The other day I was watching a Bengali TV serial called “Hunter.” It was about the killing of a sparrow. At the end, it gave the link on which it is based.
In 1958, when Mao Zedong was in power in China, he ordered the killing of sparrows because they ate grains. It used to be known as “the great sparrow campaign of Mao.” As a result, hundreds of millions of sparrows all around China were killed. There was no truth to the claim that sparrows eat grains that can cause disaster or famine.
What an unrealistic idea against nature! That’s communism. However, one thing was proven – that dictatorial ideas, right or wrong, energized billions of people in China at that time.
In fact, that’s what communism did in the past to try different experiments in several countries, including a few Asian countries. And ironically, many academically brilliant people had given their lives fighting for an unrealistic society or state, which never materialized.
I would like to remind the readers of The Dispatch of a tragedy that took place in Waco, Texas in 1993! Apocalypse-minded cult leader, David Koresh thought he was the savior of people and he started whatever he liked and ultimately it ended up with the death of so many people.
So, ideas are important – the most important – but they should not be destructive ideas.
What a consequence! I started writing this column and after that my wife and youngest daughter came back from two and half months traveling India and Bangladesh. They brought two books for me to read. I read one book which is written in the conversation style of famous people such as Budda, Oppenheimer, Tagore and others. And another one, “Imaging India – Ideas for the new century” by Nandan Nilekani – one time co-founder and director of Infosys. He said, “Slowly, ideas lead to ideology, lead to policies that lead to actions.”
Honestly speaking, ideas are the root of innovation and creativity. No matter whether they are scientific, economic, cultural, social or political. Very recently, South Korea successfully made a scientific breakthrough of reaching 100-million-degree Celsius temperature for 45 seconds in their fusion reactor. What an achievement! One day, this can solve the energy crisis in the world. Awards of Nobel prizes are in general given based on basic noble ideas.
So, we must remember, ideas can be destructive, such as the sparrow killing, or constructive, such as Apple’s career jobs created by Steve Jobs, a tireless tech visionary, an extraordinary innovator and the cofounder of Apple. Apple has given the employee the benefits of health savings account, donation match, PTO and tuition reimbursement.
However, there are also non-monetary rewards that do not involve money. These include praise, thanks, recognition etc. Jobs had amazing vision and ideas. In his tribute to Jobs, former U.S. President Barack Obama described him as, “Brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. He made the information revolution not only accessible but intuitive and fun.”
Think about 175 years back when Darwin proposed a theory on the “origin of species.” Or Leonardo da Vinci? Flying like birds. What an idea!
I find Murphy’s law, “the more you fear something, the more it will happen” is very much true. While I was alone for two and half months, I used to cook for myself at least twice a week. Whenever I cut onions, I used to think I might cut my finger. The knife can slip anytime. Ironically it happened one day.
No more past. Let’s talk about the present. This is the age of artificial intelligence (AI). A month back I woke up at 3 a.m. I picked up my cell phone and found a message from Meta AI asking, “can I help you?” I said, “I woke up and how can I get sleep?” Within a second, I got the answer as if a psychiatrist was giving me what I should do. On another occasion, while going to Dallas from Atlanta airport, I asked, “Hello AI, can you pray for me so that I can safely reach Dallas.” AI’s reply was, “I am not capable of praying but you should not worry because planes are the safest transport compared to others. I asked AI about the future of AI.
“The future of AI is promising with advancement in the industries, like manufacturing, healthcare, finance, education, media, customer services & transports. However, AI also poses risks, including job loss, human biases, deepfakes and the potential for misuse.”
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. He writes occasional column in the Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, teaches chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women. His email address is [email protected].
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