The Day The Machines Come Alive

What makes us humans different from the other animals? What is the power that is specially bestowed upon us, which other living beings dont possess?

I am sure most of us have pondered over this, and each one of us has come up with their own answers, and explanations thereof. Well, so have I, and according to me, what makes us different from other living beings is our ability to create. We take lessons from our surroundings, from Nature, and create things. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes just useful, but always, something new. Something that excites us, pleases us, makes us happy, and makes our lives a little better. Be it a painting, a new car, or just a new film, it's always a joy to create. Ask anyone who has created something about how it feels to create, and he will tell you how beautiful the feeling is. That's what I am going to do now- tell you the story of creation. About how it felt to create.

At some point in my life, I had been working on Uninterrupted Power Supplies, UPSes for short. For those who (still) dont know, they are the machines that make sure there's power even when there isn't. What we used to start off with was an empty cabinet that used to some from the foundry. The skeleton. Then we used to put wires into them, which would be used to connect the various working parts of the UPS. The veins, arteries. It was an art, a science. Using the right colour wires, cutting them to the right size, so that we minimize the wastage, and optimize the amount of wire that we used. Then came the part of crimping, which is where we prepare the wires to accept the right kind of 'jacks', which are usually kind of plugs, which go into special sockets. All that kind of work requires passion, just to get it right. Once the wires are prepared, then come in the PCBs, which are small electrical circuits 'printed' onto a board. Machines onto themselves, each has a unique function to accomplish in the working of the bigger machine, the UPS. The brain, the organs. Fitted onto the cabinet, they are connected to each other using the wires already put into place. After that, it is the heavier parts like the transformers which are put into place. Then the machine makes its way to the testing rig. There, all the parts are tested for their performance- the PCBs, the transformer, the switches et al. Once successfully tested, the covers and doors are put onto the bare machine, and it is ready to leave the workshop and begin its productive life as a UPS.

It was an amazing experience to work with machines. Even though it was routine, and there was actually nothing new that I was creating, everytime I touched the parts, put something in, I could feel the machine responding to me. It felt like I was transferring some of my life energy to the machine, doing my bit, playing my part in making it come alive. So did everyone else in the factory. That made me wonder- why do some machines work and others dont? Why do some of them develop faults (become sick) much sooner than others? It was not hard to find the answers. It lay in the passion that the team put in while building the machines. Sometimes we do things just for the sake of doing it, sometimes we do it because we feel that we can do nothing else. Yet sometimes, we do things just because we want to do those things. Not necessarily different things, but it might be the same thing, something that we are doing day in and day out. It is only sometimes that we really get involved, and thats when the transfer of positive life energy takes place. You decide the fate of your creation the moment you create it.

It might seem to be a non-living thing, but it develops a life of its own. More so, when you are the only one who creates it- it develops mannerisms, characteristics, that mirror your own. Not only that, sometimes machines reflect its owner's mannerisms, responds to him/her in ways that it responds to nobody else. If you sit up and take notice, you will realize how true that fact is. Something similar applies to creations which may not be machines, like works of art, among other things- they tell a story about their creators. They come alive too.

The day the machines come alive, is the day we rejoice. The day the machines come alive, we do justice to the fact that we are humans.