2030…robotesque future is now….

the surreal future is now. driver-less cars. 3D printing. Holograms. drones. billions glued to touch screen devices. all connected to the cloud. algorithms in cloud dictating our lives. Zombie like we make our moves. Humanoids melding of flesh and prosthetics. Chips implanted in our bodies controlling us…wirelessly connected to the cloud. Comics and sci-fi… fact and fiction blur into a hyper-reality.

The invasion of technology into our lives over the past two decades is accelerating. We are all getting sucked into its innards. The monster is pervading into each spore of our existence and lives. There is no escape. Nowhere to hide from its all-seeing baleful gaze. Even the most desolate beach or desert is not safe from prying eyes with the skies interspersed with thousands of satellites. These watchers of the skies follow our minutest movements. Even in the urban sprawls the omnipresent surveillance cameras are tracking all our movements a la Orwellian big brother.

The hurtle towards our robotesque future is accelerating at a frightening pace. The telescoping of time is indeed terrifying especially for us born in the early 1950s. the rate of change is increasing exponentially. Already in the advanced society of Japan people are buying human size robot dolls as companions. Robot pets are also in vogue. As more people in developed economies are tending to stay single, robot companions will catch on. In the movie “Her” last year a person has a virtual girlfriend. Given the time most people spend online, it is perhaps convenient to have virtual and otherwise friends and companions online.

Humans are also becoming more androgynous and asexual. With increasing acceptance of same sex associations, there will be a gamut of multi sex associations and surrogate parents. In due course cloning may replace to some extent normal reproduction. Possible scenarios could be like in the movie “The Boys from Brazil”.

As nano biotechnology is advancing, there are implants which will monitor and control body functions. Medical science is also reaching a stage where cancer is likely to be conquered and through advanced regeneration of cells man may become immortal. Raymond Kurzweil has forecast that is a very likely future with the next 20 years or so.

In order to make best of land shortage, there are plans afoot to build mammoth skyscraper cities. These vertical urban wonders will have indoor farms and recycling of waste and air at the lower floors. These are likely to be manned by a worker class who will stay in cramped hovel kind of accommodations. Then these cities will have offices, support providers, health care, residential and recreation spaces. These urban sprawls will self sufficient in energy, water, food, economically. This reminds me of the amazing movie “1900” by Bertolucci where a person was born on a ship, lives there his entire life without ever stepping on terra firma, and finally dies on the ship.

Modern man will certainly be less religious than his forbears. Starting with Neitchze’s “Is God Dead”, a major portion of the western world does not believe in God. But for vast swathes of the globe, religion is opium of the masses, for some the addiction runs deep to the point of fanaticism and responding with terror when wronged. This deep religious schism will only deteriorate. In the decades to come this divide will only deepen and become perennial sources of global conflict. Robotic godless surreal humankind pitched against medieval forces with weapons of mass destruction.

The interesting part of the future would be how a super evolved race interacts with the backward low tech masses along with coping with economic collapses which would be staved off through highly controlled air conditioned economies in ICUs. But the biggest challenge for the neo-robotic societies would be their ability to withstand the ravages of extreme climate changes and cataclysmic geo-climate upheavals.

Indeed the decades 2030 to 2050 would be beyond all our present comprehension and forecast models of the world’s future. Future shock will indeed intensify and compound exponentially. Mankind will have Faust like sacrificed its soul upon the alter of technological progress. 

widening schisms in a bipolar globe...

during the past century, number of people killed by genocides at 100 mn is 4 times that killed in regular wars. Some of the notable genocides are Congolese by Belgians around 1900, Stalin's purges of 1930s, Nanjing, the Holocaust, Hindus in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, North Korea, Boko Haram...the list goes on...

now with terror raising its ugly head, its difficult to forecast the shape of things to come. there are so many flash points about to happen. the battle lines are drawn. worst case scenarios are India Pakistan flare ups which are on tinder-hooks with 230 nuclear missiles trained on each side. crazy scene now with so many terror groups in Pakistan getting closer the the access of nukes. several terror groups are bragging possession of dirty bomb technology all over the world.

yemen and syria hotbeds of terror spawning  prolifically. Europe alone is supposed to have been the sourcing ground for about 3400 recruits. recruits are pouring in from all over the world in response the clarion muezzin call for jihad. the western world unrelenting in its upholding of its so called freedom of press. historically france had colonised swathes of africa to its advantage exploiting the riches of africa and enjoyed the large pool of cheap labour. germany too became a magnet for millions of turks doing menial work so wonderfully depicted in fassbinder's movies. us too has its share of immigrants.

