Tech blitzkrieg!

The gleaming black crow perches itself on my kitchen window sill waiting for its morning feed of whatever I have to offer – boondhi, rice, veggies – anything to satisfy its hunger. What started off as a one off cawing that I wanted to get rid of with some goodies, has become a routine. How long has it taken for the crow to learn and understand that my window sill is its breakfast table? Barely about three to four days.

Have crows always been this smart? Can conditioning bear fruit so quickly? As a student of psychology, I was given to understand that the legendary pavlovian dog learnt, with conditioning, reinforcement and more stimuli. But this crow has definitely outperformed the dog.

Moving away from crows, to our own species, how long do you think we, humans, are taking to learn something? Has the learning curve shortened? Are people grasping things faster? Do you think your children are smarter than you? Do you think they are able to assimilate things faster and earlier than you did?

Now! What do we attribute this faster learning to? Exposure? Better teaching methods? Or just plain smarter kids? I would definitely put my two cents on the last option. I think humans are evolving, and how! Where are we going with this evolution? Monkeys-to-humans is one thing, but humans-to-super humans? Is this good for us as a race? Maybe it is. But I am sure at least a half of the world’s population yearns to have simpler, uncluttered lives, moving back to the basics, where you can have real relationships untouched by gadgetry. Technology is good, definitely yes. But do you want to live with a profusion of it? I cringe to think of a life where I can’t take a quiet walk to the beach and buy cotton candy from the stall; Switch on my stove for my morning coffee or read news from the crisp morning newspaper.

Evolution is inevitable for sure. It’s truly amazing to see how smart kids are. My heart does swell with pride at my little girls being way smarter than me. But I just wish the world remembers to slow down now and then and remind itself of the wonders and charms of the simple life.

Now I got to rush to my social media feeds. Hail technology! ;)