We live in amazing times. Thanks to scientific and technological progress, many devices have appeared in our everyday life that are designed to make our lives easier, increase productivity and fill our senses with new sensations and emotions. It would seem that with such a development of technology, humanity should have long ago entered an era of universal prosperity, spiritual flourishing and harmony. However, in reality, we are seeing not only global economic problems, but also the slow decline of human intelligence among the general mass of people. And the reason for all this is the automation of thinking, which has quietly crept up on each of us in the form of newfangled gadgets and online services.
Automation of thinking
Communication is an important function of human society. It was thanks to the developed communication system that man received his modern appearance, was able to develop both personal intelligence and form public consciousness, social structures and other intangible artifacts that took humanity beyond the animal world.
Language is the key to the formation of human personality. The richer the possibilities of a language, the brighter its expressiveness, the deeper and faster the development of intellect and the formation of spirituality. Of course, this does not belittle other ways of transmitting information related to the formation of images: fine arts, music, choreography and physical education, cooking complement the picture of the world due to their impact on all human senses. But the priority way of human development is rightfully considered the ability of a person to formulate thoughts through language.
The creation of writing became a huge impetus for the accumulation and transmission of knowledge not only between individuals, but, more importantly, between different generations of people. Writing made it possible to overcome the time limitations imposed by the relatively short period of life of each person individually and firmly bind humanity into a single chain thanks to a more reliable way of transmitting knowledge compared to oral traditions, fairy tales and myths, which also participated in the formation of a single timeline at the dawn of mankind.
Literature is a huge world that can give meaning to our lives, show the mistakes and aspirations of our ancestors, protect us from troubles and show the way to achieve our goals. A low bow to everyone who has contributed to this treasury over the centuries.
However, enough songs of praise and stating facts that are obvious to everyone. Take a look around. What is happening in the modern world?
Young (and not so young) people sit on a bench in the park or at café tables, bowing their heads for hours and looking in fascination at the rapidly changing pictures on their smartphones. Some people manage to walk down the street in this position, but most of them sit or lie motionless, exchanging “wow impulses” for hours, which Victor Pelevin wrote about in great detail in his book “Generation “P””. What happens to their thinking at this moment? It’s automated. Simplified. All previously gained experience, as well as habits, are replaced by others, more primitive and… convenient for those who introduce them into the minds of people, trying to gain complete control over all people. It sounds fantastic and scary, but it’s true.
You can spend hours talking about the details of who, how and why they started the reboot of humanity, but I want to show other possibilities, other options for using information technology that will make your life better. The first thing that comes to mind is automation of routine actions.
Automation of actions
The modern economy, as well as the level of social development of society, implies a full accounting of all economic actions that are performed by people in the process of their work. This is necessary for recording working hours, recording production costs and analyzing economic indicators, as well as for planning business development. At one time, the lack of developed means of automation of accounting and management led to a total lag in the progressive socialist economic model in the USSR and became one of the reasons for the collapse of this country.
Now many entrepreneurs have to “discover America” again, learning the intricacies of organizing their business. Of course, intuition and business acumen solve many issues, but maintaining and developing long-term projects requires a reliable and effective management system.
Modern trends in the development of automation tools lead to the creation of universal and global economic management tools. But they are fraught with pitfalls. Despite their availability and popularity, they are all built on the principle of providing services: the business owner must constantly pay for their use, directly or indirectly. And complete dependence on the Internet adds risks of loss of information and profit.
At the same time, software development tools have become so complex that they require thorough theoretical training and a long study of the capabilities of the development environment, which has led to the emergence of narrowly focused, highly paid specialists and the need for their teamwork, which has somewhat alienated end users and automation tool developers from each other.
However, tools periodically appear on the market that maintain a balance between the complexity of their development and the quality of the result. These are so-called visual development environments, in which software creation is based on manipulating graphic objects on the screen and slightly adjusting individual object properties. Such tools are designed for users without special training, but well versed in the subject of automation. That is, such development tools are suitable for entrepreneurs in any field who have at least a little knowledge of computers.
Let me introduce one of these solutions: My Visual Database – a development environment for Windows applications for working with databases. This is a simple and understandable tool with which anyone can automate the economic management and planning of their enterprise. Thanks to its flexible architecture, this development environment will help you scale the created system. If you wish, you can make it multi-user, work over the Internet and have an attractive user interface. And most importantly – effective, since your system will take into account all the nuances of your business, including fine settings related to your characteristics or the wishes of your employees.
My Visual Database can be useful not only for business representatives, but also for everyone who is interested in reliable storage of information.
Data storage
Half a century ago, a book was considered the most convenient and reliable source of information. Before reaching its reader, it went through a difficult and thorny path, on which all the information contained in it was carefully checked, errors and typos were corrected, and not only the author, but also many other people were responsible for the accuracy of the facts presented: reviewers , scientific and business communities. The disadvantages of this technology include the speed of distribution and the speed of searching for the necessary information.
With the advent of the Internet and the development of paperless technologies, the speed of information dissemination has approached the speed of light, but the problems of finding information remain. And even the presence of several powerful search engines does not always lead to satisfactory results. But the problem of data reliability came to the fore. And until blockchain technologies become publicly available, this problem will remain very relevant, especially in light of the desires of individuals described above to gain complete power over all information.
Thus, it would be wise to keep important information close to you: on your personal computer, not forgetting to make backup copies on removable media. And My Visual Database, which can work with such popular database management systems as MySQL and SQLite, will help you organize this storage. Create your own reference books, encyclopedias and entire libraries that will always be at your disposal, regardless of your Internet connection or government decisions to limit access to information for you and your children. Creating your own paper library is currently the lot of collectors, but anyone can create its electronic analogue. And, if storing digital information is not difficult, then My Visual Database will be useful for creating a search system.
But, in addition to the practical aspect of computer programming, it also has medical indications.
Mental health
To maintain mental health, every person needs a certain minimum of brain activity. In childhood, youth and adulthood, problems with this are usually not observed, since a person is usually involved in different spheres of life: study, work, searching for answers to questions, caring for children, professional fulfillment, and so on. But with age, most people’s activity decreases. For example, due to deterioration in health, family structure or lifestyle.
Left alone with themselves, or worse, with the endless stream of wow impulses spewed out by the TV, people lose mental flexibility and their cognitive abilities deteriorate. All this can lead to the development of mental disorders and diseases characteristic of older people. In this regard, it is very important to maintain not only physical health, but also constantly train your mind.
Solving mathematical and logical problems that underlie the programming process is a good brain stimulator and keeps it active. And visual programming technology makes it accessible to people of any age.
Summing up
If you think that the automation of thinking will not affect you, then you are in great danger: millions of dollars are currently being spent on research in the field of mass control, as well as on the production of various technical and biological means to implement this global process. By taking responsibility for your actions and increasing control over your time, you can significantly reduce the associated risks.
If you think someone else can do a better job of figuring out how to make your business better and more efficient, then maybe you shouldn’t be in business. Listen to advice, use ready-made solutions, but do it consciously. Be co-creators in everything that surrounds you.
If you think that for visual programming you don’t need to think, but only move the mouse (and this is how the authors of video courses on Instagram are trying to present the process of non-code or low-code programming), then this is not so: any programming is associated with the development and use analytical and systems thinking.
If you think, that’s already good. Continue this activity, making it interesting and useful for yourself and others. I wish you happiness!
Links
- My Visual Database Features Overview
- Non-code applications My Visual Database – training materials
- Category: My Visual Database – articles