When the Rabbit actually took out a watch from its waist-coat pocket, Alice was startled to her feet!
- “I regard Consciousness’ as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from Consciousness. We can never get behind Consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates Consciousness.” –Max Plank, father of Quantum Theory
- “If a person rises to a level of authority far exceeding his virtues, all will suffer”-Guanzi, predecessor of Confucius, 2500 years ago- Peter Senge in his Foreword to “Leadership Sutras” by Prof. Debashis Chatterjee
{Abstract: This is the worst and best of times. It is an age of immersive experiences. It is an epoch of depressions and mental disharmonies. It is an age when India’s savings rates have for the first time eclipsed its investment rates. It is also an epoch when market caps of Big Tech Platforms are bigger than GDP of most countries. It is strangely an epoch when political states & big tech giants spend more money on own security than the security of its citizens and users. However, as Gilad Edelman pointed out in a 2020 article in Wired, tech platforms of Facebook are not at all that big to fail to moderate content. It is just that they will not spend enough to do so. Instead despite an average profit margin of 33.4%, FB prefers to just sit on its cash. It prefers instead to pay annual $2 billion on fines and lawsuits to the government and as much same $2 billion on user safety annually. So FB yearly average spend on user safety is equal to its yearly average payout to the government for failing to ensure user safety! Further FB employs 44,000 out-sourced employees (paid maximum $ 28,800 against median of $ 240,000 salary of FB own employees). To look after the user safety of its 2,396 billion users (Monthly Active Users, MAU-April 2022 figures) FB thus employs 44,000 underpaid, outsourced employees. Political states however never risk with outsourcing under-paid employees for protecting their borders and citizens’ security. Why don’t FB, Twitter and other handles follow such best practices? This article seeks to anguish the immersive mesmerisation of human minds has been extremely penetrative over the past few years by collusive tech giants. We are in age of bidding adieu to rising of any cumulative public anger. The docile public can never aim vengeance at the market caps, revenue and profits of the giants who rule us today. At this junction of History there are no previous superlative degrees of comparisons at all. Thus it can be called the times of dichotomy and paradoxes.}
Introduction: Walking as I was a few evenings ago around the huge water-body in Jodhpur Park, South Calcutta; a funny possibility struck my idle mind. Nature must have erred grossly in creating Homosapiens, I said to myself. I observed the “bounded rationality” of the other species cannot lead me to observe Nature having made the same mistake as He has with my species. To me, behaviourally the other species I see appear normal & happy too. Homosapiens on the other hand have become even more unpredictable since WWII[i]. And thus I asked myself how forceful & freakish the amalgamations of procreative forces must have been to create my species-Homosapiens 7 million years ago from chimpanzees? It was a natural parody (annus mirabilis).
I love walking and that too alone. I am at total comfort with myself on such occasions. My brain is at ease with the body, my blood vessels alert and my muscles in sync. It is as if all body cells are optimally affected by my thoughts & are communicating. My positive and negative thoughts softly resonate within me best when walking alone. Absolutely beautiful it is being alone!
7 million years ago our human lineage broke OUT from the clutches of chimpanzees. The times were preceded by asteroids going bonkers all around & dinosaurs rampaging earth’s inhospitable terrains. Unparalleled physical violence made mockery of our ancestors’ struggle to survive. But they did and in 21st Century we are presiding over the last few laps of their glorious survival. Our race has been through all- iron and golden ages, renaissance periods and brutal warfare whose indescribable violence persists till today. By late 20th Century technologically we had captured Time within bits and bytes of chips. But in this 21st Century we have evolved into highly erratic one-dimensional Homosapiens. In a world where the mind is glued to data crunching Smartphone, we are making the wrong noises or no noise at all! In hurly-burly life struggles (which are output of irrational feuds among power blocs synonymous to the “Spy versus Spy” thrillers of MAD Magazine), the historical rebellious nature of Homosapiens have been replaced by digital docility. The powers that control our Civilisation since WWII have conducted intensive R&D in understanding the nature & mechanisms of the Group Mind. These powers are controlling and regimenting masses in USA, Europe, Africa, South Asia, China, and Russia without citizens realising it.[ii] Psychological manipulations by purposefully driven Governments since WWII have ensured public commitment @ all levels of micro and macro communications. The behavioural sciences and Behavioural Economics in particular are controlling this market driven mad world. The War between Digital and Human (Spiritual?) aspirations of Homosapiens has begun.
I was earlier referring to that One Act of Nature which created the Human Race through an indiscretion. It was an inglorious act of Fusion. Bountiful Nature may have become a trifle unmindful on that inauspicious occasion. Wouldn’t the reader agree given the rampant erratic behaviours @ micro and macro levels impacting our daily lives? Historical events since the Industrial Revolution in 18th Century have sullied the image of Man. Let us try and reason why…
The Crux of the Problem- My contention is that intelligent but half-baked humans in forms of Zuckerbergs are currently leading a digital revolution for their own limited ends. Simultaneously vicious political power blocs are upsetting the livelihoods of ordinary citizens by variously engineering their consents (say the Vietnam War-at that point when most American Youth began protesting in the early 1970s; the Watergate Scandal and the imposition of Emergency in India; the more recent Iraq War which did not have any previously alleged WMD issues; the sub-prime rates fiasco in mid 2000; the Afghanistan and now the Ukraine War).
Those groups who are manipulating technology and geo-politics have no iota of expertise to blend out innate Spiritual righteousness with the technological vision whereby sight converts to insight. Much like Tea Tasters does to our teas. There is neither regulation nor moderation, only profit maximisation. Digital and political blocs are engineering consents from us at one end whilst aggravating our erratic behaviours with mental bytes of depressions at the other extreme. Such has become life managed under differently abled governance.
