Many of us have been discussing whether all this new technology (now and in the future) is hurting us more than its helping. I can definitely say that people are thinking about what skills won’t be needed due to this constantly improving technology. But there is also a question on whether we should depend on tech or skill?
In one example, a man-made machine that beat the best chess player, but the man himself couldn’t. In another instance, a tech is only a tool we use, our human brains are the one behind the process. Only a human can grasp new knowledge, and only a human can get ideas. So, on which should we depend on in the future, ‘raw skill’ or ‘technology’?
First off let me explain what this dilemma is about. For example, to solve a math problem, before, we had to process in our brains and write down on a piece of paper the equation, method, and answer. This made it so that without any devices or gadgets we would be able to solve a math problem. But there would be a tradeoff since it would take a lot of time.
Now, all we have to do is type an equation, and an answer will pop-up through a calculator. This was much faster, but also made us lose our raw skill of solving a math problem without any devices.
This example feels a bit favoured to the ‘raw skill’ side though, another example could be that before cooking or heating up food we had to make a proper fire with woods and sticks. This made us learn the skill of making a fire and cooking food without any help and became independent. But it also took us humans some time and was hard to learn to make properand healthy food.
Now what we do is put some raw food up in a microwave, wait till it’s done with the heating, and serve it. This makes it much easier to make the food completely proper and takes less time, on the other hand, we now rarely make a fire and can’t really cook food without any tech. As you can see there is a simple pattern in this dilemma.
Depending on tech will make it much easier and take less time but can make you more dependent on tech and over time, lose the skill entirely. Doing it yourself will make you able to achieve something without depending on anything and learn a new skill, but will also take much more time than needed and be harder.
Probably one day it’ll be an impressive skill to write with a pencil and paper. Maybe using a pencil and paper wouldn’t be needed any more cause of the new holographic writing inventions that follow you around? It might be considered that tech will be costly. But if humanity evolves in this it wouldn’t really be costly due to the tech being normal. We should use and improve tech as much as possible but just below the point, the usage of these machines will take things from us that they don’t have. The communication part is one of these examples.
Technology may be smarter than us, but it does not have any social knowledge, according to Wharton’s knowledge, it is impossible for Artificial Intelligence (A.I) to have feelings, they just can’t have proper feelings that humans are born with. If you would ask a robot how was your day, all they would say is good, if you asked a human on the other hand they would be much more sincere and elaborate.
If we become like robots there won’t really be any proper interactions and what made our world special won’t be there anymore. Communication is an important thing, so far, tech has improved it with Social Media, but we shouldn’t depend on it too much.
There are already people talking about how tech is already overtaking us for its own benefits. Although I don’t believe those people, we do need to be aware of our own safety. We shouldn’t use too little tech either. Even if the world now seems pretty optimistic, just imagine all the future inventions, like a robot that greets you, helps you organize your work, and you name it, much more! That would make life and everything in general, much better. And that’s just one piece to think about.
Though in this decision there doesn’t seem to be a direct solution, there is one factor to consider that could lead to a well-balanced outcome. There will always be one difference between A. I and humans. Humans can learn, can be creative, and can create something new. Tech can only quicken the process of doing something or make the process easier. All the machines to help us and make our lives easier were done through tech, but we humans are the ones who made that tech.
It’s our desire to do something new, build something new that separates us from machines and inventions. Long story short, we’re creative, technology isn’t. Proof for this can be that we can control A.I, but humans can’t be controlled, yes we humans can get influenced, but not fully controlled.
Tech is only a part of predictable realists, we are unmanageable visionaries. We should use tech as much as we can right before the point it starts to hinder humanity and steals what’s unique about us. So as long as humanity progresses through innovation, and not automation, and we don’t bite too much or too little, the future will be a good place to be in.
(The views expressed are the writer’s own)
Dihaan Patra
Grade 7
American Community School Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
( Images from the net)
