TRANSHUMANIZATION

TRANSHUMANIZATION

In my previous post I wrote about a world where most of the manufacturing and physical work is done by machines and machines only-AUTOMATION. What if I say the world is moving towards something more amazing? What if I say world is moving towards something more dangerous? What if I say world which we know is going to transform completely and forever?

WHAT IF I SAY THIS HAS STARTED?

I was sitting in my classroom of marketing and a topic of innovations came up, Mr. Souvik my marketing professor was the first to make me aware of  “TRANSHUMANIZATION” and I literally had goosebumps I was actually scared than being excited. The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of "transhumanism", coining the term in an article written in 1957. So what exactly is this Transhumanization? I will explain it in simple terms “fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.” You will not believe when I say the origin of this idea is from the quest for immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as historical quests for the Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, and other efforts to stave off aging and death. Every such advance would first appear to someone as blasphemy or perversion, "indecent and unnatural". In particular, he was interested in the development of the science of creating and sustaining life in an artificial environment and the application of genetics to improve human characteristics, such as health and intelligence.

YES, my friends in a sense im saying we are creating “robo-humans”, “Captain America”, “SUPERHUMANS” etc.

Hard to believe? Not quite so. This isn’t a shock, we all knew this is going to happen but it already happened! That did come as a shock. The Dan Brown novel Inferno and the Zoltan Istvan novel The Transhumanist Wager focus on the theme of transhumanism. Fictional transhumanist scenarios have also become popular in other media during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Such treatments are found in comic books Captain America, 1941, Transmetropolitan, 1997, The Surrogates, 2006, A Space Odyssey, 1968, Blade Runner, 1982, Gattaca, 1997  television series, The Cybermen of Doctor Who, 1966 video games-Metal Gear Solid, 1998, Deus Ex, 2000, BioShock, 2008, Half Life 2, 2004, Crysis, 2007.

Experiments have been started already and 60-70 years down the line these experiments will bring up results as said by critics of ‘transhumanization’. So in simple terms this means we are digitalizing humans.

What is happening in these experiments? As said by Mr. Souvik, chips-microchips are being inserted into the

cerebellum of human and it intercepts the nerve impulses. Why? Guess what these microchips help to do. They are a medium of interaction between the machines and human. Excited? Yes these chips help you to interact with the machines. Example: your house, vehicles etc. also have the same chips and messages, information about what is in the nook and corner of the house, even if a pin is dropped and location of your car, who is in the car, male or female, their name, addresses and every damn detail is displayed. Displayed where? In the brain- a visualization center is built by the chip in the brain.

ZERO-PRIVACY is going to be a reality. Every living creature is going to be touched by this technology.

“A chip inserted into the brain will feed data into the brain, doesn’t it cross anyone’s mind that the same chip can be used to retrieve data from the brain which anyone controlling the chip store, steel or transmit it to a database? It means even the subconscious is not a safe place, well that scares my hats-off”

This so called microchip as scientifically said to affect the “limbic section” of brain which control the emotion and reactions. So there is possibility, a remote possibility that human emotions and reactions can also be controlled by the one controlling the microchip. May be they can be turned off. Like vampires? Non-flesh eating Zombies? Who knows?

“The brain processes information in discrete operations by way of some biological equivalent of on/off switches.”

 But the basic aim of these experiments as I understand them is “Immortality”, inhuman strength and lifespan is the bottom line of the change. Is it the final invention of man? Because after this I don’t see a need for anything more than inhumanly increasing lifespan. Then the history will repeat again-lust for power, the craving for power starts when every human comes to a state of equilibrium.

I remember Einstein’s quote “I don’t know what the World War-3 will be fought with, but World War-4 will be fought with sticks and stone”. But I say “I don’t know what is down the line after decade but if these experiments continue the fate of humans is granted for a tremendous and destructive change.

This is not just a possibility; this is the truth, a fate that can be avoided and a fate that can be changed.

AUTOMATION OF ECONOMIES

AUTOMATION OF ECONOMIES

Modernization, industrialization and automation are these changes going to prove fatal to the capitalist economies or is going to boost the growth of the economies?

Automation is a widely heard word in the big and heavy structured economies from past few years. A propaganda that is positioning fear into the governments, corporations and even people regarding their capital system of economy and even the employment which are going to be drastically effected by the “automation”.

What is “automation”? Are we creating a “self-destruct” button? What are its effects of the capitalist economy?  How is it going to affect the employment structure? Are the economies going to collapse? These are the questions that are haunting every economist.  Job creation has already become challenging mare and mare workers and employees are being displaced.“Luddite fallacy” the great theory of technological unemployment is onrushing wave. With every technological change made in any industry or country a large number of workers are displaced, we have seen that in the past in US millions of workers in agricultural field were displaced due to technological advancement over few decades, but in contrast to our thoughts the unemployment dint last long, they were absorbed into different sectors as industrial growth. But now the industries are also being automated and the terrifying fact is that every industry might have only their top management working remaining all is done by “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”. Scary isn’t it?

