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Happy encounter with a young adult cobra

It was a lovely morning run on the pedestrian pavement along Woodlands Road towards the south. I was looking for an appropriate cut-through to join the newly opened Rail Corridor track, which was about eighty to a hundred meters on my right. The mind was undecisive on the alternate path. A large field slowly appeared at about two o’clock on my right and that shut my mind up! With peaceful mind now and beautiful greens in front of me, I started crossing the field. I paid attention to the uneven terrain and, sensing air flowing in and out of my nostrils. Then, I saw ‘young blackie’. A motionless young adult black snake which body length was folded into two longitudinal layers side by side on the ground; measuring close to a meter, I opined. It laid less than half a meter away from my right foot when the thud of my foot startled it! Still running and turning my head to scan to ensure it did not come after me, I saw its folded body released in split second. It raised its forebody off the ground with its neck spread into a hood. More importantly, the young lad did not come after me. I stopped and turned to look at it. It was about five meters and facing away from me now. Although I was as startled as the young lad during the thud, my mood changed when I observed the reptile swayed its hood left and right, then fixated in the centre, repeating the drill after a short while. It was such a beautiful sight. A free live National Geography on a beautiful Sunday morning. I was contemplating whether to video it with my iPhone. Then I remembered a story about “beautiful images need not be photographed or videoed, because we would remember it perpetually. We might lose it by the time our camera (for my case, iPhone) was out.” So, I continued watching ‘National Geography’ instead. Still facing away from me and regimentally looking out for threat, I just stayed still and indulged watching the lad for a few more seconds. Then, I resumed running. I stopped again after about twenty meters away, turned to look at the lad, and there it was. Still not convinced that it was free from threat. (16 April 2023)

There must be an override from a Shore Control Centre (SCC) aboard ships. The master and his/her crew are the people on the scene. Shore controller, with respect, if interpret situations wrongly, will make ordinary situation to becoming an extraordinary one.

Will machines make humans obsolete?

Prima facie, machines can never make humans obsolete. Why? Because humans are the one who invent and make the machines. Unless the machines are so smart, like the movie ‘Terminator’ (the 1980’s versions), where the machines are so smart that they create another version of them, obviously more advanced, human independent models, thence, humans may be said to be obsolete. Even though this was a mere movie, it is a scary one if it becomes a reality. Imagine they are so smart, like in the movie, they start to eliminate humans. Then, these machines are not just making humans obsolete, but extinct.

On the other hand, it also depends on how we define ‘obsolete’. Generally, obsolete means out of date. This may be in some sense, true. For example, in data analytic, using tool like Power BI on a computer, where analytical and statistical visualisations are obtainable in less than a second. Humans being are able to do that but with much effort and time, i.e. using scientific calculator (which is a machine) and other appropriate tools. However, the aforesaid tool (machine) requires humans to feed it data. Otherwise, it is redundant, is obsolete in itself.

Notwithstanding the Terminator movie, machines are not making humans obsolete. It is the human who is making another human obsolete. This is so obvious when at times, we do encounter older humans being discriminated because they are slow, not technological savvy. If we get frustrated because the elderly is slow, is not technological savvy, we may want to reflect that the frustration experienced by that elderly because s/he can no longer be fast, be technologically savvy.

I do not mind to be obsolete when the machines are able to make my life humane. For example, I am still able to have party at home with my same household family members during circuit breaker with the help of mobile Apps to order food and drinks. And I am definitely obsolete, if I have to WhatsApp my healthy children when we are all present in our home.

In conclusion, instead of ‘machines are making humans obsolete’, I guess we should all work hard towards machines making humans valid.

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