In this melee Mother Earth is viciously swinging on a pendulum between technological excesses impacting human minds and human induced climate changes that appear uncontrollable. These are extraordinary times. I am asserting that technology has engineered a road block for Homosapiens & closed all avenues spontaneous with community spiritual (not religious) inner engineering processes. We live in times of bizarre environmental & supply-chain management turmoil. Spiritual progression involves developing form, focus and flow (dharana/dhyana/samadhi)[iii] in transforming ourselves and others in alignment with “vasudhaiva kutumbakam”[iv]– as we do within our respective spaces as humans. In such extenuating circumstances, can the Digital World better transform Society?
Can organisations, institution, political parties and individuals take up such a One Idea of transforming self & Others’ lives? This One Idea can be amalgamated in our academic curriculums, vision/missions and translated into doable governance forms. Everything else must be set aside as we vigorously prioritize on transforming self and others by placing community priorities with humanely regulated, evaluated and reviewed programs under dynamics of Quantum thinking. Can we build such a humane space within the digital advantages that Zuckerbergs & Co are springing around us? Then we would have hit the right psychoanalysis chords to create Synergy among ordinary humans from ordinary families instead of them running from pillar to post as they do. To resolve these problems we are part of, we must be part of solutions.
Unfortunately, a weird sense of modernity is imbedded in younger minds and seniors which does not accept spiritual growth but unconditionally accept digital innovations. It is like river fish taking to oceanic waters- the brain receives the digital signals more readily than the inner spiritual (‘conscience’ in parlance) vibrations. Sadly, in spite of Vivekananda, Ramanna Maharishi, Yogananda on the one hand and dialectics of Marx/Engels & others, most world citizens cultivate a perceptibly material world (sensuous) than the sensitive. The men of infinite wisdom however never denied the reality of mental processes but in their own mannerisms clearly explained how ideas arise as products of material conditions. The inflexibility enmeshed in Zuckerberg & others’ (Digital) excesses are unfortunately severely separating humans from their human spirit.
This was not so at earlier inflexible past historical situations – as @ times of Religious Wars, Storming of the Bastille, Russian/Chinese Revolutions, Civil Disobediences to mention a few occasions of paradigm shifts in human topology[v]. Homosapiens are limiting /rejecting urges for better change given their intensively immersive digital experiences. In this 21st Century, humanity has been dragged to experience “no-win: no-win” situations, further disenabling them experiencing those few moments to transform self and others. This is another reason why I contend this Digital World is indeed the Opium of the Masses. Consider our paradoxical earthly situations- Seven billion populations and increasing to 9 billion within three decades! Top Soil erosion creating reduced food production in next 10 years! Spy versus Spy dynamics among power blocs creating sustained Wars since Vietnam! Unprecedented socio-economic turmoil in the midst of pandemics! Water and Food scarcities knocking on our doors! And our leaders keep on amusing themselves with QUAD/OBOR/NATO/Security Alliances. And the common man docile to be tamed and glued to immersive FB 24×7!
Value of Quantum Science-: Our survival concerns become 21st Century anxieties. I am referring to a regressive osmosis occurring where we are killing all other forms of life on Planet Earth before we finally kill ourselves. When cyclones scorching heat and tsunamis become part of daily life with massive food and water scarcities, only then public anger might come to boiling points in our Cities of Joys surviving as these are on fragile socio-economic balances.
7 Millions years later we have emerged as the most brutal animal on planet earth. We are cruel to ourselves but crueller to other species, 60% of which have gone extinct due to our excesses. (See Table Four “Biodiversity”; after End Notes). Our Consciousness has regressed. My contention is that since the 17th Century (advent of Industrial Revolution), human psychological ages have consistently remained below par to their chronological age.
Quantum Science indicates all interlinked parts in our Reality create the balanced whole. There is bonding among every aspect of life. Quite unfortunately in 21st Century there is also huge disparity between the human psychological and chronological ages. These are reflected in decisions of world leaders to go to war as much as internecine disputes that plague families and communities with lumpen outbursts. Digital ingress induces the differences go beyond permissible limits of tolerance.
What a pity that brilliant minds are giving their all to the pursuance of mathematical and scientific theories and focussing so little on the Metaphysical aspects of life and living! Life is an Existential Problem but most humans are treating life as an Existential Ecstasy. We do not realise the Map is never the Territory.
My pessimism is based on rudimentary understanding of 19th to 21st Century political ideologies. The fact is MetaVerse with IoT in the background makes mockery of all ideologies. We are producing more humans to produce more humans to produce more Android-Humans. This is why the wily Zuckerbergs are succeeding with mismanagement of the digital spaces. It is a silent “win-win” trip for manipulators sans Vision and Mission. And something more is happening as well- alteration of basic human communications from the normal to the digital creates humans with less feelings, values and visions. This New World is known as MetaVerse.
So in effect a Comedy of Errors is being enacted on planet earth. At one extreme we have the Ukraine War where America, supported by western alliance is pitted against Russia, which in turn is supported by China. At the other extreme, we have western manufacturing plants manufacturing chips and other components in China to create Smartphone technology that is sold over world markets. While one force is fighting against transgression of national borders; the other product is seamlessly rupturing mind spaces. Even as one kills and maims physical lives, the other conquers our Group Minds.
As we get more comfortable and ‘richer’ within our class-wise bounded rationalities; we are getting deprived of urges to remain wired to care. The Mass Age messages massaged by the Media make mockery of human happiness. As a community of Homosapiens we are losing our identities. The Media, including television do not prompt reflections as did the movies of Ray or Ritwik Ghatak. The Media and the digital world victimises our minds more with lust, pride and envy. With 1000s of years under the omnipresence of Gita, ordinary Indians maybe unconsciously finding succour in eternal, pure and unlimited happiness beyond the finite and impermanence they actually experience! There is no anger!!
