It is more than 10 years that Deep Blue, the most talked about supercomputer of its time locked horns with Gary Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion, in a six-game match. And IBM's 32-processor machine that could process about 200 mn chess moves per second, defeated the human champ.

I remember a cartoon in a newspaper, which remarked that it was the beginning of the IT domination in human life, and the beginning of the end of man's control over his life and the world. After all, a human brain is also made up of processors, and this one was much superior.

While I had laughed off the cartoonist's prediction as ridiculous, I now feel that the cartoonist was both right and wrong. About a decade has gone by since Deep Blue, the role of IT and IT-based technologies and applications in everyday life has gone up many folds. Cell phones, robots, notebooks, and the Internet are doing ordinary things for common people. From booking movie tickets to knowing about the mood of the weather, to send picnic video clips to friends, to switching on the microwave at home, to play chess with your father thousands of miles away. The microprocessors can do almost anything for you.

What is happening is that in the process a lot of mental and physical effort humans had to put in to survive and grow is being done by information technology. Children do not have to cram and remember mathematical tables and formulae-there are calculators and computers. They do not have to go out in the playing fields to enjoy-they love watching the telly more, or prefer to play computer games. Adults do not have to walk to the next building to meet a colleague-they can send him an email.

No wonder, there are so many surveys and researches claiming that the overall health of human beings-mental and physical fitness-is under question. And the finger is also being pointed at the rapidly growing power of information and communications technology because it has started impacting lifestyles.

And now what we have is the Blue Gene. Said to be the fastest supercomputer in the world, this son of Deep Blue has 131,000 processors, which it can use to process about 280 tn moves every second, simultaneously. There is no way a Vishwanathan Anand, or even twenty of them playing together, will be able to handle him.

While machines like Blue Gene have been put to use for scientific applications in protein, genetics, brain hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, astronomy, space, materials science, and climate modeling, in educational institutes and government labs, that is only one side of the picture. What will also happen is that such machines will offer a lot more things to human beings, thereby making them even more dependent on the machines. Therefore, the role and influence of IT in human life will go up.

Does it mean that physical and mental health and agility will be challenged even more, as their need for human beings' growth and survival will go down. Maybe yes, maybe no. I think that the biggest challenge for those who are excited by technology and want to leverage it will be to try and deploy machines like Blue Gene to ensure that mental and physical health and agility of human race is revived and rejuvenated. And not made redundant. Because, if that happens, the downfall of mankind will be sure. And with that, the end of technology will be certain.