Human Nature

2073 AD.

A category 5 hurricane is rapidly advancing over the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to pound the city of New Orleans in next 48 hours. 68 years ago, this city was devastated by a hurricane named 'Katrina'. The resilence of the Orlenanians and magnanimity of the Americans had enabled the city to be rebuilt within a year after this catastrophy. 'Katrina' had claimed more than 100o lives and damaged property worth $200 bn. Although the memory of that tragedy is still fresh amongst the residents of this great city, the residents are least bit concerned about this force of nature. Infact excited citizens listen carefully to the national broadcast by President Spencer, informing them that the situation is well under control. The president assures the world that the US Meterology dept and the US Military have already sent out 12 of their "Terminix" flights into the gulf to divert, if not destroy, hurricane 'Dennis' before it reaches the Southeastern states. The flights are empowered with highly advanced flow acoustics program to enter the eye of hurricane and reduce its intensity by reversing the flow of the wind. Under normal circumstances, it would take these 12 "Terminix"es a little more than 5 hours to reduce 'Dennis' into a warm gulf draft - reduce its speed from 130 mph to a mere 15 mph. This is 2073 AD, science has advanced enough to help man conquer what seems like a final boundary - Mother Nature !!

Since the time the first Homo Erectus walked on planet earth, human beings have always tried to study and better understand their surroundings. Some studied the phenomenon of trees rubbing against each other and learnt to create fire, while the more advanced saw apple falling off a tree and formulated the gravitational theory. An inquisitive mind and a burning desire to learn about the forces of nature, enabled mankind to not only predict it, but also learn enough about it to use it to their advantage. Equipped with this knowledge humans conquered the air, sea, the land and all those unexplored parts of the world. Giant strides were taken in the field on Telecomunications, Transportation, Economics and the world was brought closer. Infact, man had even become capable of influencing or damaging the nature. The limits of natural resources like coal, oil etc were reached. The ozone layer was damaged and the harmful ultraviolet rays were ushered into our atmosphere. Acid rains had destroyed natural vegetation, while defforestation caused landslides and floods. The doomsday sayers were chanting the mantra of Global Warming and predicting the end of the world.

But the indomitable human spirit overcame all the obstacles and helped push the envelope of technology even further. By the middle of the 21st century, Human beings started controlling the nature. They could produce rains in drought prone regions. They could control the amount of sunshine over a tiny block of apartments. Hurricanes could be stopped at will, and some evil nations even started developing tornadoes to torment their enemies. There were no heat waves, or cold fronts, or floods in the world. The whole world was now a set of "Truman" show and the Prime Ministers and Presidents decided what season their country should experience at any given time of the year. However, people had the option of electronically controlling the weather conditions in their front yard.

Wishful thinking ? Well, only time will tell. Incidentally, after taming Mother Nature, mankind would set its sight on controlling the flow of time !