Keeping Up

It is more than 10 years that Deep Blue, the most talked about

supercomputer of its time locked horns with Gary Kasparov, the reigning world

chess champion, in a six-game match. And IBM's 32-processor machine that could

process about 200 mn chess moves per second, defeated the human champ.

I remember a cartoon in a newspaper, which remarked that it was

the beginning of the IT domination in human life, and the beginning of the end

of man's control over his life and the world. After all, a human brain is also

made up of processors, and this one was much superior.

While I had laughed off the cartoonist's prediction as

ridiculous, I now feel that the cartoonist was both right and wrong. About a

decade has gone by since Deep Blue, the role of IT and IT-based technologies and

applications in everyday life has gone up many folds. Cell phones, robots,

notebooks, and the Internet are doing ordinary things for common people. From

booking movie tickets to knowing about the mood of the weather, to send picnic

video clips to friends, to switching on the microwave at home, to play chess

with your father thousands of miles away. The microprocessors can do almost

anything for you.

What is happening is that in the process a lot of mental and

physical effort humans had to put in to survive and grow is being done by

information technology. Children do not have to cram and remember mathematical

tables and formulae-there are calculators and computers. They do not have to

go out in the playing fields to enjoy-they love watching the telly more, or

prefer to play computer games. Adults do not have to walk to the next building

to meet a colleague-they can send him an email.

No wonder, there are so many surveys and researches claiming

that the overall health of human beings-mental and physical fitness-is under

question. And the finger is also being pointed at the rapidly growing power of

information and communications technology because it has started impacting

lifestyles.

And now what we have is the Blue Gene. Said to be the fastest

supercomputer in the world, this son of Deep Blue has 131,000 processors, which

it can use to process about 280 tn moves every second, simultaneously. There is

no way a Vishwanathan Anand, or even twenty of them playing together, will be

able to handle him.

While machines like Blue Gene have been put to use for

scientific applications in protein, genetics, brain hydrodynamics, quantum

chemistry, astronomy, space, materials science, and climate modeling, in

educational institutes and government labs, that is only one side of the

picture. What will also happen is that such machines will offer a lot more

things to human beings, thereby making them even more dependent on the machines.

Therefore, the role and influence of IT in human life will go up.

Does it mean that physical and mental health and agility will be

challenged even more, as their need for human beings' growth and survival will

go down. Maybe yes, maybe no. I think that the biggest challenge for those who

are excited by technology and want to leverage it will be to try and deploy

machines like Blue Gene to ensure that mental and physical health and agility of

human race is revived and rejuvenated. And not made redundant. Because, if that

happens, the downfall of mankind will be sure. And with that, the end of

technology will be certain.

The author is Group Editor of Dataquest.



ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in