Dawning of the Age of the MetaVerse: We are sitting pretty on technological marvels! The IoT with its Instagram, Facebook (Meta), LinkedIn, Smartphone extensions have conditionally mesmerized our brains at the expense of higher concerns.[vi] Humans lap up digital pathways which tickle their brains no end to achieve multi- task jobs. But are the tasks achieved in sync with what the body-mind dynamics of Humans truly needs for sustainability? Notwithstanding the intensity of their desires to serve the world citizens, are the Zuckerbergs mysteriously transgressing the integral stretchable borders Nature has long crafted for Homosapiens? There may be limitations to the push and pulls. Irresponsible leaderships @ micro (local and macro (glocal) levels and incongruent behaviours with sustained augmentation of immersive digital forces indicate something could be wrong with nature of the psycho-analytical Homosapien in general. Like algorithms, the emerging persons of tomorrow seem to lack consciousness and emotions!
In 2022 the confrontation of the MetaVerse dynamics of Zuckerberg is similar in content to the internet back in the 70s and the 80s. Then the brick and mortar stories of Silicon Valley were being meticulously laid. It sparked speculation around what it would look like and how people would use it. While everyone went gaga over the multiple possibilities of speedy information sharing, very few actually knew what the implications would be and how it would work. Looking back, it didn’t turn out exactly as some people imagined. The “as-is: to-be” gap has only increased. Paradigm shifts have been unimaginable in terms of varying human behaviour between 1970s till 2022. And now the MetaVerse emerges!
Similar to the IoT of the 1970-80s, the MetaVerse is structured as all-encompassing digital world that will exist parallel to the real world- or, to put it plainly, supplement our current IoT World. According to Mathew Ball (Angel investor cum Venture Capitalist) – “The MetaVerse is a 3D version of the Internet” with computing capabilities far larger so to speak. Its potentials and structures are more colossal and mind boggling. Much like the Opium did to the Chinese and Indians under the British Raj, the MetaVerse with IoT at its backend, will further mesmerize aspirational humans. We become digitally drugged. Even the most intelligent programmer can do little to thwart this Future.
Basically, MetaVerse will offer another simulated place parallel to the physical world, where the young ones will spend their structured digital life. MetaVerse may have Avatars for regular/infrequent interactions. The huge “Useless Class” may find a rich haven. Yuval Noah Harari claims large and larger numbers are emerging with rapid advents of Artificial Intelligence. This may be synonymous to the sanctuaries the 1970 student peer groups discovered in smoking marihuana and popping the LSDs courtesy the philosophy created by Dr. Timothy Leary. In a nutshell MetaVerse will be very disruptive and unpredictable and as in the post 1970 till 2020 period, could augment the rule of the idiots by the idiots.
But there is a subtle difference between the 1970s and 2020s times. The 1970s generation in India had to give up living in a fool’s paradise owing to employment shortages and socio-ethical issues concerning say looking after retired pension less parents and other stereotype duties. Consciousness and Emotions played their roles even in their migration to Europe and Americas. The tragic-comedy in this 21st Century is that opportunities will reduce due to AI. Masses of youthful population along with curious semi-retired/retired technical geeks like me shall shortly have a sustained “nothing better to do” Spare Time. This is a possible output off MetaVerse and IoT! Unless Nature begins the 6th Mass Extinction faster!
The New Age 3D MetaVerse with the IoT at its backend is going to be the ideal asylum for hordes of New Age Refugees. “It’s not real at this stage, and won’t become real until people have a single location they can go to get into in a virtual world they could live in,” advices Ibrahim Baggily, a cyber security expert and the founding director of the Connecticut Institute of Technology at the University of New Haven. I rely on the caution exercised by Mr. Baggily. (Refer: Table Three On Quantum Computing- after End Notes). Understandably whether conscious or unconscious, conditional or unconditional, the Zuckerbergs have great intelligence in shifting goal-posts!
The MetaVerse-Internet Technology:
“https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bmyv/what-is-the-metaverse-internet-technology-vr
The Movers and Shakers of the World are so busy with geo-politics that their convoluted mindsets cannot create any better Road Map with achievable Milestones for regulating human communities. Because we are so glued with immersive digital experiences, it is natural to accept humans are undergoing, consciously and unconsciously, various psychic transformations. These degenerative qualities may not have any healing techniques in future. MetaVerse may alter our life-spans so badly that in spite having the best brains we shall fail to create a Meta plan for the Persons of Tomorrow. This is where our failure is gutted and Zuckerbergs- the Terrible Tsars of the World- take advantage of our freeze.
How can we allow the Zuckerbergs, with minimal common sense & limited Vision/Mission shape Human Civilization’s Way Forward? This is an affront to Ariel and Will Durant’s authentication of the History of Civilisation! Can it be expected from such “brilliant” minds as Zuckerberg and others NOT to foresee the inevitable problem they are creating well in advance and failing to provide solutions to the imminent bottle-neck problems[vii]? Do Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk and others possess Meta negotiating skills of seeing beyond their self-styled corporate boundaries?
Quantum Theory[viii] means all parts join together to become the whole. Since the advent of the IoT, even as we optimized on time and energy productively, we have become less spiritually sound and even less wired to care @ micro and macro levels in human relationships. And if we have become quasi Androids, our community must now nudge PERT activities to analyse and review our current impotency & correct deviations to restore being wired to care- a Spielberg “Back to the Future”? If we are all part of the problem, the solution must come from ourselves!
