Caveman to Human to Intelli-Blob

I always wondered what is going to happen to "Humans" in the future. Are we going to evolve or are we going to be "Humans" always. I was convinced that since humanity can express and think there will be changes but there will not be any major change. But I had this interesting discussion which proposed a possibility of future species, I called, Intelli-Blobs. (It has to be little derogatory because how can they can be better than US)

I had this discussion with my colleague. It started like any other engineering talk, first about work and then about technology. Then we entered into the topic of IP-TV. For those who haven't heard this term, it is providing TV channels through DSL/telephone lines. Ultimate idea was to provide on-demand TV (watch exactly what you want and when you want).

For those who are yawning by now, I want to let you know that this discussion turned into social issue rather than technical, so read along.

Well, my friend's (let us call him J from now on) argument was, with human race getting what they want and when they want, they may demand the same kind with other relationships and other services and which may cause big (and bad) impact on society.

I counter argued that saying, Society have always been that way. I told him our parents would have said same thing about cable TV spoiling people.

He came back with argument that may be we are slowly crossing the threshold and on-demand may tip the balance and make people unproductive. He quoted how badly TV and Video games affects society. Accepted and Agreed.

But again I said, don't you think you are being too pessimistic to say this will spoil the world. It could cause little harm but society will be self regulating. Example: Me watching an addictive show called 24 and realizing it and getting out of it before 2nd episode. I was self regulating.

But, by now I realized that my friend had a point, even this show made me less productive next day because of fatigue. And I could get only 2 discs from Netflix a week.

• What if, if I could get 24 hours of it in one shot, won't I watch the entire episode in one shot?
• If so, wouldn't it affect my work or my family life?
• What if, I had all the channels that I want and like at my disposition?
• Will I be interested in going to real world and face real people and real occasions where I have only 50% chance of fun opposed to 100% guaranteed "fun".

Well I am not going to give up so easily, so, I said, but we will be bored soon and get back to our routine or our family and friends will drag us out of our homes.

Note: We both agreed and redefined the premises. Taking me or him as an example is not correct. We are not TV buffs. But same cannot be said about millions of Americans (now that I think about it, millions of Indians too). We should consider average Joe here (no no.. I am not talking about the reality show :) )

Anyway moving on, J said, there are reports about families get irritated with each other for spending too much time on TV even now. Well, that is true. How many times I got irritated because my mom doesn't want to come out of the house during "Metti Oli" time?

And to my "getting bored after a while" point, the program makers understands the psyche of customers/viewers and make programs more and more addictive (or interesting) to not let you go. May be there are some devil psychologists helping them to come up with innovative or more perilous idea. And that can make us addict for ever. You may be bored with Sitcom and switch to Thrillers to Romance to Porn (yeah! - now I have your attention huh?) to ...(well you get the idea right).

We also talked about 2 way role playing games which are very popular these days and I read somewhere that in Korea people buy online homes. No! Not buying homes online but buying virtual homes and buying furniture for that online home with real money. (Beats me too)

This proves people may lose human interaction and socialization because of getting all they want and where/when they want. (Our discussion meandered more around this area)

I then turned the table and asked, what is wrong with that. Meaning, what if, Caveman comes to us and asks why are not you not killing with your own hands and eating them raw with your appendix? Are you not weak in getting every meat you want and when you want (thanks to 24 hours stores)? Isn't it the same kind of question we are asking the future-ites. (On-demand-technology using, socializing-through-computer people)

Then we started visualizing how they will look. Since they don't need legs and they need more brain to think and innovate (More and more on-demand things of course), they may look like big blobs who can think well. So, I christened them Intelli-blobs. (Now you know where I got the title from)

I know this is not going to happen in near future, but it certainly opened a new possibility how the technology we create today can change human (?) race in the future.

Now that I thought too much about it and typed this whole thing without moving from my place, my legs are shrinking and my hands and brain is swelling. I got to get up and walk a bit to become normal. :)