DailyPost 954
DISENGAGING TECHNOLOGY
The world getting flat courtesy technology caught the public imagination by the best seller The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman around a decade and half back. In these intervening years the technology landscape witnessed a paradigm shift. Whatsapp and 4G decide the quantum and speed of our communication and emerging technologies in general are set to disrupt our existence nobody would have imagined. At the backend severe power politics reigns supreme, technology is once again being tried to be made hand maiden of politics, commercial gains and more so having a monopolistic control of technology. The user is freed but the technology has a series of strings attached.
The unfolding saga of 5G and the Huawei makes it amply clear as to how difficult it for the powers that be to disengage with technology. Starting with the US banning, Huawei 5G is in the eye of the storm. The issue is not with technology as has been oft repeated, the issue is that it belongs to a specific country and a specific company. The same company has been entwined with large part of the world in endless technology engagements with no challenge from any nation or political grouping. Now the issue is of gaining leadership of a technology which is likely to transform the world, that cannot be allowed to happen the western world feels.
Banning of technology is not going to sort out anything, is the Cold War learning. It will not stop the proliferation of technology and also its further development, the handset, the network and the ecosystem that goes with it. The only impact it can have is that the western world will remain unaware of the developments, which is likely to negatively impact the bargaining power, creating an antidote or gain a competitive advantage.
In the communist – techno complex nothing is impossible, that the world has already realised for sure and that too in a technology where China has taken a clear cut lead. With 5G, AI is another technology where China is showing similar competence and design. It’s time when the world has to decide whether the technology is disengaged or we keep facing the evils of uneven growth and the vast part of humanity remaining bereft of technologies which has the potential to alleviate world.
DISENGAGING TECHNOLOGY OF THE POLITICAL & COMMERCIAL STRINGS WOULD TRANSFORM IT’s IMPACT.
Sanjay Sahay