Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge to solve problems in our everyday life. We live in a digital age where technology is present in almost everything we do. It is a useful tool when used for improvement in life, but it can be harmful when it goes out of control.
It has been a part of our lives since ancient times. Indus Valley people used the technology of brick making for construction.
During ancient and medieval times, waterwheels were used. Primitive scientific tools were used to perform early human surgeries. Progress of technology over centuries has seen us hold complex tools like smartphones in the palm of our hands.
From using fingerprints to sign documents, to using fingerprints to unlock phones, we have moved leaps and bounds in technology. From doing simple mathematical calculations, technology has become a useful servant across multiple sectors in our lives today.
Technology played a major role in ensuring food security during the Green Revolution. High Yielding variety of seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation technology increased food production and agricultural productivity. Today with biotechnology, the presence of GM Crops continues to be a useful servant.
Food security, nutrition, and health go hand in hand. Genetic diseases, once seemed to be incurable, are now seen to be curable due to the discovery of CRISPR technology. Technology is also proving to be a great servant in our fight against COVID-19 in the form of vaccine development.
A healthy body nurtures a healthy mind. Technology can be a useful servant in improving education by providing personalized education. Everyone learns differently, and artificial intelligence can be used to provide individualized learning.
A healthy and educated society is an asset to a nation. Technology can help with the eradication of social evils as well. A Robot Bandicoot was developed to replace manual scavenging, thus raising the dignity and honor of marginalized sections.
While the eradication of social evils will improve social mobility, technology also serves us by improving transport and physical mobility. Satellite navigation, traffic rerouting, computerized traffic signals have improved our daily commute.
Public transport has also benefited from technology. Online ticket booking for railways has improved governance. The use of e-governance in public service delivery like online passport applications has reduced corruption. Technology, in this way, has served us well to improve citizen-administration connection.
One of the important tasks of administration is maintenance of law and order. Facial recognition has helped police in catching criminals. The use of drones in crowd management and surveillance is another example of technology as a servant.
On one hand, technology has helped maintain peace; on the other, it has served us in the prevention of disasters via Early Warning Systems. Advance forecasts for cyclones have helped us in early evacuation, saving countless lives.
Having seen technology being a useful servant, we shall now look at how when it goes out of control, it becomes a dangerous master. Games like PUBG were designed to be addictive. We have seen kids playing these games for hours and even dying because of it.
It’s not just games that are addicting. Social media apps like TikTok are also addictive in nature. Studies have shown that long exposure to these apps reduces our attention span. The technology behind it can be a dangerous master for our bright young minds.
Social media apps are also notorious for displaying targeted advertisements that influence human behavior. It was seen during the American elections in 2016 when Facebook and Cambridge Analytica influenced voter behavior. This way technology can be a master of our behavior too.
As seen above, while children and adults are both vulnerable, even highly secure digital infrastructure can be open to cyber attacks. Malware and trojans like WannaCry invade our computers and become masters of it, endangering our digital sovereignty.
While the digital space is vulnerable to cyber attacks, technology like automated nuclear missiles that can control its direction is a danger to national security. While demilitarization of the world is required, we have given technology the power to control these weapons of mass destruction.
While missiles destroy physical structures and take human lives, technology like Deepfake where artificial intelligence manipulates a video to make it look real can cause riots and wars. Adequate control is required to stop technology from becoming a master.
The way forward lies in Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence for social Empowerment. While we should strengthen our digital security infrastructure like CERT-In, technological literacy should be imparted along with digital literacy.
International collaboration is required for ethical use of technology. We should remember that technology is only a tool for human welfare. Any progression in technology should be aimed at the same so that technology is a useful servant but not a dangerous master. As Gandhiji had said, science without humanity is a cardinal sin that should be avoided at all costs.