though the world is a melting pot, but true integration of diverse races is a chimera every where. the racist and conditioned world never looses an opportunity to maintain its man and economic made social structures in place. rampant discrimination runs wild everywhere including countries like india where higher caste highly conditioned people (like people all over the world) condescendingly treat the poorer strata of society. indeed its a bipolar globe with sharp schisms tearing asunder its tenuous fabric.

the clock is indeed ticking.

future shock is now.....theatre of the absurd...10th jan 15

10th jan 2015
More than half of the developed world does not believe in God. Increasing numbers in developing countries question the existence of god. More than a century ago Nietzsche had said God id dead. Marx too had written religion is the opium of the masses.

Indeed we live in tormenting times where we have plundered and pillaged the planet earth in our so called quest for better technology lives. Hence we are indeed suspended on the knife edge between Scylla and Charybdis. This is as close we can get to the edge of existence where if we live in a totally godless world we are plunged to the depths of loneliness, madness, alienation and existential angst. On the other hand and extreme is a world full of godliness which can border on blindfaith and fanaticism.

Truly this is indeed an existential dilemma. On side an anthropcene monster and on the other a medieval dark ages monster. It's a clash of the past and now, a clash of civilisations which have morphed into robotesque creatures and those who are suspended in the Middle Ages. This clash is reaching epic proportion and a modern barbaric crusade age has reared its ugly head. Violence and terror due to this inimical mingling of cultures is terrifying and most unsettling.



22nd dec 14
Visited my ancestral village after 40 years. Connected with ones roots. Could sense the closeness to my ancestors. Realised how much modern technology has also made its inroads into the pristine purity of rural Orissa. Mobiles, cable and dish tv had spread their tentacles. Perhaps when I visited last there was no power.

Our ancestral house was in ruins with creepers, plants all over. Visited the school which my ancestors had founded with the name of my great grand father Ramchandra. Illustrious ancestors who contributed so much to India for a Century.

Wish I could leave the city and spend the rest of ones life there away from the maddening life of urban chaos and decay.  Feel trapped with wife and daughter not approving of such a change. So be it. Condemned to the urban prison of ones making. Forever trapped in the rat race. Feel so disoriented. Belonging no where. Still looking for a resting place.

Now daughter in Chicago. Grand daughter sbout to be born there. Such a wide spectrum. Right from rural India to the alienated existence of western metros. So difficult to accept the  fate of swinging between two diverse cultures. Though I an essential american in terms of my surreal mental makeup, but the steppenwolf in me wants to go back to my roots.

14th dec14

There is so much plastic in each moment of our lives. Right from furniture, breast implants, decorations, kitchen ware, parts of clothing, cars, condoms, toys, artificial plants, ......its a Frankenstein we have created for our so called better lifestyles..... In the classic movie of Mike Nichols Mrs Robinson Dustin Hoffman is told "there is a future in plastics". Our mall cultures is nothing but buying loads of plastic covered in plastic. So indeed there is now a disposal problem of the millions of tons of toxic plastic which are created daily by monstrous factories spewing forth most obnoxious gases into the already overburdened helpless atmosphere which is being raped and pillaged every nanosecond by us the anthropocene human race which is bent on killing and raping it's very mother the gentle pristine Earth- oedipus like.

We are so hungry for perpetual instant orgasmic gratification that every day the robot like scientists in our most prestigious labs and universities the so called seats of higher learning churn of new inorganic chemical monster compounds which are stronger lighter and capable of creating myriad toys of pleasure and instant gratification which eager private equity and venture capitalists are ready to pounce and fund from complex multi leveraged financial concoctions which rocket scientists and so called financial wizards have created through most abstruse mathematical algorithms which can be deciphered only by them.


13th dec14

Over 5 trillion plastic pieces floating in world's oceans: weighing about 270,000 tonnes. inimical impact upon fauna and flora of the oceans. micro plastic pollution will surely spell doom for the already struggling organisms of the waters. As it is the rivers all over are over polluted cess pools. Cities on the banks of the rivers are dwindling centres of commerce.

The root cause of all this is our plastic culture. This metaphorical plastic culture has insidiously penetrated all the pores and strata of our universal soul minds both of individuals and collective society at large. It has even pervaded the entire strata of the socioeconomic macrosphere consisting of industry, agriculture, services. Plastics have invaded our very existential pores. There is but a thin divide between what is real and what is plastic.




