I live in a densely populated residential apartment complex in Karachi, the metropolis that holds a sea of opportunities for many...
THINK PAD
I live in a densely populated residential apartment complex in Karachi, the metropolis that holds a sea of opportunities for many. I usually use the lift to and from the car park in the basement to my apartment on the second floor.
That day, too, I pressed the call button and waited, the monotony of which can’t be described. The push button illuminated once I pressed it; the tiny LED showed the level the lift was at. But as I waited, my mind went back to its working. On the surface, it is simple: the Lift Electronic Control Unit (ECU) prioritises simultaneous commands from different floors. The door opens and closes automatically.
And then it hit me - like a current that rips through your head when you sense familiarity. While waiting, I wondered how primitive the automatic lift doors are compared to the cave entrance in the famous fable, Arabian Nights.
Here are some of the key differences:
Voice command: the cave opens to voice command by Ali Baba; I have to press a button.
Speech recognition: the cave opens only at the right syntax, ‘Khul ja sim sim’ (Open Sesame), (no connection to mobile SIM [subscriber identification module] cards).
*****
I am now inside the lift; as I went up from the basement, my thoughts raced back to the 14th century fable. (I want to intentionally pause for readers to understand the time. We are talking about a century-old story. Both the writer and readers should be intellectually vibrant to create and appreciate the tale respectively.)
It was first translated by Antoine Galland, the French orientalist, from Syrian manuscripts of the tales. The first two volumes of his work, titled Mille et Une Nuit appeared in 1704. Surprisingly, there are no Arabic manuscripts of Ali Baba, the so-called ‘orphan tale’ - another example of the long-standing tradition and cultural value placed on memorisation within Arabic-speaking societies.
Galland’s translation met with immense enthusiasm and was soon translated into many other European languages.
*****
Back to the present, where I am still in the lift. I wondered: if the cave in the fable opened and closed automatically like that at the entrance of any 7-eleven store today, the fate of Qassim - Ali Baba’s elder brother would have been different. Or, had the thieves installed a retina scan or facial recognition system to protect their loot, there would have been no fable to start with. (And, by extension, no such article for you, present-day readers).
If conceiving a door opening automatically on voice command was an oriental intellectual feat, making a door which actually opens automatically is an achievement of the modern West. Modern lifts have anti-jamming doors, a need realised after automatic doors came into use.
For me, as a tecno-commercial professional in the automotive industry, voice commands like ‘Open Sunroof’ have their roots in the ‘Open Sesame’ of Arabian Nights.
So why did the East drop the ball? Why did the actualisation of a brilliant idea not take place? Where did we go wrong?
I was now at the door of my apartment. My youngest son, only five years old, opened the door with a smile.
I looked at him and blurted out, “Dear son! We have a lot of catching up to do….”
The writer has over two decades of automotive expertise in leadership role, revolutionising Pakistan’s automotive landscape with electric vehicles.
