Smarter than a Dumb Human

-:VB:-


This post is exactly about what it sounds like. Mobile phones... or should I say "smart phones".
Gone are the days of the wired phones my friends (except the developing countries). Everything's pretty much wireless these days.

Almost everyone has a cell phone, call rates are affordable - thanks to the competitive companies, high speed bandwidths are accessible, and what not. For some, it is a medium of communication, for some it is about their social networking and for some it is all about work.

Since the QWERTY keypads and the flip phones, whooda thunk that there'd be touch screen tech out there as well. Today, we are surrounded by such phones and gadgets that have made things easier for us.
This leads us to the concept of 'Smart phones'

Let's just think back for a moment.
Now everyone out there was sooo excited about the new iphone 5S coming out, but people did not have a clue what was different from the previous versions. They only wanted and iphone, regardless of the hardware they are getting.

So, in a smart phone, the hardware is the real deal, as well as the software.
But, to many, it doesn't matter coz all they wanna do is brag around everyone with their branded phones and swish it around saying "I got a smart phone, I got a smart phone, nya nya nya nya na...." and all that crap.
Oooh look at me, I got an iphone!
I own a smart phone!

Many don't even know the meaning of these words.
"Smart phones"?
Seriously? Couldn't they have come up with something... say... smarter? Many wonder why they are called so.
The wikipedia definition is:
A smartphone (or smart phone) is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones.

Smart phones are meant to make your job easier, as they are mini-me versions of computers, their fast racing quad cores, octa cores, gbs of data storage, bandwidths and RAM, many gigahertz speeds scenario makes up today's digital age.They are made to works as computers without being one, at affordable prices, with mobility and calling factors at their behest.

And what do people do with them?
--They play 'Candy Crush', 'Flappy Bird', 'Subway surfer' and what not! What the hell!
Why didn't you buy a PSP for god's sake? That would've been cheaper and better, than spending thousands for some functions you don't even know exist in your phone.

--If you  wanna spend bucks for only Talking or texting, and not using other functions, why not buy a keypad phone for a couple of hundred bucks?

But the fact stands that people don't know how to use a smartphone. Many don't even have what they want to buy, and why they want to buy it.
They buy a high end smartphone, and what do they do with it? Play flash games, text and call, the usual stuff. But shouldn't they be using the other functions which made the phone cost so much? Like the documents viewers, and the readers, and the editing supports, the ram-crunching business apps... and what not!

Today we have phones that are not only a piece of technology, but every piece is a masterpiece in itself. every bit of technology is a revolution. Be it from something as small as a flash drive, right up to a music player.
This is an age of smart phones.

What I want to say is - Phones are becoming smarter and people are becoming dumber with every passing day.
Look at yourself today.
Do you remember a single number from your phone directory?
Do you even know your own phone number?
When was the last time you even read a physical book. I mean literally held it in hands?
Or read a newspaper for that matter?
When was the last time you actually wrote to someone?
When was the last time you pressed a button on a phone or dialed a number?
When did you last go through lots of books and magazines and newspaper articles for your projects for hours just to get a pic, or a clipping or a report?

I know. It is tough to answer.
With smartphones, all these questions sound weird, and why not coz we never think about them, about how much easier our lives are today.

We've got apps for so many things.
Don't know a song? App for it.
Shopping? App for it.
Recipes for cooking? App for it as well.
Learning? App for it too.
News, music, videos, live feeds, games and what not. Everything is at our fingertips... literally.

As a matter of fact, phones are much smarter than us now. We share all our intimate secrets online, on chat windows, on our profile pages, on social networking sites, personal info about our lives, etc.

Our phone holds all of our accounts, and we are logged into each one all the time. Our banking info, our email i.d., our passwords, our pics... and the latest....  Biometrics!
It even tracks where we are, where we were, where we are going, where we are headed, the elevations, what we are eating, how much we walked, our heartbeats, and what not.
Our pics, videos, and the geological tags, auto recognition, face recognition, auto login features, voice recordings, your chat histories, browsing history, which direction your phone is in, how fast are you traveling, etc. etc.
Our mobile backups and data stored online across multiple websites - all in one place.
Search engines like Google even auto-suggest what you are trying to find based on your search history.
Some people can't even calculate properly. And there are apps for that as well - Basic calculators and Scientific calculators.
Anyone heard of Abacus? Well, there's an app for that too.
 Now  tell me a single person capable of doing all this. Let alone the games and other features.

None!
So correct me if I am wrong in saying that Phones are becoming smarter and humans are becoming dumber.

Don't tell me that it is humans who made the phones, coz it wasn't all of us. It was those few who learnt to use their brains in the correct manner and gain from it. They all know their work by heart. How much do we all even remember what we have learned?

It is now up to the existing humans to take a step ahead from this towards making us brighter and smarter... not dumber. We don't want apps and machines to correct us someday do we?

Meanwhile in some parts of the world, wars are raging, battles are going on, people being killed, the ecology being threatened....
And what do we do? Comment, share, like? That's it?
Take a step to improve this world. To improve your life and others around you. You have a device capable of saving thousands or even millions of lives, capable of making you heard.