12th dec 14

power outage closes UK airspace: power outage led to massive computer failure.these are some of the early pointers to more massive outages which can completely debilitate the power grid of large parts of most developed economies. the power grid failures can also be brought of by bright dark sick hackers which many economies want to focus upon their enemy states. it seem chinese hackers are among the best and will be able to  strike deep into the rather complex US power grid system and paralyse most of urban us.

worse still are dire prognostications that the evil forces are ready to cripple the international financial system. the modern financial runs 24/7 across the globe. these wires transact zillions of transactions comprising of inter bank settlements, card settlements, forex flows, derivatives, options and futures, etc. these cumulatively are several multiples of global gdp. the leverage is mind numbing and stratospheric.

the various sci fi movies we see are but harbingers of the shape of things to come. the more scary ones the cli fi movies like day after tomorrow which mirrors the recent arctic blasts which have kept captive huge portions of us over past couple of months.

these events keep gathering momentum and ostrich like we bury our heads not wanting to see the writing on the wall. 

nothing to say...12th feb 15

12th feb 15

So much happening. isis marcing ahead.  Now US wants to start its offensive against them. This is actually a far bigger war than those in iraq and Afghanistan. This is truly a start of a war of two faiths like the medieval crusades in the 21st century.  Nostrodamus saw it all centuries ago. Clash of civilisations. Silently watching the future unfold.


16th jan 15

maunabrata (silence) is the new om nama shivaya. everything is proceeding at cross purposes. mankind is on self destruct mode. too much of weapons of mass destruction lying around for our comfort. trigger happy terrorists swaggering around like cowboys. terror models are changing from spectacular 70 mm 9/11 extravaganzas to focused micro effective strikes which can broaden the theatre over a larger canvas. hence the only option for the silent passive majority is to live and let live / kill and watch the river / blood flow a la Siddhartha style.  


9th jan 15

To do lists never end. Only with death list stops with undone items. So long most of the essential items keep getting done we carry on. For procrastinators like me some not so imp items by efflux of time reach their expiry date and get off the list by default.

11th dec 14

sometimes i feel that one is reaching a state of nothing to say - somnolescence...a catatonic state where nothing much can be achieved in a day except the very minimum to keep going and the absolute essential external work like bank etc. have been a great procrastinator all my life. keep putting of things till the last date. this probably stems from the strong belief in the futility of existence. this streak of existential angst has been there since my childhood. was an existential kid. through this procrastination i have seen that by efflux of time many issues outlive their utility and importance. this only buttresses my view that most of the things we want to do in our to do lists are really inessential.

have a list of over 40 items which never seems to finish. if two are struck out, few more join. i seem to be doing everything except what i love most - reading, blogging, music and movies. actually most can lead minimalist lives, paring out all the unnecessary frills and topping which really add no value or substance.

at a macro level all this sound and fury signifying nothing or less than that keeps every one on the toes and lot of brouhaha signifying nothing. this a sine non quo of capitalism. so its very difficult to segregate the wheat from the chaff. and crazy pr and advertising has put on the mascara and lipstick on the pallid corpse like features of existence, corporations, etc. hypercompetition and capitalism are premised upon making everything such a charade.   

Countdown to Paris 2015 - 9th dec 15

9th jan 15

The Guardian Much of world's fossil fuel reserve must stay buried to prevent climate change, study says The Guardian Trillions of dollars of known and extractable coal, oil and gas cannot be exploited if the global temperature rise is to be kept under the 2C safety limit, ... Leaving Coal in the Ground Could Help Limit Climate Change - Nature World News Most fossil fuels 'unburnable' under 2C climate target - BBC News Climate scientists beg governments to leave buried fossil fuel reserves in the ground - The Independent Full Coverage

12th dec 14
Daily sophisticated papers are being published on pros and cons of burden sharing of carbon sharing along with complex formulae. Now it has degenerated into a debate on who (which country) has declared its peak emission year, who has not, developing countries crying that they should be given a chance to give their citizens a chance to enjoy so called higher standards of living. No one has the guts to stand up like a prophet at the cost of being ridiculed that the very edifice of human civilisation based upon high energy usage is faulty.