If it helps there is a second thought, that’s scary and a probable scenario, but there is a catch here the graph representing human capability and computer technology if the two lines intersect that might represents stagnation in mobility of economy, and that i mean literally, because zero work force and full-fledged technology never comes into existence. When the world scenario starts moving into that dangerous warp there are other dynamic forces like political, social and economic powers which come into play.

Imagine a country or world completely depending on technology that is like seeing MATRIX movie in reality. That’s a far cry. PESTEL is a very major force that drives any industry, country and even law, until and unless all the political systems crash in the world all the economic structure crumble down this notion will not fit into any structure. Yes, US are driven towards it, automation and yes the downfall of US is for sure and that will be a live example for the whole world. The most powerful country getting destroyed from within. No country or even a single company is mad enough to automate completely. If that happens, law and political parties come into play and impose rules on them saying "for example: 30% automation only".

"Automation" theory contradicts the "Economic Shift" theory. Let us think about the economic shift from west to east which we all know is inevitable and we have been seeing the beginning of it, so if the shift happens India, China and Japan the three major economies of east have that capability of automation?  Japan does have that capacity but Japanese are work driven people a company in Japan will be ready to pay millions instead of removing a few employees and India and China the question of automation doesn’t arise due to the socio-political scenario.

So automation is still a far off cry and if that begins it'll begin will a limitation. But if the greed increases, who can predict human tendency. 

"THE WORST IS YET TO COME"

TRILLION*0.5 DOLLAR STEREOTYPES

TRILLION*0.5 DOLLAR STEREOTYPES

Imagine an industry of half a trillion dollar value getting most of its share by propagating stereotypic thoughts all around and no one knows or recognizes this. It is the best camouflage I have ever seen. Every day I see people in stores buying products influenced by those advertisements which are promoting stereotypic virus into the minds of everyone, and at the end of the day the same people who are influenced by these ads sit and talk about the “stereotypes” in the world. Advertisements are one of the major sources of these ideas.

I mainly want to talk about FMCG products which are of daily use and in few references luxury goods too.

To be precise I’ll try to explain few ads:

Child Gender Roles: Advertisements portraying boys to be rough and aggressive, girls weak and feminine. A print advertisement where a boy is standing inside a gray pop-up castle, taking on a posture of power and dominance. A girl is shown covering in fear outside the castle as if afraid to enter.

Shallow or Incompetent Male: Ads where male are shown to enact naïve pranks and activities to gain attention of females which are mainly the beer commercials. In household the husband sometimes is being portrayed as a dull individual who hasn’t accomplished the task and the female counterpart on seeing the advertisement buys the product and gets the job done.

Domesticated females: In the era of a rapid modernization we think domestication of women is wrong and we bring out rallies over it get agitated and want to do something but has anyone ever gone against advertisements we see daily of laundry products, soaps, child care depict women to have the ultimate responsibility to be in the buying decision of the products.

Racial Stereotypes: Advertising can also perpetuate racial stereotypes that have lasted for generations. As an example, McDonald's came under heavy criticism for creating an advertisement depicting Chinese people who had difficulty pronouncing the letter "r." In England, the Advertising Standards Authority banned an ad showing a black man playing a ukulele and repeating every word a white man says, saying that the ad could be seen as showing blacks as subservient or inferior to whites. (Reference: Model Minority: McDonald's Defends Racial Sterotypes; Didi Kirsten Tatlow)

USING FEMALE BODY: Advertisement contains various symbolic messages in an attempt to reach their target audience. In order to show how the stereotype female are represented in the target audience. In order to show how the stereotype female are represented in the advertisement I have taken some of the advertisements like “The Axe Effect”, “Fair and advertisement I have taken some of the advertisements like “The Axe Effect”, “Fair and Lovely”, “Sprite”, “Mama Chicken Cracker” and “Sun silk Conditioner”. Besides these advertisements also we find most of the advertisement are stereotyping the role of female that they are confined to the same primitive role that was given to them during earlier period of civilization.

Advertisement in the modern time is found in all forms and shapes. They reinforce gender stereotypes and gender roles, using gratuitous female nudity or sex to sell unrelated products, and for marginalizing women from advertising and its industry. Many forms of media such as magazines and television stations financially benefit from these sexist advertisements as they gain the majority of their revenue from the companies who place ads with them. Consumers are subconsciously enticed to buy products by companies who believe that it is okay to use women’s’ bodies in a sexual way to make their brand “cool”.

This is an unhealthy way to reach goals. Due to these females have to face humiliation to view themselves as a weaker sex. Later on this may results into depression and other long-term psychological diseases. In my view, media ethics should be built to raise the status of woman in the society and give them the due respect but not degrade them by such stereotype portrayal.

• Reference: Hall, Stuart.  Representation Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices
• “Why Women and Girls must fight The Addictive Power of Why Women And Girls must fight The Addictive Power of   Advertising.” Deadly Persuasion. 

