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Reports of our death are an exaggeration: Difference between revisions
Reports of our death are an exaggeration (view source)
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Technology is not new. As long as there has been the lever, wheel or plough, humans have used machines to do boring things, repetitive things and things requiring brute strength beyond our frail earthly shells. Because machines follow instructions better than we do, ''by definition'': that’s what means is to be a machine. They’re quicker, stronger, nimbler, cheaper and less error-prone. | Technology is not new. As long as there has been the lever, wheel or plough, humans have used machines to do boring things, repetitive things and things requiring brute strength beyond our frail earthly shells. Because machines follow instructions better than we do, ''by definition'': that’s what means is to be a machine. They’re quicker, stronger, nimbler, cheaper and less error-prone. | ||
As George | As {{author|George Gilder}} recently put it: “The claim of superhuman performance seems rather overwrought to me. Outperforming unaided human beings is what machines are supposed to do. That's why we build them.” | ||
Machines can only operate in constrained environments. They make flawless decisions, as long as both question ''and'' answer are pre-configured. But take a machine out of its designed environment and it is useless: Good luck getting a [[Jacquard loom]] to plough a field. | Machines can only operate in constrained environments. They make flawless decisions, as long as both question ''and'' answer are pre-configured. But take a machine out of its designed environment and it is useless: Good luck getting a [[Jacquard loom]] to plough a field. | ||
We sacks of meat are better at handling ambiguity, conflict and novel situations. We’re not perfect, but whatever the conundrum is we can at least produce an answer. We don't hang, or freeze waiting for a dialogue box to be clicked: even though syntax errors are par for the course: humans don’t (easily) crash. | We [[sacks of meat]] are better at handling ambiguity, conflict and novel situations. We’re not perfect, but whatever the conundrum is we can at least produce an answer. We don't hang, or freeze waiting for a dialogue box to be clicked: even though syntax errors are par for the course: humans don’t (easily) crash. | ||
It’s a partnership. A division of resources. Technology is an extended phenotype. It has caused the odd short-term dislocation but the long-term prognosis has been benign: “labour-saving devices” have freed us to do things we previously had no time to do, or hadn’t realised you could do, before the technology came along. As technology has developed, so has the world's population has grown and rates of poverty and indolence have fallen. Whatever technology is doing, it ''isn’t'' putting us out of work. | It’s a partnership. A division of resources. Technology is an extended phenotype. It has caused the odd short-term dislocation but the long-term prognosis has been benign: “labour-saving devices” have freed us to do things we previously had no time to do, or hadn’t realised you could do, before the technology came along. As technology has developed, so has the world's population has grown and rates of poverty and indolence have fallen. Whatever technology is doing, it ''isn’t'' putting us out of work. | ||