Zombies Ahoy!
(Satish M Vaidya)
After passing through the iron-age, bronze-age and industrial-age, humans are now the dominant species in the information-age not for being the fittest species, but for being the smartest. Ironically, technological advancements, automation and information overload (a.k.a. spam) are taking us into a zombie-age; where indifference, ignorance and mental inertia play a big role. Movies depict zombies as imaginary creatures that have returned from the dead with physical deformities and infectious afflictions. The zombies I see are physically alive, but have defunct brains. They can be seen driving in traffic snarls or glued to smart phones and can create serious problems. The following examples may put the issue in perspective.
I was walking along a blind turn one morning, when a scooter, driven by a woman in a great hurry, skidded off the road and almost hit a wall. A car was making a U-turn at that spot and was probably responsible for the accident. People in the car helped her up before I reached, and fortunately there were no serious injuries. A dilapidated sign close-by stated
“ACCIDENT PRONE TURN; DRIVE CAREFULLY”
I pointed it out to the (apparently less educated) scooterist and remarked (sarcastically) that people ought to follow it; this message was intended for the car driver who should have made the U-turn at a more suitable place, without taking shortcuts to save fuel.
One hot afternoon a few weeks ago, I was witness to a spectacular tyre-burst accident while driving on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Over-inflated tyres being a major cause of tyre burst, I had found all my wheels over-inflated and had them corrected before starting. While driving, it needed deliberate effort to maintain the speed-limit of 80 kmph (one has to ease off the accelerator on downhill stretches that are barely perceptible). A red Maruti Swift overtook from the left at very high speed and cut sharply in front of me. It went over a rumble strip (it is bumpy at 20 kmph and vicious at 120) without slowing down and was surrounded by a distinct cloud of dust and debris. The car slowed down gradually, which allowed me to also slow down and change lanes safely. The car’s rear right wheel had burst and the fiberglass bumper was visibly damaged. If a front wheel had burst at that speed, the car would have certainly gone out of control. Ironically, there is clear signage all along the Expressway stating: –
‘OVERSPEEDING AND TYRE-BURST CAUSE MOST ACCIDENTS’
Most motorists consider that this signage is not meant for them, as accidents happen only to others.
Once, a man jogging around the track in a city park was killed by a falling tree, which must have made considerable crackling noise. It is unlikely that he was deaf and hence failed to avoid the danger. In all probability he may have used ear-phones that drowned out ambient sound. Our brain relies on inputs from the five senses, but these are compromised mostly for comfort. For instance, our sense of smell is masked by room fresheners and a layer of particulate matter deposited inside the nasal passage. Our eyes do not see problems, so there is no question of finding their solutions. People mostly stay in the comfort of AC rooms or vehicles and avoid the ‘vagaries’ of nature. The survival of the human race depends not just on our immediate survival, but also on how we can help future generations adapt to the changing world.
If you are still reading this, please accept my compliments as you are reasonably immune to the zombie bug. I have a hypothesis that environmental degradation (especially air, for breathing) is the root cause of this zombie-age.