THE COMPUTER

The Computer

Preamble:

After some dabbling with the machine called computer, I deem it fit to look at the system that has come to stay. Before I am mistaken as any knowledgeable about computers, let me make it clear that I merely look at the facility for its universal presence except in toilets. There is just no place of public congregation that is free of any computer. Apparently even those not known to make use of a computer “at that place” still make use of some “computer-aided technology” for surveillance of customers and those in that garb. All billing squarely rests on computer. All major hospitals have established their data bases to keep data of ‘patient information’ so that retrieval of medical statistics is both quick and space saving. The second part of the idea relates to “maintaining documents” without stockpiling of papers and their deterioration over time. Look at how in a country of the magnitude of ours plagued by all deficiencies, the railway reservation of travel tickets from any point to anywhere has become quick and dependable. Truly this must be the biggest of networks serving on a national scale. How smoothly this transformation came about is beyond my comprehension. Obviously anyone opposed to automation on the plea of dislodging labour can not convince any one of the desirability of human skills over that of computers in this vast network of railways. How faithfully all terminals receive, register and transmit the information to appropriate follow-up action irrespective of the time and place of origin of the message, is a marvel. It has truly transcended the limits of geography, language and such other cultural barriers. Certainly the human brain is supreme notwithstanding the stupidity of the very humans. This is a domain for us to ponder over “Divine Grace” that empowered us with mental skills and defused them effectively by providing all other scopes of ruining it. Is it Nature’s act of balancing? Somehow I am unable to keep off the territory of the act of “balancing” in any effort of analysis. Any marvel carries a moral behind and computers are no exception.

Computers are ubiquitous:

Air, mosquitoes and now computer share universal presence, though the items 2 and 3 require human presence. Of them, item 2 traces the humans and item 3 is willingly ported by humans. Ubiquity of the three now appears beyond the average human skills of survival without these. Some may contend that “I can do without a computer”. Yes, it can be more a display of self confidence than of the ground reality.

Any situation like job seeking, grievance redress or communicating to the higher authorities of the land require letters being cast in neat and legible form inviting attention by such strategies as “bold font”. “Italics” or “underscore” as the case may be. These are best done by a computer than by any loyal self esteem. Besides, churning out any number of copies with the same fidelity is beyond human skills. Can we scribe 56 copies of an appeal, each addressed to a different agency and still maintain the fidelity of readability? Let us agree with the point that “our skills” are supreme to the extent of “thinking out” but not necessarily in “laying out” or scribing them with utmost elegance. A sensible user has to make use of the facility and should not denounce it in an attempt to show off as a ‘skillful’ person. Too often, computer illiteracy is a reason behind such proclamations “I can do it without a computer”.   It is a situation, where every job seeker is required to be a computer-literate, at least to the extent of “enter, access, use, print and then exit”. Short of these, the scope of employment looks rather bleak. For select positions as teachers it may not be a rigid requirement for now, but soon it may spread into this arena as well. All forms of communication have come to rely on computer-aided support systems. It is logical that persons get adapted to this new trend to acquire wider acceptability in places of work.

Advantages:

Practically every form of work till recently performed by human effort has come under the domain of computers. Most banking operations of daily nature, ATM transactions, electronic transactions, credit cards, Debit cards, Master cards and all such facilities have avoided the carrying of cash and have eliminated the physical risk associated with ‘cash on hand’. All designers of fabric, equipment, automobiles and gadgets utilize computer-designing as a route to saving time/ cost and improving the performance.  Booking of tickets for travel by train or Air can be done from homes through the internet.

The Internet:

Perhaps the biggest value of using a computer accrues from the ‘reach’ to classified sources of unlimited knowledge from websites of varied sources. The spread of information has reached the state of “instantly global” value. Updating of message is that much updated. All we need to have is the mind to stay updated.

To continue                               Prof. K.Raman