JAPAN OR AMERICA?

JAPAN OR AMERICA?

In 1980-1990, according to economists Japan could do no wrong taking into account their competitive edge when related to the North America which has broad range of high-tech and mass-production industries which manufacture goods for trading. Economists also saw Japan as an economy which has reconstructed itself since World War 2 which outperformed many of the economies in the world. It was the only economy outperforming the America in the growth rate when they had the same productivity levels.

Japan due to its political and economic pressures had to undergo the transformation to export sensitive manufacturing and intensive machine usage. That has been an era of automization, computerization and materialization which has been keenly adopted by the Japanese and that has been their mission.

The slow growth population, high savings and the work ethics of the Japanese gave them an edge in intensive capital and so the results from labor productivity. Since it is a newly developing economy Japan has a vast pool of low wage laborers and took full advantage of the educated and high-paid workforce and started outsourcing low-waged and low-skilled laborers to regions of Asia. In terms of capital intensity and industrial knowhow Japan has equaled and surpassed most powerful economies in the world. The companies and industries which wanted high-end fashion, high finance and high-technologies and corporate field control would choose Tokyo for migration.

Japan may not or it is unlikely to become a super power economy with just a one-third population of US. The per capita GDP of Japan and US has a gap of around 30% which Japan is expected to come-over and moreover if Japan grows at this same rate it is not a surprising fact that it might have GDP 10% higher than US.

Rural and small business interests were collapsed due to political interference for interest into the export-oriented manufacturing. Women-culture of Japan produces a great obstruction in employing them. Before the financial crisis- “Global Financial Crisis” the Japan’s production capacity was not accounted for.

Japan has taken US as an economic-development model. The industrial development and export-oriented manufacturing was maintained by MITI-Ministry of International Trade and Industry which was not their core but these companies were well separated which posed a problem.

The WW2 development model was not doing any good anymore and the growth rate has fallen by 2% more by 1990. This slowdown has timed with the asset collapse and depression, which caused the 10% fall in Japanese output.

US economy 7% poorer than what it is expected to be in 2007, this give a clear-cut idea that the Japanese have to rethink the thought of taking the economy-development model as their own. Such decline still creates a great fear- fewer competitive pressures for keeping efficiency, low risk tolerance diminishes innovations.

Let us now think on the larger danger ahead- if a well handled bubble collapses in US economy it will leave the country 10% poorer in over a decade, what if the bubble as such collapses in Japan, would it leave the country 40% poorer than what it is?

This has made clear that there is no trend or cycle to rely upon and their reciprocal interactions cannot be neglected. This approach has left many economists in amazement and who themselves had to this about rethinking their strategies before putting them into place.

World is not what it was anymore, world is not what it was yesterday.

CLASH OF THE “SLEEPING GIANTS"

CLASH OF THE “SLEEPING GIANTS"

Is there a faster growth in China over India or the prediction of India overtaking China is inevitable?

Independence has given India a defining feature “Democracy” as was “Communism” to China. Now, these giants woke up from their cat nap. The clear advantage of China over India is from the mode and pace at which China can accumulate capital which has been the reason for the swell in the investment rate, whereas in India the main source is by public tax. The policies mainly focused on the counter-productive framework that created a void in producing investments at a satisfactory rate. Equity investments were at a halt and the trade was in sense of autarky. The growth of the public sector was swift beyond the need. The communist government of China also had seen the same result due to the role of state in the economy.

These issues led the giants to make some “liberal reforms” to their ineffectual policies and began to pace out. The heat was on. The bet was on China which strides at a good pace when compared to the slow democracy of India. The policy reforms are done as fast as possible for a quick growth due to which China was reaping fruits.  But for how long would this tyrannical trump-card prove to have an edge? The volatility in heavy-top systems is high and unpredictable.

That being so, China finally started focusing on external markets but in a world of democracy this has come across hurdles which were expected for these exports. For many years China has enjoyed the growth without any constraint of labor, hence there has been no slowdown in the accumulation of capital. But now the sparse labor and the rise in the wages in the growing areas with respect to infrastructure has been a result of the policy “One Child”. However, the “One Child” policy has been eased after almost three decades but even then this has been a vogue and according to surveys people of China are willing to have only one child due to the rise in expenses.

The labor curve of China has been flat for many decades but now is sloping upwards, which means there has been an increase in demand for labors. As this was the case the capital accumulation has also been slowing down along with increase in the demand for hike in wages.

India on the other hand has still got an abundant labor supply and the investment rate has been increasing drastically due to the demographic profile favoring these investments. India thus has a chance of giving heat to China.

Barring, the quick economic reforms which India lacks, India has got a long way to go. Increasing the reach of the retail to more regions, reforms in the market of labor and most importantly privatization would further foster the growth of India.

The world’s economic shift from west to east is inevitable but taking these factors into account and the required economic reforms which will be taken up by these giants in next decade would decide the next “Economic Super-Power”.