Infatuation of rich & resourceful domains of the IoT and now MetaVerse indicate more paradigm shifts. In a community already gone berserk with human dislocations (e.g. fluctuating relationships between government and digital warlords; erratic individual behaviours due to general pandemic conditions), what corrective measures can be applied? Will governments create SoPs for citizens or shall governments remain confined to fire-fighting one another & going nuclear? Will children automatically get introduced to MetaVerse & other IoT platforms that offer paradigm changes in their fragile lives for the better or worse? In current emerging fiascos, there will be major dislocations with the natural flow of Consciousness….the human anatomy is very fragile! Body-Mind dynamics in the Digital World have disenabled Homosapiens from the virtues of unmotivated devotions that humans had risen to in the past. There are unseen touch points where the low hanging spiritual fruits are in plenty and ecstasy goes beyond the wants of material wealth.
I am not grudging the evolution of technology. The need is always for a better change. What irks is that instead of humans controlling technology; technology is adversely administering our self-image, feelings, vision, values and behaviour. Erudite persons like Dr. Deepak Chopra assert that ignoring the changes will imply our going extinct. True. For an average world citizen, given limited counsel on her journey of self-discovery to become ‘human’, the Smartphone enabled MetaVerse Environment may compel her to become more unreal. Additionally, the over-confidence and arrogance of our governance systems and the mess we read each day on goof-ups involving murder, rape, loot of the exchequer by our governors, are no encouraging enablers at all. We are in agonies not ecstasies.
Signs of emerging Avatars mentoring us through the MetaVerse 3D platforms are distinct possibilities. Can doses of Spirituality and Basic Managerial Skills for All [ix]be supplemented into such 3D Platforms as well? In any proactive (individual/community) human developmental model;, the New (‘Bible/Koran/Gita’?) MetaVerse need also discuss basic writings of Kant, Fichte, Comte, Marx, Kierkegaard and array of Political/Management Thought Leaders – much like the prompts available on Google. Children must be encouraged to ask Questions without getting the Wrong Answers! MetaVerse must have a rigorous Plan of Action approved by the Governments. Is Zuckerberg creating growth oriented MetaVerse or is it filled with existential riddles as in current IoT? While contending his best of intentions in profit maximisation, there may be another aspect. The reality may be the MetaVerse and other emerging platforms are outputs of a silent collusion between political leaders and the ITeS personnel to control the world. Which World Leader is not a James Bond? And disinterested in controlling Group Minds? Ask the USA!!!
Abstraction of Integrated Community Behaviour (ICB) Hubs: Can Deep Thought ideations nurture Integrated Community Behaviour (ICB) Hubs dotted all over the world BUT be left in the unsafe hands of such hobble-artists? Or should the mature minds of our Indian Armed Forces in conjunction with proactive government forces, intervene? As a race we nurture more nuisance values than any previous civilisations. If it is a war between Nuisance & Pleasantness then we must fashion the Quantum Computing (refer: Table Three/after End Notes) within futuristic ICB Hubs’ architecture. Would ICB Hubs become Gulag Archipelagos (where only Brute Force prevails) or Spiritual Sanctuaries (where only Reason prevails) will be part of our evolution. Mankind urgently needs Deep Thinking Individuals with common sense Vision and Values.
What does the reader choose? [I empathise with most of my friends running their enterprise management systems do not have the time or the inclination to touch upon such emerging imponderables. I understand parents and teachers living in fast-paced silos having little time to reflect & are constantly adapting and adopting. For them Bio-diversity, Quantum Computing, Human induced Climate Changes and the Covid-Ukraine War are all inter-related to their livelihoods struggles as parents and children. [x] And they do not have the time for reflection or discussions).
At ground levels erudite persons jolly well realise a colossal catastrophe is in the making. (Tables 1 to 4 after End Notes) Covid pandemic & Ukraine have drilled this message into even the most egotistical selfish citizens. Vital issues of livelihood are not being managed effectively. Too many square pegs are fit into decision making round holes everywhere in this digital trap we are being sucked into. But who will bell the cat? Those who rule are exposed as the true exploiters!
Alternatives to MetaVerse- Consciousness on Quantum Philosophy: The notion of separate digital platforms (read: MetaVerse/IoT/Smartphone technology) are also abstractions within a boundary of limitations. MetaVerse and other technological marvels are aiding & abetting final disruption of the human civilisation by creating non-human Androids. Homosapiens’ incapability to live together after 7 million years of evolution is exposed. Our indulgences with greed are creating exact and opposite reactions from Nature. We are actually breaking the natural wholeness of Creation and menacingly advancing our separation into disunited parts. These are so evident in our Role Models’ behaviours and life-styles. But the process did not begin in 21st Century. Since the WWI, disintegrative forces converted non-antagonistic contradictions into antagonistic. In 21st Century we are in antagonistic contradiction with Nature! We are not breaking Free but entangling ourselves like a trapped leopard.
Neuro-scientist Deepak Ranade has very rationally (and exquisitely!) done so in a centre page article “Consciousness is not located in the Brain” written in the Times of India (3rd February 2022).[xi] His ilk is one of many Unsung Heroes the World is not listening to at this moment. Consciousness is one singular Brahmn- the Universal Source. Dr. Ranade says the human brain has immense possibilities. It could be equipped with the ability to transcend any restrictive filters and expand its cognitive horizons to an integrative epiphany of “Aham Brahmasmi”. He says the mind can facilitate a phased shift- of expanding one’s Consciousness from a localised personal level to that of all pervasive impersonal “super consciousness”. Immersive digital technologies provided by the Zuckerbergs do NOT enable Humans to expand but limit their potentialities. The Zuckerbergs ought to be enlightened on Quantum Thinking to expand their cognitive horizons under government orders. Given their intelligence their remoulded products would become that much more meaningful. It is about time such was mandated by governments.
