology was to make human life better, why are most of them still suffering?

Even today millions die from starvation, curable (mind you) diseases, lack of clean drinking water (and this list too goes on and on). Countries owning advanced technologies and great amounts of resources express their sympathy over these issues making tons of vows, but take no action. (Actions do speak louder than words.) Where is technology outsourcing? Where is resource sharing? And most of all where is human empathy?

Children are not naturally moral beings. But as they gradually develop and enter adulthood they acquire the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. The unequal distribution of technological advances is definitely wrong. Here the issue is not that this problem is not identified. The issue is that no one wants to take any action. All are bounded with policies they themselves have created, in order to be the winner of the planet Earth defeating the fellow human beings (perhaps the motive being the lure of lucre). Along with the advancing of technologies, human values have diluted. Greater the innovations were, colder the human heart became.

With the emergence of artificial intelligence, today’s attempt is to create robotics able to think, feel and love like human beings. But the real challenge is to stop the human kind from transforming into mechanical beings that have no feelings, emotions, empathy or values (one can learn a lot from the movie ‘AI’ – Steven Spielberg’s depiction of future artificial intelligence).
Japanese practice “Total Quality Management (TQM)” spread over the world with the arrival of emphasis on improving product and process quality. It served the purpose and was a success. It is high time a similar methodology was introduced to improve human quality (in order to make the world a caring and humane society once again). May be it could be called, “Total Human Quality Management (THQM)”?

A point to ponder……………. (especially for the ‘techno people’).