If Carl Sagan enlightens us of the gradual change in the medium of storage of information that was first stored in our genes and later in our brains as it evolved and took on an external space as at the libraries, the internet now has brought this library at our fingertips says Brett Frischmann. From https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-smart-technology-making-us-dumb/ we see further questions asked. While Nicholas Carr asks, "Is the internet making us dumb? Is the technology causing us cognitive loss or debilitation?" Brett Frischmann asks "Is smart technology making us dumb?" Brett Frischmann says "We outsource thinking and rely on supposedly smart tech to micromanage our daily lives. Are you and I, and our siblings and children, engaging with the seemingly limitless raw materials in a manner that makes us more capable, more intelligent? Or do we find ourselves outsourcing more and more?" He adds that we are in fact "extending the reach of others into their minds."
I am watching the series "neXt" where a rogue AI (Artificial Intelligence) strikes a deal with a debt-stricken programmer to install a hidden router, hence giving access to the WiFi. It then constantly improves itself and begins to take control and rule, feeding on "the seemingly limitless data" and information available on the internet.
"When you rely on GPS, who’s doing the route planning? Who is gaining what intelligence? As everyone knows by now, many digital tech companies know a lot about each of us" says Brett.
A friend who is in the telecommunications sector reminded me that our whereabouts and the places we visit are known by these digital tech companies. Our preferences and interests too are given away as we browse and search the net for topics of interest. All our activities on the internet generate data that is used to their advantage to sell, promote, suggest, and indirectly run our lives. The internet survives on what we feed it.
Many non-believers of the Nadi have accused the readers of gathering information from us during the question and answer session and framing and building up a story of us and selling it to us as purportedly told by the Siddha. In other words, trapping us into revealing our personal data to them to enable them to conjure events in a convincing way. To those, I have a tale to tell. I saw the Naadi giving my thumbprints for easy location of the Nadi leaves that might carry my story. I was asked the usual questions and told only to answer "Yes" or "No" and nothing beyond. This is how we start by locating the Kaanda Nadi written for us. Once we agree that the brief description given in the Nadi pertains to us, only then is the full Nadi read. Over the years I took both my daughters to have their reading done too. They went through the same process too. Then I thought my wife would like to hear her Nadi revealed by Agathiyar too. So we sought an appointment with the reader. But as a result of some minor confusion regarding the date and time of the appointment my wife and I were turned back. The reader never called us for her reading but instead called me over for my regular Aasi Kaandam reading that was waiting to be read. As he left the room into the adjacent room that stored the library of Nadis he returned with an expression of astonishment. He held in his hands a Nadi that was about to reveal about my wife. I too was astonished. Agathiyar began to address my wife in her absence, without the need for her to give her thumbprint and without the usual trend of question and answer to locating her Nadi. It was all so mysterious. Today I understand that he shelved all the protocol because she had served him untiringly all the years.