Dr. Bruce H. Lipton is one other enlightened soul who discovered “stunning new scientific facts about the biochemical effects of the brain’s functionalities that show ALL cells of human body are affected by human thoughts.[xii] It is not just our minds/brains that are thinking but all our body cells think together! Another example of Quantum Reality!
We may now begin to believe the advantages derived from technological progresses of last few centuries have made complacent Homosapiens prioritise wrong values that are bland and insipid to their inherent capability maturity. E.g. Interpretations of religions have grossly deviated from what the so-called revered Founders preached. Mohammad, Christ, Krishna/Shiva, Guru Nanak and others have each been superimposed on an “I am better than yours” syndrome by our divisive race. Another example is the crass bragging & blowing one’s own trumpet which compels man to live beyond his means. The worst example of managing Group Minds is the proliferation of 24×7 Wine shops across indolent India. Humans have inherent defects and life is not limited to thinking on purity alone. We are born with cravings but it is up to individuals to control their feelings and behaviour. Given the indulgences of their products (FB/INSTAGRAM/LINKEDIN etc- each of which has its plus points); are the Zuckerbergs enabling us to break-free or live in bondage with the marketing of their wares & building cash reserves? The current Digital World is not providing those answers.
Nexus of enlightened persons, highly qualified and capable, are controlling trade & commerce in a manipulative manner which has further aggravated intolerance. Religious and political leaders are misinterpreting economics and history for decades. Greed/opulence with self-indulgence and urge for profits has adversely affected the management of human behaviour. Along with the creators of MetaVerse, our leaders are as blind to the irretrievable socio-economic consequences. The push of the past few decades has converted into a shove with the Covid pandemic and now the UKRAINE War. The Zelensky Butterfly flapping its wings in Kiev is creating economic chaos all over. World Citizens may not sit idle for long listening to Presidents Biden, Putin & Chairman Xi lob salvos at one another indefinitely. Which also begs the question if world citizens can at all rise to the levels of their revolutionary predecessors to compel change in right directions. If they do not, then the immersive digital experiences have converted Homosapiens into silent lambs!
Is it time Homosapiens indulged in some productive reverse engineering? Our survival can no longer be confined to ‘wants’ and Liberalisation-Privatisation/Globalisation (LPG) assumptions of “free trade” by dyslexia oriented dysfunctional leaders in Politics, Industry & the ITeS platforms. Gas prices have soared, vegetable prices are untouchables and medical expenses nothing to write home about. In developing economies that could slowly go the Sri Lanka way, we read of crimes, loot & financial mismanagement by divisive forces. Is MetaVerse, given its 2.6 billion users, offering a better source of livelihood and happiness to Humans? We have to seriously examine and react to such observations objectively.
In these extenuating circumstances I pitch for strong governments. My submission is simple: – operate Integrated Community Behaviour (ICB) Hubs under Quantum Computing processes @ backend and with time bound deliverables on life and livelihood needs of the masses @ frontends. Let us attempt these while we are on the extinction road map.
The Challenges:-Given our progressive analytical & ITeS developments, ICB operations with few Meta strokes can capture the gamut of all activities involving births, deaths, health, education, markets, purchases, tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, trade, exports/imports under Huge Radar of computerised activities. These may be even more nearer the infinite possibilities MetaVerse and the IoT have dangled in front of us. ICB Hubs, dotted across terrains, can become the New Integrated Social Forces to streamline and regulate all data-captured activities. The system will reduce the pain of having uncouth, undisciplined and murderous humans float around like butterflies in society stinging like bees as they do ever so often. The laws and regulations shall 24×7 ensure operation under the “hot-stove” theory-where justice delayed becomes justice denied in our Country..
Recently the Indian Army executed a few paradigm shifts in strategy and tactics to remain undefeated. Times of India, 6th January 2020 reported “the new integrated battle groups (IBGs) which have been tested on the western and eastern fronts for their capability to mobilise fast and hit hard, ‘will fit well’ into the proposed creation of unified theatre commands in the country” -Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane. This is in sync with Quantum Thoughts!
We are seeking solutions. Solutions must ensure discipline and integrity- like the Indian Army capability maturities. Human behaviours cannot be dictated by mockery, falsehood. Every citizen must have capabilities to nurture consciousness-her birthright! Indiscipline breeds human weaknesses and the likes of the Zuckerbergs take compound advantage of such Achilles heel. Hubs of disintegrative Gulag Archipelagos are emerging all around us. But our ICB Hub concept will be humanistic & not mechanistic like the IoT/MetaVerse under Artificial Intelligence. Under MetaVerse dynamics, Homosapiens could become the proverbial guinea pigs in a matrix driven scientific world operated entirely under Zuckerbergs vicious AI architecture. This article cannot provide solutions but can awaken a few spiritual questions in our minds regarding where we are going and how we get there. We need knowledge dissemination?
World Rulers live in the older moulds of leadership that are irrelevant in 21st Century. Their actions clearly indicate they believe leaders are “born” not “made. Citizens Capability Maturity quotients have sharply reduced because we mistakenly believe we live in the most comfortable times ever. Our survival needs are becoming way-laid by the Zuckerberg & the Pichai Magic Boys. They are enticing “Take my way-the Highway”. But unlike Aristotle, Socrates, Plato; and/or Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Burke, Kant, Marx, Wittgenstein & many others (who have contributed more substantially to human evolution) –our modern technocrats/cosmocrats are clearly using only technology and not Human Consciousness to leverage solutions. (Consciousness is entangled with Human Common Sense). On an occasion Einstein had observed there two things infinite- the Universe and the Human Common Sense. He was not quite sure of the latter.