Too many big lobbies out there to fatten their purses like energy, autumobile, steel, construction and infrastructure of nightmares called cities comprising a lifeless tall monolithic structures called high rises and skyscrapers, digital and Internet based objects of pleasure and so called communication like mobiles tablets etc which are crowding all the atmosphere around us with various spectrum like 2g, 3G, 4g, consumer delights and so called necessities and objects de desire like fridges, micros, air conditioning, garments, cosmetics....the list is endless paved with hedonism leading to hell or extinction....

Humanoids which are fast morphing into robotic androgynous gargoyles are too deep into their sheer technology and industry based existences that they cannot think of reversing their insane hurtle into bigger, better and faster of everything.

Lima and Paris will be just charades which will work on some acceptable limits which will not curbs the crazy human push for so called scientific and technological progress. Ostrich like with heads buried they will talk of a distant 2100 when temperatures may rise by 2 deg C knowing fully well at the current trends the 2 deg limit will be breached well before the distant 2100 time frame. Already frightening climate changes wreaking havoc in advanced northern hemisphere western world. Crop patterns gone awry. Everyone influenced by climate sceptics says that all is fine and that there is no firm evidence of global warming or climate change. And the story goes on....



9th dec 14
ironically every on is bickering about increasing no of cars and low proportion roads. bogota has come out with solutions like alt days even and odd numbers. no cars in cbds. yet at the same time the large manufacturers are coming out with more powerful and faster cars. crude prices at five year low. car pollution has brought down the largest metropolises to a smoggy standstill. the made love to cars goes on . bigger better faster. no one has the guts to reduce car production. two wheelers and walking along with low energy lifestyles only way of this morass.  


7th dec 14
Complex situation. Devd Ecos which already spew majority of current co2 emissions like USA 25%, Europe not much behind. In terms of cumulative emissions over past century the contribution of the west would be an overwhelming 80%. Now developed Ecos are telling developing Ecos who are less that 20% or so of emissions that they should reduce more since they have larger populations but lower per capita emissions mainly because they have higher upside for growth. It's unfair to curb the growth potential because their numbers are high.

For a fair view developed Ecos should reduce their emissions by over 50% since they are facing the most threatening proportions of extreme climate. They have to reduce their per capita emissions by  50% of their cuurent usage. This will be fair in terms of equity.


26 nov 14
nations are bickering on who should reduce carbon emissions most. one of the major issues is polluting energy. there is not much clarity on curbing large cars, air conditioning, energy intensive large multistoried, air travel, small is beautiful should take centre stage. new grammar of living outlined earlier is a good solution, need for psycho social counselling. who will bell the cat.

24th nov 14

all nations are going through the motions of posturing, blaming one bloc or the other. blame games as we are sinking.,

its a now or never situation. first time the nations have realised that time for living in self denial is   over. tomorrow is now, we need to act as on is yesterday,.

Apocalypse Now

24th nov
today also temperatures in chicago were sub full day. research says most americans believe apocalypse is at hand.


the past two weeks have been perhaps the heaviest ravaging arctic cold to ever hit US simultaneously across all the states. the last winter saw Sandy and some bitter Arctic chill which hit a lot of states in the last month of winter when at its peak. but novembers have never been so brutal. and that too before thanksgiving.

difficult to digest but if we view objectively some of the quirks of nature, weather and climate over the past few years globally and more so in US. am sure the frequency and amplitude of these cases of nature's fury are increasing almost geometrically. but like veritable ostriches we are not able the accept the stark truth but instead burrowing deeper our senile energy doped heads into the sand which provides a respite from the ugly truth which is blowing fiercely above.

a simple list of climate extremes which have ravaged recently are: forest fires, floods, drought, arctic polar chills, tornadoes, twisters, extreme heat, cold, record snows, rapid fall in temperatures, extreme cold, earthquakes, etc. these mind boggling events have already numbed our sensibilities,

yet no one wants correlate the horrifying truth that that this could be connected to US contributing 25% of carbon emissions,  highest number of cars, air conditioning, energy use, mobile usage, plane traffic, the list goes one.

is there no way out of this intensifying morass. should we not take up some strong fundamental changes to our lifestyles to escape certain annihilation.

we are all comfortably numb....waiting for godot....

Diary - Elegy- 13th feb 15

13th feb 15

Such a sick world. Never seen such scheming intolerant neighbours in my life. Lived in so many places in my life.  Never have I met such a psycho like in sobha who hates marley with so much vitriolic hatred. Apart from marley he is after everyone.  Funniest he wants to make a rule banning dogs from all common areas banishing them and their owners to the dungeons of the basements. Medieval and barbaric.



