Thursday, February 13, 2020
Tech and Notes from Underground
After reading Underground Man's monologue, I found some similarities between the negativity towards advancements of the 19th century and the advancements of today. Underground Man is highly opposed to this in depth research on the human psyche being a cure all for humanity. He doesn't believe our actions can be formulated, and I think the robots of the 21st century prove his theory. Many jobs are becoming automated, and there's a general opposition to this change from the public. Humans can't truly be replicated, since we have the ability, and sometimes the desire, to deny whatever restraints are put around us. Although we like control, we hate boredom, but robots only exist to serve a certain purpose. I think I would greatly miss the human interaction involved in every day tasks such as checking out after shopping or being waited on at restaurants. Would y'all prefer if the world became more automated, since it may make our lives easier and more efficient? Or do y'all think human interaction keeps us more in touch and happier?
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4 comments:
I am concerned about the growing influence of technology on human life. For example, IBM's Watson, which is an advanced artificial intelligence, is being used to predict the spread of Flu. While this might seem good on face value, you must consider the unintended effects. The areas which are designated at risk will receive special attention from the government. Now in a strong liberal democracy, this should not be a problem, but in an authoritarian state such as China, people in these areas will likely have their fundamental human rights violated because a machine has labeled them a threat.
Technology is not inherently good or bad, but it can be used in good or bad ways. My concern is that bad actors will use technology to attach the fundamental rights that we as humans have.
I think that human contact is extremely necessary. If we didn't interact with other people, we would lose parts of our selves that come in the form of our relationships with other people. With others we can show different sides of our selves, and without that kind of interaction, we would lose some of our capacity for growth as people. And although I'm the kind of person who will always go to the self-checkout aisle, I wouldn't trade anything for some of the interactions I've had with other human beings.
I think that the automation of jobs is inevitable given the current conditions of the economic environment. However, I think that such automation can prove to be a boon for society. Automation would mainly target unskilled labor occupations, and, if the United States can both produce and sustain the necessary educational facilities in the future, our population could make a shift towards skilled labor occupations. This shift could come as a benefit for society by making the population more educated on average and by potentially reducing the vast wealth inequality present in our nation today.
I believe that we should only have automation for certain things like factories. For the things you mentioned (waiting and checking out) we should keep the humanity in it. The more automated we become I believe the less human we become, as we will inevitably become so lazy that we'll turn into the people from WALL-E and just watch screens while drinking smoothies.
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