We are so entangled in jungles of duties that we are just not doing the right things. Today it is almost a distraction if not entertainment to ask which archetype among humans possesses what degree of consciousness. Shortages of Morals and Ethics have accentuated downturns in human behaviours. Millions of humans are in a frenzy called AI Consciousness. Everyone is on a ‘grabbing’ mode & not the ‘giving’. These trends have emerged since the end of WWII in social relationships. But growth at any cost cannot be sustained with indifference to mounting social costs. The World had long dumped the forewarnings by Malthus in its mad rush for production and productivity. But Malthus reality is emerging! We also do not find any passionate youthful leader to offer better alternatives much like Walpole, Pitt, Bismarck and Napoleon did in their times. On the one hand we are in a Debt Trap and as a race falling into a Bottomless Pit-Hole.
I am not saying Capitalism, Socialism and Democratic beliefs are bad in intentions. But I am asserting this Digital World does not have our solutions; it describes our failures as a species. Water is running dry across a 1/3rd of India. In 30 years India’s water usage will be up by 70% and that in 1947 Indians were using four times more water they use in 2022. (Data shared by GoI in Parliament in December 2021-Source: Central Ground Water Board).
We may yet resolve all these issues intelligently not through the MetaVerse offered by Zuckerbergs. We may begin our journey as we appreciate the Universe is a manifestation of INTELLIGENT CONSCIOUSNESS. Current technological intelligence pales in comparison to the unbroken wholeness of our beings in relation to the reality of the Universe.
To survive on Planet Earth more & more Homosapiens have to realise there is a universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere which engages a whole expanse & in which all things exist and move in awareness. The Universe is Matter derivative from consciousness. There is no difference between the spatial (relating to space) and temporal (pertaining to this life on earth) consciousnesses that we imagine. All is one & in this Cosmic Reality we must live life with meaning& relevance (as opposed to greed). There are choicelessnesses that we evolve with from childhood to adulthood. Those situations enable us to judge what is fair and unfair; truth and untruth; right & wrong. And we decide/choose to thus emerge as Men of Brute Forces and Men of Reason. Sadly, this Digital World is silently enabling creation of Brute Forces.
Contextually, the Vision and Mission of the proposed Integrated Community Behaviour Hubs must be similar to the IBG hubs of the Indian Military mentioned earlier. We are living in a battle ground and our leaders are not sharing issues for preparedness. If they do not, well. we must begin our own preparedness as individuals ad community members.
ICB hubs, much like the IBG battle groups of the Indian Army mobilising our 13 lakh strong war fighting machinery, must be developed to ensure solid offensive punches against predatory 3D type anti-forces. Smaller battle groups of the Army, said the Army Chief, are automatically better for the theatre command tactically. They bring in operational efficiencies in terms of the 3Ms –men, money and materials- to various community functional activities. Every activity within the ICBs must be documented and activated upon. The Army is implementing 10 IBGs each under a Major General with all multi-dimensional technical and supply chain facilities. With such experiences and exposures, Indian civil communities may learn gamed community oriented exercises from our Army. If we are to finally and irrevocably live in a digital world, we must make the most of it creatively. And learning from the Indian Army will be a boon for implementing ICB Hubs. Society- rural, urban, semi-rural, and semi-urban- shall be under conscious disciplined structures reducing further minimising erratic human behaviours. If the Indian Army can do it, the same can be replicated in civil society with appropriate refinements. The Gita (which is a battle ready sermon) invokes man to be ever vigilant against both mental and physical insecurities. So do the sermons in other religions. We need a society where all Citizens have opportunities to joyfully discover their leadership signatures.
Religiosity versus Spirituality: Much like the Digital World today, Religion is also Opium of the Masses. I advocate spiritualism – an individual choice bringing inner peace with inner engineering to the individual and community contentment. Spiritualism is an essence of Quantum Theory in sync with Nature. We need DEEP THOUGHT to restore standards for dignified human sustenance. Christ, Buddha and Vivekananda will never ever fall down from the skies to recue mankind. Their contributions have relevance to social and economic history. These giants actually lived and provided many solutions with the passage of times. Domination by Technology under Brute Force of the past centuries has taken us in other materially aspirational modes. It is not that material aspirations are irrelevant. On the contrary to survive with dignity, aspirations are needed. But as this article has tried to indicate Homosapiens have by and large ignored moral/ethical practices to solely focus on technological grandeur. The question remains if we have the capability maturities to do better change? Can Religion cease to be divisive? Has the beginning of the end of our Civilisation then begun?
It is also not quite that the West is plateauing off and the East is dominating either. Technology has solidified its hold over human indecisiveness. The East must not be under the mistaken impression of “rising” in 2022. What India needs is a very strong and proactive National Bourgeoisie. Given the rise in temperatures, climate vicissitudes and erratic behaviours across our species, the whole world is plateauing off: Except perhaps the upper ruling elites of each country. They could be getting ready to protect their “plentiful” turfs from the huge, huge Useless Classes!
This is precisely what late Dr. APJ Kalam (former President of India) had predicted three decades ago. With rising temperatures, water and food shortage, the grand man had calculated segregation of plentiful air, water and food locales in cities and rural areas. Society would get clustered into two types- the plentiful which would be protected by the upper crust members of society; and the areas with scarce natural resources. These plentiful areas would be defended by sharp-shooters and specially trained security persons against the huge “Useless Class” that would be clamouring and dying from inadequate water and other necessities in rising temperatures & water scarcities. Again a Malthusian predilection!
Hence it is not what India, China and Japan do after the Western debacle of UKRAINE. It is what the world, with re-learning/unlearning/re-discovery of the essence of collectivism will do altogether & how swiftly that matter. This is the paradoxical essence of the Quantum Theory- where the parts naturally fit into the whole. It is not unlikely atheists and disbelievers in moral principles may be disgusted with quotations from Spiritual Giants. But the fact remains for 1000s of years India has had such persons purposefully walk across her terrains, broadening visions. In essence that Vision envelopes the Quantum Reality around us. Vasudhaiva kutumbakam! Is it time we return to our roots without discarding the quantum advantages of the Digital World?
