There was a time when science meant discovery, the unraveling of mysteries hidden in the soil, sea, sky, and within ourselves. It was a pursuit of understanding, harmony, and alignment with the greater order of nature. But somewhere along the way, this noble journey took a dangerous turn. Renowned scientist Dr. Ajai Kumar Sonkar says humanity began to invent more than it discovered — and today, this race of invention, of automation, of artificial perfection, is slowly but surely devouring the very essence of what it means to be human.
Inventions vs. Discoveries
Dr. Sonkar reveals that what the world needs today are discoveries, not more inventions. This is a vital distinction:
Inventions often create new tools or systems, regardless of whether they are necessary or healthy.
Discoveries, in contrast, uncover truths, especially about nature, life, and existence, and often guide us to live more harmoniously with the world.
Humanity’s obsessive race for inventions has, Sonkar says, lost touch with this deeper, slower, wiser path of discovery.
The Shift from Nature to Machine
In the early phases of modern civilization, when humans began transitioning from a natural, rural lifestyle to urban living, it was understood, even accepted, that industrial growth would come with a price. Soil would be degraded. Rivers would carry industrial runoff. The air would darken with soot. But the argument was persuasive: we are sacrificing a bit of nature to gain the comforts and longevity of modern life.
Yet today, Dr. Sonkar warns, this sacrifice has reached a critical point. It is no longer nature that is dying slowly, it is humanity itself.
Technological Comforts and Biological Decay
“Use It or Lose It” — the law of nature, Dr. Sonkar reminds us, follows this principle relentlessly. Muscles, memory, emotions, immunity — any ability not used is eventually lost.
Physical: Humans no longer walk, lift, or stretch in daily life. Machines, buttons, apps, and remote-controlled everything have replaced bodily effort. When degeneration starts (obesity, back pain, hypertension), instead of returning to natural movement, people pay to mimic it in air-conditioned gyms on plastic treadmills.
Mental: Thinking, once a natural act of survival, is now outsourced to algorithms and AI. People no longer remember directions — GPS thinks for them. They don’t reflect deeply — social media scrolls do it for them.
Emotional: Real relationships require patience, listening, forgiveness — all complex emotions. But now, we have Emotion AI, virtual companions, chatbots, emoji reactions. Humans are losing the ability to sit with their emotions, to suffer, to wait, to empathize.
As Dr. Sonkar explains, humans were once active beings — walking, farming, grinding, fetching, repairing, creating. The body was designed to move. But today, physical labor is wrongly seen as inferiority. Machines, remotes, buttons, apps, and artificial intelligence have replaced not just our hands and legs, but even our senses.
When this technological convenience begins to show its dark side — obesity, arthritis, fatigue, chronic disease — people don’t return to a naturally active life. They pay to go to the gym and run on stationary belts beneath fluorescent lights, trying to simulate the same movement their ancestors did naturally every day.
“We forgot,” Sonkar says, “that nature follows a cruel but simple rule: Use it, or lose it.”
The result? We are losing it — losing muscle, losing immunity, losing joy, losing the biological essence that kept us resilient for centuries.
From Artificial Tools to Artificial Intelligence
AI: The Final Substitution?
Dr. Sonkar pierces with a question: “What human ability has left for human?”
What remains? Consumption. And appearance of productivity, not true creation.
Simulation of Humans — A Silent Replacement
According to Dr. Sonkar, we are moving from simulation of nature to simulation of ourselves.
First, machines simulated natural forces (e.g., engines, electricity).
Then, AI began simulating cognition and intelligence.
Now, Emotion AI is simulating feelings, threatening to replace human authenticity with programmed responses.
“This process,” Sonkar argues, “is not additive; it’s substitutive. The more we simulate humans, the more we devalue human uniqueness.”
The decay does not stop at the physical. We have now stepped into a far more dangerous zone: the replacement of the human mind and heart.
Artificial intelligence, originally conceived to assist and augment human thought, has now begun to simulate it, and soon, substitute it.
We no longer remember phone numbers — smartphones do it for us.
We no longer need to reflect — search engines throw instant answers at us.
We no longer need to think deeply — AI can write our letters, paint our art, compose our music, and even simulate our emotions.
And now, Sonkar warns, Emotion AI is being trained to imitate human feelings, not just detect sadness or joy, but to replicate emotional responses, so machines can “empathize” better than humans.
What is left then, for humans to do?