Humans will never be dumb. We can never be. Even a lunatic has a basic understanding of this world.
I simply hope we don't turn out to be idiots by the turn of this century.
Maybe we will be smarter than our phones someday....

Thanks for reading, and I would appreciate your inputs in the comments section below...

Orphans

-:VB:-

Parents mean a world to all  of us. We are always under their wings, tucked away in their arms, protected from this world, away from harm's way, and most important of all dependent on them.

It has been almost everyone's experience that it would have been really hard to stand up for yourself without your parents help. Their support and motivation means a lot to us. Many consider this a science of passing down our experiences down generations. But in the end, no matter what, we all know deep down inside that it is those two people - our parents who make all the difference in the world to us.

Most often I am reminded of my visit to an orphanage along with a few friends some years ago. We dropped by during a trip because none of us had been to an orphanage before. It was a small house that had all these little boys and girls bursting with excitement that someone was visiting them.We chatted with them, played some games, and had fun. I still remember their faces gleaming with happiness.

On our way out, I just could not stop thinking about what the kids were going to do when we left. It was at that moment that I froze. Everything seemed just so messed up. Here we all are laughing, ignoring, arguing, enjoying with our parents and there they are living their lives doing some odd chores for an NGO so they could at least provide for themselves. Children with either a devastated history, or an unknown origin, or an abandoned past. Some rescued from death while some saved from the dark clutches of this world.

This was one place... there are so many like this on this planet! We were only there for a few hours, and these kids have spent their entire lives here. It was at that very moment it dawned upon me, that these kids had nowhere else to go to... THIS WAS THEIR HOME!

It all is just so wrong! We all have lived, had fun, had sadness and shared all those emotions with our parents who were always there by our side, motivating us, supporting us. We have a shoulder to cry on, a couple of angels to turn to who just smile and all the troubles in this world seem to disappear. What did these kids do to deserve this?

Fate? Cut that crap out... I'd say if you don't have the heart of a human or a spirit or even a bit of humanity - why the hell do you bring these innocent little kids into this world? To destroy their lives? It is really sad knowing that someone would drop these kids off or abandon them or even leave them to die. I pity such people...

What gives a right to these people to devoid these kids of their lives and names... and most importantly a family and a future? While everyone else takes their parents for granted, these children don't even know what parents are. They are devoid from the MOST IMPORTANT relation in this world. Why does this happen? What happened to this world?

It is said that God dwells in children. Maybe that is why these kids have so much strength and energy in them than any of us with privileges. Sometimes I am thankful that these kids are far from this society, from the claws of this humanity. They are still unfamiliar to this world where even death comes at a price.

I however salute those who run these orphanages! They are doing a commendable job for these kind souls. They raise these kids as their own, give them a life, feed them, give them a shoulder to stand on, and even give the kids a name of their own - an identity as to who they are in this world.

It is at times like these that I wish that life treated everyone equally - not in the sense of power and money, but with regards to love, happiness, relations and most important of all - Parents!

Those people that have/had parents looking after themselves are/were really lucky.

I don't say anything to anyone that might hurt people...
But, for the children who disowned their parents or left them to suffer or die.... are special. I'd like to tell them this:
"Screw you..."


Thanks for reading, and I would appreciate your inputs in the comments section below...

One liners - May 2014

-:VB:-

One liners for this month:

Here goes:

1. Do history exams get harder every year?
2. RIP to Steve Jobs, who always lived life to the macs.
3. It's things like calling me a 'compulsive liar' which forced me to kill myself.
4. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.
5. My teacher used to say I wasn't very observant ...
   ...to be honest, that was his/her opinion.
6. I wouldn't say I'm smug, but every year on my birthday I phone my mother to congratulate her.
7. I really love my fan-base...without it my fan would fall over.
8. Apparently, baby powder + water does not equal baby.
9. A large steak just drove past me. That's rare.
10. Coffee isn't my cup of tea.
11. Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.
12. The key to being funny is to say smart things stupidly... or was is it stupid things smartly?
    Whatever, it's not rocket surgery.
13. My wife is leaving me because my stories never make any sense.
    And that's how I saved Christmas!
14. The all new kindle... because you need to carry 3500 books around
15. Everybody has an ego. Mine's just bigger... and better. 
16. I had a recurring dream once. 
17. Some people say i'm too vague. But you know the famous saying...
18. I'll stop at nothing to avoid using negative numbers.
19. Don't you just hate it when people think there clever but use the wrong grammar?
20. My grandad has the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from Edinburgh zoo.
21. If vegetarians love animals so much, why do they eat all their food?
22. I often say to myself, "I can't believe that cloning machine worked!"
23. I've heard that reincarnation is making a comeback
24. I've grown to hate low ceilings
25. It's times like these, when I'm sat in bed with my computer on my knee, that I really wish I'd bought a laptop.

Thanks for reading, and do tell me if my posts are Wise or Wicked...