What's the future going to be? Humans or Robots?

WHAT’S THE FUTURE GOING TO BE? HUMANS OR ROBOTS?

Mario D’Couto

            In recent times, there has been a huge debate going around about the future of many industries, whether will humans still be in the work force or would it be taken over by artificial intelligence and is as much as we may want to pride ourselves about the fact that technology has made our lives simpler, comfortable and easy, we may still need to think otherwise.

            In his book, “MESSY”, Tim Harford rephrases a famous quote, “To err is human but to really foul things up takes a computer.” Technology was made to help humankind, not to supplant its thinking process. Besides, it was the human person who created technology and not the other way around.

            From the most complicated data systems to the most mundane things like remembering telephone numbers, it seems as though there is a ready – made solution for everything. Unfortunately, while it may seem that we have progressed, we may have become lax because of what technology has done. Of course, technology has its benefits and it is good but to depend on it completely for solutions would be asking for trouble as Earl Weiner, a cult figure in aviation safety, said, “Digital devices tune out small errors while creating opportunities for large ones.”

            If we were to paraphrase it, it would sound something like this, “Automation will routinely tidy up ordinary messes, but occasionally, create an extraordinary mess.” So, why does technology have a flipside when it was supposed to make the life of humankind simpler, comfortable and easy?

            The paradox of automation has 3 strands to it,

1.  Automatic systems accommodate incompetence by being easy to operate and by automatically correcting mistakes. Because of this, an unskilled operator can function for a long time before his lack of skill becomes apparent – his incompetence is a hidden weakness that can persist almost indefinitely without being detected.
2.    Even if the operators are experts, automation systems erode their skills by removing the need for them to practice.
3.  Automatic systems tend to fail either in unusual situations or in ways that produce unusually situations, requiring a skilful human response.

            For each of these 3 strands, a more capable and reliable automatic system makes the situation worse. Gary Klien, a psychologist who specializes in the study of expert and intuitive decision – making, summarizes the problem, “When the algorithms are making the decisions, people often stop working to get better. The algorithms can make it hard to diagnose reasons for failures. As people become more dependent on algorithms, their judgment may involve making them depend even more on the algorithms. That process sets up a vicious cycle. People get passive and less vigilant when algorithms make the decisions.”

            He goes on to say that software engineers make the problem worse by deliberately designing system to supplant human expertise by default. If we wish instead to use them to support human expertise, we need to wrestle with the system. GPS devices, for example, could provide all sorts of decision support, allowing a human device to explore options, view maps and alter a route. But those functions tend to be buried deeper in the app. They take effort, whereas, it is very easy to hit ‘Start Navigation’ and trust the computer to do the rest. The fact that artificial intelligence is slowly replacing human decision making is, thus, a cause of concern.

            The solution is to use our God – given intellects and not to rely solely on technology for our work or our daily needs. While machines and computers can perform several tasks at great speeds with high accuracy and tirelessly, yet, it is the human person that is put in charge. What if it had to be the other way around? If computers and machines can work efficiently for several hours without getting tired and they were controlling us, how would that be? Or why shouldn’t it be that way? Before technology came, humans existed and while, no doubt, a lot can be accomplished through technology, there are many things that require human direction or if I could say, the human touch. A machine or a computer cannot think or make decisions or feel. It works only according to the directions given to it. The human person can make decisions, think and feel as he or she is a self – conscious being.


            With that being said, no matter how far technology may progress, the human touch should never go extinct which also implies that each of us, in whatever field of work one may be involved, has a great responsibility. The machine was made for the man and not man for the machine. 

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