It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity – Albert Einstein

Big science and Big technology – the String theory or the Large Hadron Collider are interesting trivia really, for most of us, as we dash and whirl around, busy in the business of running our lives. It is heartening to know about such soaring heights gained by human intellect, but so what? How does that affect our lives in the here and now in any intimate, personal sort of way? Well, big science may not have, yet, but to all intents and purposes, Technology has become the master, the ruler of our lives. 

It dictates our daily lives so thoroughly, that it seems as if we were serving Technology, rather than it serving us! Of course, without an iota of doubt, Technology has single-handedly transformed human lives in a way nothing else seems to have. In the entire history of mankind! A product of the post-industrial age, Technology has lead to unforeseen increases in efficiency and productivity, across all areas of human effort. It has made our lives increasingly comfortable and many times luxurious. Lifestyle, travel, entertainment, and healthcare have achieved stunning levels of refinement, and continue to achieve more. At an unrelenting speed. The rate of innovation has skyrocketed, creativity is more prolific than ever before. 

Perhaps, two areas with the most meaningful, profound impact have been communication and the access to information. Comprehensive knowledge of the world at our fingertips and a social circle more expansive than ever before; mind-boggling connectivity with the remotest corners of the earth! Life could never have been better. The world seems to have shrunk into our sleek mobile phones and laptops! Who can underestimate the power of being intimately connected at every moment? Technology has become the great equaliser in an unequal world. A world which is now a democracy of information and opportunity. Technology seems to have given us the God-like powers of omni-presence and omni-science, to be everywhere, to know everything, all at once. It could make us more God like, it could make us omni-potent! 

Could it? 

It appears to me on a closer look that we have so carelessly handed over our entire lives to Technology that our human essence itself is in the danger of being swallowed up, whole. 

We seem to have made the characteristics of technology our own characteristics, so much so that we might have made its limits our own limits too. So identified have we become with it, that we believe we can do as much as our technologies can do, and unfortunately, as little as it actually can.