Does Digital mean a big ‘No No’ to Yes & No?

Not so long ago I came across an opening in some job portal in which a mandatory field read as ‘Do you stay in Jayanagar?’ (Yes/No). Of course they could have phrased it as ‘Do you stay near to XYZ Ltd (the name of the firm)?’ and that’s a different matter. Coming back to the question in question, I could have easily ticked ‘Yes’ as an answer for the said question, without any guilt, since I do stay in Thyagaraja Nagara in Bengaluru that’s not even a ten minutes’ drive from Jayanagar. But then my hands were tied as I knew that, anyway, my address in my resume would give away the truth.

So I ended up clicking ‘No’ for an answer that should have been ‘Yes & No’. I mean I DO NOT stay in Jayanagar. Agreed! But at the same time I am not staying in Peenya or Yelahanka, that’s a big no-no when vicinity counts for a company in Jayanagar. Even a healthy walk by anyone may land him or her in Jayanagara from Thyagaraja Nagara in a span of 15-20 minutes! But do I have a choice to say all that in an online format? No! It is a big NO. In the online domain (or the digital world) there’s no space (or bandwidth) for grey areas! You just click on Yes/No and go to ‘next’! It’s just like the question papers that demand non-descriptive answers.

Life is not always x=y. Life is, more often than not, ‘x is more equal to y than what z is.’ Plato says extreme perfection can be found only in the mind of God. Maybe that’s why She or He is so elusive- turned his back on his creations that failed to meet His / Her expectation of perfection and hence evading us all.  

To survive online is to take sides. You need to be either a ‘Yes Person’ or a ‘No person’! You can’t say ‘communism is outdated’ and yet, at the same time say ‘still exploitation is a social evil’! Say Swachh Bharat Mission https://swachhbharat.mygov.in/ is a game-changer, soon you are bandied around as a Modi Bhakt. You make a sincere comment on the redundancy of a bullet-train https://nhsrcl.in/en/home in a country like ours, Modi Bhakts are up in arms against you. You are trolled hard. Your murmuring that ‘you would still vote for Modiji since you feel one Swacch Bharat Mission is solid enough to prove what a visionary and a statesman he is among the ordinary politicians’, would be drowned in the din. Coming to the existence of God, it’s a daunting task indeed, quite an enormous one at that, since science to religion, superstitions to straight thinking, rational to wishful thinking all come into play.       

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."- F. Scott Fitzgerald. https://www.britannica.com/biography/F-Scott-Fitzgerald

If digital is the coffin of first-rate intelligence, I shudder to think of a world invaded by AI, armed with IOT and what not, wherein the first- rate intelligence, as we know it, thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald, would be in the back burner and the philosophers would have no say in the matters that matter most.   

 Digital is rooted in strict Yes or No and hence it is natural if it tends to paint the world as such. I hope AI would set it right! If AI fails to provide enough elbow-room for ‘Yes and No’, we are doomed.

“As an attitude lateral thinking should prevent the emergence of those problems which are only created by those sharp divisions and polarizations which the mind imposes on what it studies. While acknowledging the usefulness of patterns created by mind one uses lateral thinking to counter arrogance and rigidity.”-Late Edward de Bono the guru who pioneered Lateral Thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e20lpMyXFj4

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/10/edward-de-bono-obituary He cautions us emphasizing that lateral thinking is neither a substitute for nor an antithesis of vertical thinking. At the same time he advises not to be too judgmental and not to be so in haste.

Robert M Pirsig, the one who opened our eyes to another sort of dichotomy in our approach or thought process has thrown light on the  Yes & No situation very effectively. In his magnum opus, ‘Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ referring to Mu from Japanese philosophy, he explains it very succinctly. He writes

“Yes and no…this or that…one or zero. In the basis of this elementary two-term discrimination, all human knowledge is built up. The demonstration of this is the computer memory that stores all knowledge in the form of binary information. It contains ones and zeroes, that's all.
Because we're unaccustomed to it, we don't usually see that there's a third possible logical term equal to yes and no which is capable of our understanding in an unrecognized direction. We don't even have term for it, so I'll have to use the Japanese mu.
Mu means "no thing." Like "quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "no class: not one, not zero, not yes, not no." It states that the context of the question is such that a yes and a no answer is in error and should not be given. "Unask the question" is what it says https://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=583

Let’s be thinkers, not judges. Enlightenment is no popcorn. It may cease to be what it is if it is accessible so easily, say with one tap or a click. A long break as Yes & No is a stepping stone to a far more enlightened state wherein you would be either a Yes Person or a No Person, yet not just for the sake of being so.