Conclusion- Swami Yogananda[xiii]– “THOSE WHO SEEK PROSPERITY FOR THEMSELVES ALONE ARE IN THE END BOUND TO BECOME POOR OR TO SUFFER FROM MENTAL AGONY (DISHARMONY).BUT THOSE WHO CONSIDER THE WHOLE WORLD AS THEIR HOME & CARE OR WORK FOR GROUP/WORLD PROSPERITY- FIND THE INDIVIDUAL PROSPERITY THAT IS LEGITIMATELY THEIRS”.
As SAP and other digital processes engulf the world with their shades of multi-dimensional capabilities, many possibilities emerge where not every organisation may be as reckless and brutal as the Zuckerbergs:-
- If Digital Technology can and will leverage human learning with empathy
- Will create Opportunities in time and content for existing employees to experiment even Spiritual Realisations
- Can provide employees with choices beyond the scope of digital development etc in future work places.
- Create an Environment where contextually, we silently recall with gratitude the choices and actions made by the scions of the House of TATAS in India. Each generation till the living legend Ratan Tata is an embodiment of the spirituality I am embellishing.
I believe Spiritual T&D is urgently required. Our leaders must discard stereotype behaviours. “According to the cosmology of the ancient Greeks the Gods were thought o have complete vision into the future. They saw everything down to the intricate details. Men, on the other hand, were seen to be victims of fate, trapped in the moment and their emotions; unable to see beyond immediate dangers (much like our digital savvy youth). But those heroes such as Odysseus (much like the employees and scions of the House of TATAs) who were able to look beyond the present and plan several steps ahead, seemed to defy fate, approximate the Gods in order to determine the future. This comparison is still valid: – those amongst us who think further ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seem to have a God-like Power.”-Robert Greene, 48 Laws of Power.[xiv]
Can the “feel-good” MetaVerse translate into a “do-good” reality? Closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots can no longer be confined to materialistic aspirations. It has to sublimate into purer spiritual platform. The Gods can no longer die young among our progenies. The Persons of Tomorrow must radiate with Universal Awareness as they emerge into Adulthood to run and manage the 3Ms in the World. I am one grateful for having lived conscientiously on planet earth. [Prof. Partho S Sengupta: Master NLP Practitioner-31 years in Corporate (Energy Sector/Consultancy) and 20 years in the Academic –Calcutta, 28th May 2022]
[i] Wars (Vietnam/Kuwait/Iraq/Afghanistan/Ukraine); Food scarcities (Africa, Ethiopia, Yemen); Newer Blocs of Influences (Russia/Eastern Europe/EU/ASEAN/BRIC/QUAD…);Automation/IoT/MetaVerse; COVID Pandemic; etc
[ii] In his 1928 book, “Propaganda,” Edward Bernays hypothesized that by understanding the group mind, it would be possible to manipulate people’s behaviour without their even realizing it. To test this hypothesis, Bernays launched one of his most famous public relations campaigns: convincing women to smoke. Edward Bernays was nephew of Freud, who was the lethal progeny of his own sister married to his wife’s own brother.
[iii] “Leadership Sutras”: Debashis Chatterjee-A Pilgrimage toward self-mastery”, Elsevier (2008) www.debchat.com
[iv] “vasudhaiva kutumbakam” – From Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, India’s leaders have often evoked this phrase the world is one family-borrowed from the Maha Upanishad, to elucidate India’s global outlook. It is to citizens of this great country that the contents of this article are now directed.
[v] Network topology is the interconnected pattern of network elements. A network topology may be physical, mapping hardware configuration, or logical, mapping the path that the data must take in order to travel around the network. The reader is expected to make contextual sense of this word.
[vi] https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bmyv/what-is-the-metaverse-internet-technology-vr#:~:text=The%20Metaverse%2C%20Explained%20for%20People%20Who%20Still%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Get%20It.
[vii] Like the opaque in-built solutions built into the programming @ time of Y2K problem that obliquely contributed to part solution
[viii] Quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behaviour of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. The nature and behaviour of matter and energy at that level is sometimes referred to as quantum physics and quantum mechanics. We are all matter.
[ix] “Basic Managerial Skills for All” Rev. E.H.McGrath (Founder Director of XLRI) Prentice Hall of India
[x] Refer Table One after End Notes
[xi] An Article by Neuro Scientist Dr. Deepak Ranade in Times of India, 3rd February 2022-“CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT LOCATED IN THE BRAIN”
[xii] “Biology of Belief”-the Science of how thoughts control life. Bruce H Lipton (Hay House India 2010)
[xiii] Author “Autobiography of a Yogi” & Founder of Yogoda Satsang Society! “Nature never teaches through mystery but through illuminated minds”. MetaVerse and their proponents are rubbing humans off illumination.
[xiv] “Principles and Practices of Management”, Partho S. Sengupta Chapter 15 ‘Training & Development’ (pages 170-184, Vikas Publishers/Kindle)
Table One- On Climate Change & Interlocutory Issues
- Rachel Bezner Kern teaches @ Cornell University & is one of lead authors on UN 2022 ICC Report. Confirming that Heat waves impact crops, she insists Food Security needs immediate ecosystem based inclusive steps. If Green house gases are not substantially reduced, most world regions will become unenviable to produce food or raise livestock due to extreme heat conditions. Biological events including flowering and pollination are being affected by global warming. Due to extreme heat conditions there could be mis-match between when flowering occurs and pollinating insects emerge. Extreme climate events like heat waves or floods will decimate crops. Such local food loss reduces amount ad diversity of available food. Extreme weather will naturally affect infrastructure and disrupt supply-chain management. Such events have occurred and malnutrition risen in Asia, Latin America, Africa and small islands.
