Has Big Tech been replacing religion?

Welcome to the latest edition of Cosmic Matters!

Today, I am going to discuss about two seemingly unlikely competitors - Big Tech and Religions.

The sizes of major religions.

Look at the world's major religions. How big are they in terms of their followers? Hinduism has about a billion. Confucianism has nearly two billion, including global Chinese population. Christianity and Islam have about 2 billion each, give or take 10-20%. Sikhs, Persians, Assyrians, Jains, Buddhists and many others, including those unaffiliated, form a small minority.

One may measure a religion with many parameters. The number of followers, as mentioned above, is just the obvious one. Historically, what has been the cumulative number of followers? It varies with the age of the religion.

Globalization of a religion

An important point to note is that many religions did not spread around the world quickly. There were many reasons - economic, conquests, migration and more. Ideology probably played a very little role, if at all it did.

Growth of a religion

Not all religions grew the number of their followers at the same pace. Religions used many ways to increase their followers, such as:

Force - may have begun with the victor of a war forcing the vanquished, to adopt his / her religion

New product / service introduction, plain marketing - especially for those unaffiliated. Do you remember Chinua Achebe's famous lines? "When they came, we had the land, they had the book. They asked us to close our eyes and pray. When we opened our eyes, we had the book and they had the land." Or something to that effect.

One-time or a very short-term economic incentive - this was quite common approach of the missionaries, in India, in the eighties up to nineties (not that it may have stopped). Offer cash for people to convert. This is like offering a one-time incentive to new customers, to switch to your service from your competitor's which they have subscribed to. The people lower in the economic ladder were ideal targets.

The spread of Confucianism is more a product of economic migration, which gained momentum in the twentieth century. The Indian traders spread Hinduism in Southeast Asia. A former colleague on his first visit to India, remarked to me that Indonesia was "a cultural outpost of India"! Christianity too had its close affiliation with conquests, trade and commercial exploration. Islam had its expansion largely brought about by conquest of new lands by their strong leaders. Now a days, every religion uses every other and newer approaches to grow.

One positive reason, specifically with Hinduism, was its opensource nature. The adaptions of Hinduism can be found in many forks like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and elsewhere.

The influence of religions

For a long time, religions influenced and greatly controlled lives of people. It influenced thought, culture, food habits, behaviour and more. Though this influence seems to be waning, it is still quite strong. This is also because religion took the opportunity provided by the lack of education; the opportunity to be educated has been denied by many religions, subtly and openly. Irrespective, religions have become a way of life.

Why compare religions with Big Tech?

Last fortnight, I was discussing this with my great teacher, Professor Pavan Mamidi . He is a brilliant mind who can dispassionately debate any topic with great depth of knowledge and fine analysis. He said that Big Tech cannot be considered as a substitute to religion. I debated that it can; a competitor need not be from the same domain. Often, I see that industry and education, despite not being from the same domain, are competitors; they compete for the same resource - the talented people. Industry, at least temporarily, loses talented people who refuse / quit jobs to take up higher education. So, I argued that Big Tech is indeed a competitor to religions and has already substituted religion. I will draw a few parallels and the details are unnecessary, as are obvious.

Size of the Big Tech following

Android, iOS, facebook, twitter, Google, Microsoft and others in the league, have users in hundreds of millions to billions. There are very few people in the world who are left untouched by Big Tech. The Big Tech have enslaved these users as followers, overtly and covertly, whether one likes or dislikes.

The Big Tech is global

Just like the religions, the Big Tech is global. Internationalization (I18n) and Localization (L10n) technologies have helped in this global conquest. Yours truly, having a significant level of expertise in I18n and L10n, can be accused of being an accomplice of Big Tech.

The growth of Big Tech

Big Tech has repeated all the moves that religions made, to achieve its goals of absolute control. In addition, it has fought wars, colluded, lobbied, bribed and conned - tried all tricks in the single-minded pursuit of megalomania.

The influence of Big Tech

Big Tech has influenced its users and continues to do so, much to the detriment of the users. People's emotions are influenced and belied. Just like a few religions required followers to wear a few things (rings, threads, marks, tattoos and more), the Big Tech sells all sorts of digital leashes - "smart devices" - watches, phones, sensors, trackers, spectacles, implants and more. The Big Tech influences emotions, purchase decisions, opinion, food habits, sleep, culture, behaviour and practically every aspect of life, like the religions have done.

Quo vadis?

Let alone religion, I wonder whether people will be governed by (some form of) governments or by privately owned Big Tech in the next decade. Religions may have had some positive impact on people. However, Big Tech certainly does not seem to have any intention to impact people positively. We are all guinea pigs, data points and more importantly, sources of income for Big Tech. We should keep a safe distance from Big Tech and control our temptations to enslave ourselves to it. We should not share any more data; enough is enough.

A politician recently said on France 24 TV channel that we are living in a post-religious world. The Big Tech is rapidly filling the void that the religion is leaving behind, positioning itself as the only way of life. I am not supporting or opposing any religion. What I am clear is that Big Tech should not be my religion.

The world will not stop if social media stops. A few people may have withdrawal symptoms, but they will be cured soon. We do not need Big Tech as a way of our lives.

Hope you had a great Deepavali, the festival of lights.

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

I am applying the great Shanti Mantra "peace hymn" to the current situation, as follows:

Lead us from the web of "Big Tech lies" to truth

Lead us from the "Big Tech darkness" to light

Lead us from the deadly situation created by Big Tech to salvation

Let there be peace, peace and peace.

I am not a doomsayer, but the results of Big Tech are already there to see. We need stop living our lives on social media and stop giving more data to Big Tech. The earlier we realize that we should de-addict ourselves from Big Tech, the better for our lives.

Let us discuss another interesting topic in the next edition of #Cosmic #Matters. Till then, I look forward to your opinions. Comment here please!