The “Idea” advertisement on the television makes me think if one day all of us will be known by a number – possibly our cell phone number. I am referring to the advertisement in which Abhishek Bachhan, the mukhia of a village, comes up with this great idea that all villagers should be known by their ten-digit phone numbers rather than their names (see the advt.). Being a technology person, I guess the recent trend of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC, as it is commonly known) is likely to make this happen!!
For the uninitiated, FMC is an acronym, not a technology. In essence, the premise behind fixed mobile convergence is the ability to offer voice and data applications via a mobile device. FMC is the convergence of wired and wireless technologies into a single solution. In a “utopian FMC world,” the users will require one single phone that can be used in the home, office and outside. When in the office, the phone communicates over the cellular network to the internal PBX or over an 802.11 WLAN. Outside the office, the phone uses the cellular network as usual. (For the early adopters, Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, and RIM, currently offer technologies in this space).
The key practical implication of this technology is that users can now have one phone and one phone number for home and office!!
Going by the fact (and sadly!) that people nowadays call a person and not a place (gone are the days when your relatives would call your home number wanting to talk to the entire family), Mr Bachhan and Idea, the spoof may become reality very soon.
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2 comments:
Being identified as just a number I think is further dehuminifying and underestimating human life, another step to making us mechanical. I would rather die than to live to see that day!! Having a common phone number for home office etc is one thing, but replacing name with a no. is absolutely blasphemous. Just like many many things that still make sense to this day- including marraige- I sincerely hope that we never have to give up names...the ad is just for the shock value..
I don't know if this practice would stop just at identifying a person by his cellular number. Isn't this practice common in other domain, e.g., your identity in your Schools/University is your roll number, for IT authorities its your PAN number. And in US, every citizen/resident has a social security number, which is pretty much used everywhere - banks, insurance, jobs, to get the license, phone...
In the end, we are just a number.
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