Of ‘evolution’ in India – The Hindu

In India, evolution is not for the faint of heart. 
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If Homo sapiens sapiens emerged from Africa’s savannas through the quiet perseverance of nature, Homo sapiens artificialis is destined to crawl out of India’s chaotic, clanging socio-economic carnival. This isn’t evolution by natural selection; this is evolution by sheer audacity, where progress is less about survival and more about convincing yourself (and your neighbours) that you have figured it out. India, after all, doesn’t do subtlety.

Here, the socioeconomic ecosystem doesn’t gently shape life like a potter at a wheel. No, it slams the clay onto the table, tosses in some AI, adds a dash of bureaucracy, and hopes for the best. What emerges is a species that does not just bridge humanity and artificial intelligence but does so with the resilience of a street vendor who makes five phone calls while weaving through traffic on a scooter.

In India, evolution is not for the faint of heart. The privileged elites, those sipping overpriced kombucha while their AI assistants remind them to hydrate, might fancy themselves as the vanguard of Homo sapiens artificialis. They are augmented by gadgets that track their steps, apps that schedule their mindfulness, and neural implants that ensure their every thought has a back-up. These are the beta testers of post-human existence, smugly uploading themselves to a digital utopia while occasionally buffering due to poor connectivity.

But true evolutionary brilliance comes from the margins. Take the child in a rural classroom, who learns Python on a hand-me-down laptop that runs Windows XP. Or the vegetable seller who uses a QR code for payments while dodging a stray cow. Here, the line between genius and desperation is so thin it is practically a hologram. This is where Homo sapien artificialis learns its most valuable lesson: ingenuity is born not from abundance but from shortage.

India has always been a land of big questions. Who am I? What is consciousness? How many forms do I need to fill out to get a passport? It’s no surprise, then, that this is where philosophy meets technology in its most existentially absurd form.

Imagine an AI-enhanced yogi meditating under a banyan tree, contemplating the nature of self while his neural implant live-translates ancient Sanskrit into marketable hashtags. Or a hybrid being, half-human, half-artificial, debating the Bhagavad Gita’s take on karma while sending its clone to stand in line at the bank. In India, these contradictions don’t feel out of place. They are practically a tradition.

Even the ethical debates are delightfully skewed. Should a humanoid AI be allowed to bribe its way past traffic police? Is it fair to let a robot join the civil services if it can memorise the entire Constitution? And what happens when a cyborg’s Aadhaar expires? These are not bugs in the system; they are features.

While Silicon Valley dreams of sleek, uniform progress, India opts for a patchwork quilt stitched together with hope, desperation, and duct tape. In this uneven evolutionary playground, the rich will undoubtedly lead the charge, their neural upgrades enabling them to meditate on the stock market while sending their robots to the gym.

Meanwhile, the middle class will get their enhancements on EMI, waiting for a festive-season discount to afford the latest AI assistant. The rural innovators will skip the upgrades entirely, hacking their way to brilliance. They will program AI systems with second-hand hardware and deploy drones made from scrap metal to plant seeds on their ancestral farms.

It’s not survival of the fittest here; it’s survival of the wittiest. Evolution isn’t about becoming perfect it’s about making do and doing it loudly.

If Homo sapiens sapiens mastered fire and language, Homo sapiens artificialis will master multitasking amid chaos. India doesn’t just produce a hybrid species; it crafts a living satire, a being that can debate philosophy with AI-enhanced logic while haggling for coriander at a roadside stall.

In this messy, overcrowded crucible, evolution doesn’t follow rules. It writes its own, changes them mid-process, and adds a flourish just because it can. And so, the next step in human evolution won’t emerge from sterile labs or corporate boardrooms. It’ll rise, slightly glitchy but entirely unstoppable, from the dust and noise of India. After all, who better to define the future than a species that is already thriving in its most unpredictable rehearsal?

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