When physical labor is replaced by machines, when thinking is replaced by algorithms, and when emotions are mimicked by artificial systems, what part of being human still belongs to us?
The Human as a Product
It is stark but true, Dr. Sonkar says. In today’s corporate-driven world:
Humans are no longer just consumers, they are markets.
Products are no longer made for human need — human needs are manufactured for product survival.
For instance:
Packaged food industries sustain themselves by redefining what is “normal” or “convenient,” even when health is compromised.
Pharmaceutical companies often promote lifelong drug dependencies rather than cures.
A chilling question, Sonkar raises: “If humans are the product, who is the beneficiary?”
The answer seems to be: a small elite of corporate, technocratic, and financial interests. But even they are not immune. A world that sacrifices its ecological balance and human soul ultimately collapses, for everyone.
Perhaps the most chilling evolution is this: humans, who once built machines to serve themselves, are now being converted into products.
In the marketplace of modern life:
People’s attention is the new currency.
Their preferences are commodities.
Their health is a subscription model.
Their lives are data.
Even food, once sacred, seasonal, and fresh, has been repackaged into synthetic convenience. A bread that was once discarded the next morning is now chemically treated to stay “fresh” for months. Markets have been created not for nourishing people, but for sustaining corporate profits. Many of these processed foods have been proven to cause oxidative stress, promote cancer, and contribute to a long list of chronic illnesses. Yet they fill our shelves, our plates, and our children’s lunchboxes.
Sonkar notes with deep concern: It is no longer humans who consume products. Humans have become the products, carefully designed, marketed, and optimized for consumption by systems far larger than themselves.
Who Benefits From All This?
That is the haunting question: If human beings are being degraded, replaced, and sold — who is truly benefiting?
Not the common man, who now pays the price for polluted air, contaminated water, unsafe food, and artificial wellness.
Not the child, raised on screens and sugar, stripped of strength, imagination, and emotional depth.
Not the elderly, who live longer but suffer more — medicated into silence, surrounded by machines instead of love.
Not the worker, whose hands have been stilled and whose mind is fractured by endless noise and invisible pressures.
Perhaps a handful of global corporations, data empires, and biotech monopolies reap temporary profits and unprecedented control. But even they, Sonkar warns, are building their castles on a collapsing foundation — a natural world in ruin and a society in decay.
This is not progress. This is regression, cloaked in the seductive robes of technology and innovation.
And here’s the deeper tragedy: In making this beautiful Earth unlivable, they too are not spared. They, who profit today, must breathe the same poisoned air, drink from the same tainted sources, and raise their children in the same disintegrating world. They too will live in the hell they helped create, a world stripped of harmony, humility, and human essence.
“No one escapes the consequences when nature, truth, and the soul are betrayed,” Dr. Sonkar concludes.
Reclaiming Our Humanity
The question before us now is not how to invent more, automate more, simulate more. The question, Sonkar stresses, is: How do we remain human?
How do we:
Reclaim our physical bodies?
Reignite our cognitive abilities?
Restore our emotional capacities?
Restructure our societies to prioritize life over luxury, purpose over profit, health over hedonism?
We must return, not to a primitive past, but to a wise future where discoveries once again guide inventions. Where technology is a servant, not a master. Where science aligns with ethics, not markets.
A Revolution Rooted in Rediscovery
This is not a call to reject technology. It is a call to redeem it, Sonkar emphasizes.
It is a plea to stop simulating humanity and start revitalizing it.
Let us:
Walk again, not just to burn calories, but to feel the Earth.
Think again, not just to solve puzzles, but to ask real questions.
Feel again, not just to respond, but to truly connect.
This is a call for moral and scientific reawakening. We need:
Science with conscience, not just competence.
A shift from technological escalation to ethical innovation.
To rediscover our role as caretakers, not just as inventors.
To revive wisdom over algorithmic cleverness.
Yes, the world needs discoveries — discoveries about how to live better, not just how to build faster. Discoveries about:
How microbial ecosystems work in harmony with human health.
How ancient water systems and natural remedies supported life.
How minimalism and community can foster mental peace more than digital connectivity.
Dr. Ajai Kumar Sonkar reminds us: to use our abilities is to protect them. To lose them is to lose ourselves.
The age of reckless invention must give way to the age of conscious discovery — of truth, balance, and the eternal wisdom that life is not just something we live through devices, but something we embody with every cell, every breath, every heartbeat.
Let us not become relics of the very technologies we once celebrated. Let us become humans — once again.