I and my grandchild: Ramesh Shrestha

I belong to the lucky generation

I was among the millions born a decade after the end of WW2. Looking at our contemporary society I consider my generation to be the luckiest but unfortunately, I cannot vow the same for the future generations. Our forefathers suffered much with the whims of dictators during colonialism and slavery. Our generation is lucky to have escaped the traumas of our forefathers. This generation enjoyed the best of both worlds – sociocultural values and organic way of life of the old world and economic & technological miracles of the new world. Our generation grew up under the watchful eyes of our seniors, enjoyed tight kinship relations, organic foods and an environment free of pollution. During our childhood and teenage years, we witnessed numerous political changes with dozens of countries being released out of colonial clutches. Minority rule ended everywhere including apartheid in South Africa. Meanwhile, there were many technological innovations which contributed to economic progress and added comfort to our living. Societies became prosperous and enjoyed freedom and happy with what they have. The world remained largely peaceful except some futile wars as in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc.

With advances in biotechnology, we witnessed eradication of smallpox. Most infectious diseases are under control. There are vaccines for most communicable diseases and remedies for many chronic diseases with nanotechnology and advanced gene therapy. There are routine breakthroughs in medical science which contributed to extending human's life expectancy at birth with a world average from 51 years in 1960 to 73 years in 2023.

Routine technological developments provided comfort to our living. We used to have to walk to the telegraph office to send a telex and pay the due by counting words in the message, today we can send messages and talk to anyone anywhere around the world virtually for free with our handheld devices. We used to listen to news at fixed hours on huge transistor radios, today we can listen or watch global news from anywhere in any language in real time on any device. We used to listen to music on a turntable with long play vinyl records with 78 rpm, now we just have to turn to the internet to find any music you want. Our lifestyle has changed in unimaginable ways. People in many countries were excited to see television sets as recently as the 1990s. Now there are TV sets and portable projections to enjoy cinema in a home environment. The travel cost was prohibitive for the majority with unaffordable airfare. Today most people can afford to travel on holidays. If you have spare change, you can even enjoy business class seats and be treated as an honoured guest in the sky. The younger generation will never fully comprehend the progressive changes that human beings experienced over the past seven decades.

Is there a limit to positive change?

Throughout the evolving decades the quality of education, health care and other social services improved with leaps and bounds which contributed to growing the intellect acumen of people, transferring our analogous life to digital. Parallel to these achievements there were significant changes in political, economic and overall geopolitics with the involvement of the United Nations, international institutions and bilateral relations between countries. There was gradual spread of democracy, human rights, individual freedom and economic liberalism transforming our society to a new level of individual sovereignty.

The spread of the internet contributed to efficient international trade and global communications in an incredible way. It also gave birth to a new ambiance – social media. All these progressive changes over the past six decades or so have changed our perception and relationship to everything surrounding us - kinship, human relations, family values, social values, job security, environment and even our foods. It is obvious that the majority of us have not thought much about these issues and are happy to move on. One may ask, is there a limit to development and changes in our lifestyle? Have we reached an apex of development; are there still more positive paths ahead?

My grandchild will not be so lucky

Whatever inventions humans have made over the past few decades, there seems to be a dark side from dynamite to the internet, which we overlooked and now, perhaps beginning to be out of human control with the application of AI. Are we creating an unbearable ambiance to the future generations while we depart to the celestial world? This is not being a pessimist but an awakening to what is likely to come. Technology, wealth and freedom moulded individuals and our society to a never imagined metaphysical world. We seem to be living in a physical world but at the same time also floating in a virtual world created by technology. How people navigate between the two worlds is an individual perception; it is the essence of accepting the law of nature and accepting the technology that is defying nature such as the virtual reality where people can float forgetting oneself and one’s relationship to the world we live in.

The virtual reality world we create generates enormous amounts of pollutants with the energy it consumes but the average individual remains oblivious to the consequences of pollutants. The wars are being fought in the real world with drones and public services are being sabotaged by hacking the cyber world. For the younger generations the virtual reality and the real world have become an alloy.

The system we have created made few people filthy rich while the majority are left unattended or just barely enough for survival. With the weakening of social structure there is no more family or community support as it existed during older generations. At the same time institutions are falling apart; you will be lucky to speak to an attended while looking for any assistance online as you will be directed and redirected in circles. This is the virtual world operating to serve the real world for the next generation. Future generations can spend days without coming in contact with a human but will have many virtual friends. Social media has proudly converted Man to a Superman who can defy anything in the name of freedom.

In future, the next generations can educate themselves about the older generations if interested, by visiting museums. Freedom has locked up people in bubbles. People are enjoying freedom and living as they wish, doing what they want and how they want in a world - real and virtual; who can they turn to seek assistance when in need as the social values, social stability & norms and human connectivity have become so weak and even non-existent. The thought of such a scenario is frightening, but it is coming.

The experiences of different cohorts of new generations born in different decades are different as our society keeps changing over the decades under the influence of socio-political changes, and new technology. There are differences in individual experiences too but collectively they will all have a common future, an alloy of real & virtual world. The only difference is how they will navigate and adapt, subject to their growing experience. The next generation will continue to be born with ever increasing debt on their head as the economic landscape continues to be cultivated by the profiteering billionaires and not by the governments. The shrinking job market and uncertain economy will taunt the next generation with no mercy. How should the current economists and political leaders address it?

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Or contact Ramesh at ramesh.chauni@gmail.com