FIFTH COLUMN

Technology

By C K Lal

I am neither on the net, nor do I have an electronic address. That’s not an enviable position to be in for a columnist of a newspaper planning to shift its editorial focus to information technology. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I am apprehensive, even a bit nervous.

Wisdom, and to a certain extent, even knowledge, prompts its seekers to search for emancipation from suffering. But technology is seldom pursued to rescue the poor. While it is true that advances in agriculture and medicines have saved millions of lives, its opposite is equally true-millions more continue to die despite green revolution and penicillin. Availability does not automatically mean access. Access is controlled by the powerful who use it to advance their own interests, not of the ones who need it most.

To save face, one logic often given is that technology by itself is value-neutral. If an innocent inquiry makes a scientist discover the mystery of an atom, it is perhaps not his fault when someone else uses the technique to detonate bombs capable of killing people by the million. But precisely because of its value-neutral nature, technology is more likely to be used to amass power than to re-distribute it.

Internet itself is a glaring example. America Online may have been an upstart in comparison to the giant time-Warner Communications group that it acquired, but Netizen Case does not represent the downtrodden, not even of the West. Most software companies are led by people with solid middle-class background who assist traditional money amass wealth by giving them an opportunity to invest.

Millionaires and billionaires created by Internet are the modern versions of cautious gamblers that got rich by buying green-fields on the cheap in bad old days. Swaminathan A. Aiyer, a fervent votary of free-market-Darwinism in India, reveals the true reason behind the euphoria over the technology driven industry when he says that software is a knowledge industry uniquely suited for Brahmans who otherwise look down upon other forms of industry and businesses with disdain.

For argument’s sake, let us suppose that Nepal gets on the band-wagon of software and internet, and we achieve the projected target of two billion dollars worth of exports per year. Who shall benefit from it in a country where literacy does not mean computer literacy but the ability to write one’s own name? Forget the trickle down effect, Bangalore is a bright example that nothing trickles down, except the dust kicked up by the Mercs, BMWs and Lexuses of the teen-aged tycoons.

It’s not for nothing that Mahatma Gandhi was deeply suspicious of technology. It has always been the hand-maiden of power. So the richly rich among you, celebrate in The Independent going IT. After all, it’s your world folks.