11th dec 14

sometimes i feel that one is reaching a state of nothing to say - somnolescence...a catatonic state where nothing much can be achieved in a day except the very minimum to keep going and the absolute essential external work like bank etc. have been a great procrastinator all my life. keep putting of things till the last date. this probably stems from the strong belief in the futility of existence.


16th nov 14

Yet to see interstellar ...another Nolan masterpiece...we are so insignificant in the scheme of the universe and cosmos...less than a nano speck...yet everyone is so bent on proving themselves and becoming better richer.....in face of infinity we are nothing.....

18th nov 14

today we live in an era of technological excesses. anything we want is out there on the web, most of the time free or very cheap. music, movies, books...are there in abundance on the net. from childhood till about early 1990, ie the preliberalisation period, it was hard to get by anything latest. most of the films are having simultaneous releases across the world. surfeit of tv programs. all the latest serials along with the west.


14th nov 14

one third of US is covered by an arctic chill with sub zero temperatures at most places. chill will last for a week. at some places there have been over 7-9 ins of snow. all this before Thanksgiving. Everything getting topsy turvy. at some places there has been rapid fall in temperatures upto 25/30 deg F per hour. This is something very new which was the preserve of science fiction before. Movie day after tomorrow had some similar clifi plot. all most frightening for the future.



13th nov 14

drifting gradually into nothingness. can do at most few things per day. slowness has taken over. find it meaningless to speed up things. don't want much longevity. hence happy with present slowness. the nausea of the meaningless of existence is overpowering.

12th nov 14

year into its last 50 days. memorable year for humans. in a way best of times and worst of times. capitalism is rising to a crescendo with bigger, faster of everything including mankind's toys of doom - cars, planes, air conditioned malls, houses, energy intensive lifestyles....carbon emissions at highest ever levels....yes the veritable dance of the macabre. no one willing to step back and rewind...at the same time financial collapses and economies in ICU mode.....qe sera sera...whatever will be will be....most of US experiencing early snows...record precipitations...amen..om namah Sivai....


9th Nov 14

Year 64 on. Reminds me of the The Beatles "When I am 64"....really don't know how many years left.  Today sat with my Brother Sambhu and trapeised down memory lane. Amazing pics of our childhood..our parents...our Guru Baba (my cosmic guru) Swami Hitanand Saraswati....lot of my close cousins...we scanned a lot of pics...to keep some of them for long term digital posterity which will outlive us by several decades.

Finality is catching up. The finiteness of existence is getting closer. So indulged myself with four books from flipkart: jarred diamond- guns, godel, and murukami Norwegian wood. And also age of singularity by Raymond Kurzweil. Hope to delve a bit into each book and imbibe the essence of the books through this short fraud process.

More importantly need to make progress on NGL.


8th Nov 14

Super storm bigger than Sandy to hit Alaska and impact much of US. Chicago at almost sub zero temps. yet GOP bickering about climate change. so ironical now that we are running out of time the sceptics have come to roost. ....
trying my best to green as much as i can. but still using ac in car. i really have failed my leanings. how can i change others. used to bathe with cold water like a monk in dead of winter at mid night in Kolkata when in school. entire summers without the fan...that was the young monk who lived out his ideals ......

7th nov 14

yesterday was my 63rd birthday.,creeping closer to the oblivion...failed in implementing NGL at home. How can I expect to really get society at large to accept these almost draconian measure. its now or never.



6th nov 14

today the repubs in control of both houses...fading hopes of action on climate front...apocalypse ahead...we deserve it...

Earlier

After living in Shanti Park Apts for over 20 years have moved to Sobha Dewflower about 3 weeks ago. Total rhythm of earlier constipated writing has been further compounded. Mind is able to do few things a day. gradually settling down in new apartment. Beautiful apartment. But so much change along with practical dimensions of  address change, getting new connections of cable, telephone, etc.

Must gradually get back to my bleak observations on the twilight zone of human civilization. there has already been a cold arctic blast across north america with unseasonal snow far and wide including Chicago, Today they talk about 0 emissions by 2100. Some hope they have. My gut feeling at this rate another 40 years at max for pronounced climate upheavals.

unprecedented rains in Bangalore. precipitation taking centre stage. like waiting for Godot. ostrich like no one wants to bell the cat. the charade must go on till the apocalypse.