- In her interview to Srijana Mira Das reproduced in the Times of India, Calcutta edition, Ms.Kern says one of key messages revolves around the importance of inclusive and integrated approaches (to living). An inclusive participatory approach is very important (similar to the ICB Hub concept unfolded in this article?). It means thinking of the connections between food, energy and health. It is required to assist farmers moving to adaptive varieties. And it very much engages involving vulnerable groups like smallholder farmers in planning preparing and adaptation processes. These are few of the Vision/Missions linked to the concept of ICB Hubs.
- “Pollutionis responsible for more than 9 million deaths around the world in 2019, according to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health on Tuesday. Air pollution is the biggest culprit, accounting for nearly 75% deaths.
Table Two – Concern Issues for ALL NATIONS off the Ukraine War
- May, 22, 2022: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the greatest humanitarian crisis in generations. As the war persists, so will disruption on a range of fronts, including supply chains, energy, and geopolitics. (Source: McKinsey & Co, Curated by Eleni Kostopoulos, a digital publishing manager in New York & received by me over mail @3:42 AM on 220522). But such unprecedented changes and disasters were caused by the Western Forces on Iraq/Afghanistan also earlier in the name of WMDs and Bin Laden. Remember?
- May 21, 2022: In the face of US inflation rates not seen since the 1980s, the Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point in May—and markets expect the central bank to continue rising rates aggressively in the coming months. In the euro zone and the United Kingdom, the consumer price index this month rose to record highs amid concerns over the ongoing war in Ukraine and subsequent impact on Europe’s energy supply. How will this inflationary environment affect customers, suppliers, and shareholders? And how can business leaders guide their management teams, employees, boards, and external stakeholders through this period of uncertainty? (Source: McKinsey & Co)
Table Three- On Cloud Computing
- May 19, 2022: The emerging technologyof quantum computing could revolutionize the fight against climate change, transforming the economics of decarbonisation and becoming a major factor in limiting global warming to the target temperature of 1.5°C. Even though the technology is in the early stages of development—experts estimate the first generation of fault-tolerant quantum computing will arrive in the second half of this decade—breakthroughs are accelerating, investment dollars are pouring in, and start-ups are proliferating. Major tech companies have already developed small, so-called noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) machines, though these aren’t capable of performing the type of calculations that fully capable quantum computers can perform Meeting the goal of net-zero emissions that countries and some industries have committed to won’t be possible without huge advances in climate technology that aren’t achievable today.
- Even the most powerful supercomputers available now are not able to solve some of these problems. Quantum computing could be a game changer in those areas. In all, we think quantum computing could help develop climate technologies able to abate carbon on the order of 7 gigatons a year of additional CO2impact by 2035, with the potential to bring the world in line with the 1.5°C target. Quantum computing could help reduce emissions in some of the most challenging or emissions-intensive areas, such as agriculture or direct-air capture, and could accelerate improvements in technologies required at great scale, such as solar panels or batteries. This article offers a look at some of the breakthroughs the technology could permit and attempts to quantify the impact of leveraging quantum-computer technology that are expected become available this decade. (Source: McKinsey Digital).
Table Four –On Biodiversity
- “Extinction of species is natural. But today it is happening @ 1000 times higher than that of pre-human times with a disastrous impact on world’s future.”-Zoological Survey of India former Director JRB Alfred (25thMay 2022, TOINS) ZSI was created in 1916.
- “For the immersion of Durga & other Idols, the local clubs (read: members of the emerging ‘Useless Class’) started cutting branches of trees in my neighbourhood,” commented Dhriti Banerjee, current Director of ZSI @ the International Day for Biological Diversity Panel Discussion on Wed, 25th May 2022. “I found several nests of night herons had fallen to the ground, destroying all their eggs. The herons deserted the locality. It took nearly 5 years for the herons to return to the trees in my locality but we do know many other species of insects’ life were destroyed by this act”.
- “As we are destroying the species and ruining their habitats, we are actually inviting more zoonotic diseases such as Covid & Monkey pox,” said Prof. Asok Kanti Sanyal, Secretary Biological Sciences, Asiatic Society. “After the destruction of rodent habitats at Dumurjala because of numerous constructions, there has been tremendous rise in their invasion of high rises. These will certainly carry disease.”
- May 19, 2022: Monkey pox in USA & Europe- A small number of people who’ve caught monkey pox, a chickenpox-like infection, has been identified in the United Kingdom, United States, Spain and Portugal. Some of these individuals have not travelled to West or Central Africa, where the disease is more common and is thought to jump to people through contact with wild animals. This suggests that the virus is spreading under the radar in the United States and Europe. “We’re seeing this expansion of confirmed and suspect cases globally,” says Jennifer McQuiston at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have a sense that no one has their arms around this to know how large and expansive it might be.” (Source: Nature Briefing) May 20, 2022: The world is running two years behind schedule to finalize a new global framework on biodiversity conservation. Representatives from almost 200 member states of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity were set to meet in Kunming, China, in October 2020. COVID-19 scuppered that plan, and China’s battle against rising cases means that the meeting, tentatively rescheduled for late August or early September, is in doubt. “The longer we wait, the more diversity is lost,” says conservation biologist Alice Hughes.(Source: Nature Briefing- exploring what the delay to the global biodiversity meeting means for life on Planet Earth)
Prof. Partho S. Sengupta from fringes of Calcutta!
Behavioral Sciences Area/Master – NLP Trainer/Practitioner;
Former Member – Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC);
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
