Greater Flamingos Descend on The Basai Wetland in large numbers

A trio of Flamingos take to the sky

Just yesterday I had set out early in the morning intending to visit the Sultanpur National park, but when I reached the T-Point from the Dwarka Expressway, I somehow decided to turn left to visit the Basai Wetland and sure it made my day! Stretched across the distant edge of the wetland was a huge flock of Greater Flamingos! They were too far away even for my modest 70-300 mm lens to capture, but the experience of spotting the Greater Flamingos far outweighed the disappointment of not having a larger zoom lens. However, I guess having an even larger zoom lens would not have helped, especially because the lighting was not good. The rising sun was on one side of the birds and so what I was able to capture was a shadow of the original image!

Taking off

Showing affection towards each other

Searching for Breakfast

Looking at all the beauty that surrounds Gurgugram, one cannot help feeling sad at the deliberate destruction of the Basai Wetland, a prehistoric wetland that once supported a massive ecosystem. It is a lesson for all of us to see how nature continues to fight back despite all the abuse we hurl at it. The Greater Flamingos are a testimony to the resilience of nature in face of all the inequities we throw at it. Seeing the Flamingos at play was simply inspiring, a lesson for all of us, human or not so human to spend some time with our family members, interact with each other and socialise because if the Flamingos can do it then can we afford to be far behind them?

Flamingos at Play

Flamingos are very gregarious and in our terms, gregarious in nature. The juveniles could be seen chasing each other around, while the grown-ups were showing their affections for each other. I was lucky enough to capture some of their emotional moments where it was clear that these were adult couples.

Expressing Emotions 

Runaway Technology is Creating Confusion

Recently I was watching a podcast titled, 'What is the path to Humane technology' by Tristan Harris in which he claimed that runaway technology is decreasing our ability to make sense of the world. According to him, it is because its complexity is beyond our ability to understand it. We are, according to E.O. Wilson, father of SocioBiology, human beings with, 'Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions [and] god-like technology.' Unfortunately, present-day technology is taking away from us our capacity for wisdom, and wisdom is the only key to closing the complex gap that exists between human beings and the technology they use. In the words of Daniel Schmachtenberger, "We can't have the power of  gods without the wisdom, love and prudence of gods."

Technology has the ability to undermine human weaknesses and it also overwhelms human strength according to Tristan Harris. Technology has stretched our cognitive limits leading to information overload. It has stimulated Dopamine levels leading to human beings becoming addicted to it. Technology has enhanced our hunger for social validation leading to the creation of the influencer culture. It has fueled our outrage over petty things leading to the polarization of the society and the world at large. Technology has made us hunger for trust leading us to accept bots and deep fakes. 

At a social level, technology has led to mass narcism leading to shortened attention spans, social isolation, break-down of sense-making, marginalization of groups, depression in teens, conspiracies, extremism, perceptions gaps and a general culture of distrust, suspicion, mass hysteria, and paranoia. We are living in an increasingly divided, fragmented and polarised world where we find an excuse to ostracise people who don't belong to the group based on religious, casteist, racist, linguistic, and ethnic parameters. Our existing technology is not humane or ethical and it has in a way driven a wedge between human beings robbing them of feelings of empathy, love, kindness, trust, and even spirituality. In a world that is driven by perceptions based on what we are fed by social media, it is not surprising that we have begun developing perception gaps. The more time we spend on social media the more incapable we are of appreciating the diversity of beliefs and opinions. We are not able to estimate and understand what other people believe, according to Tristan Harris.

Technology has led to a situation where extreme voices on social media have more impact than moderate voices. It is, perhaps why people with extreme views have more reach than the moderates. We have begun to gravitate towards extreme voices, perhaps because they stimulate us to action, stoke our anger and desire to address wrongs committed against us. This skewed perception of what is right and what is wrong, in terms of our desire for action or patience is leading to a sense of confusion in a world divided by the extreme voices demanding immediate action the moderate voices desirous of a patient approach towards addressing problems. 

We are steadily being driven headlong into a chaotic situation where our ability to differentiate between what is real and what is fake is taking a hit. We would like to believe that what is being projected on a social media platform is the correct version of events taking place in a conflict zone. People deliberately use social media to present fake news, that too with manipulated images and videos, thanks to the possibilities provided by technology. Technology has made us gullible victims of fake news, paid news and biased news when is supported with evidence in the form of graphics, photographic images, and videos. The more violent the images, the more we are drawn to a particular news channel or even a social media site. It is so easy to whip up outrage against another community with the help of a few tweets or WhatsApp messages purportedly of violence and atrocities committed against another community.

There is an urgent need, according to Tristan Harris, to switch over to what might be labelled as good technology or even ethical technology or even humane technology. This can only happen if and when we shift over from the old paradigm of the neutrality of technology to a technology that consciously nurtures values, technology that gives us no choice to technology that helps people thrive, technology that has good and bad to technology that respects human vulnerabilities. The task before the human technologist is a difficult one.

The human technologist will have to recreate a technology that prevents harmful externalisation, encourages shared understanding, collaboration and healthy debates. The technology of tomorrow will help build bridges rather than divide communities. It cannot be neutral, therefore, it will have to support fairness and justice in mankind, it will have to help human beings work and grow together, model wisdom, respect for others, and be solutions-oriented. A more human and ethical technology would work towards creating a social fabric based on civic equity, participation, collaboration, and responsibility, the purpose being of developing a well-informed citizen, someone who is sensible, someone who supports the upliftment of marginalized communities. The true purpose of technology would be to further peaceful co-existence among all human beings, creating a culture of shared understanding in times of conflict.

There is a great need to develop technology that is sensitive to the vulnerabilities of human beings. If technology is a means to an end, then global peace should be its ultimate goal. We have been using technology for ages and our dependence on it has been increasing day by day. Unfortunately what had begun as a tool to make life easier has now become a weapon of oppression. The Ukraine-Russia conflict has encouraged the use of technology to inflict physical, mental and emotional trauma on each side. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of the Second World War was traumatic enough. We use technology, today to divide people, we use it to inflict pain and suffering, and we use it to satisfy our nihilistic urges. We use it to dehumanize others. We use technology to impose our ideas on others. Technology has become a tool that promotes linguistic, social, cultural and economic chauvinism. It has become a tool in the hands of mainstream communities to subjugate, suppress and exploit the vulnerabilities of marginalized communities. 

The above post is based on my understanding of a podcast by Tristan Harris, the link of which is given below:

https://www.technology-in-business.net/what-is-the-path-to-humane-technology-tristan-harris-sxsw-2022%ef%bf%bc/