"If robots will do everything, what will humans do?" Why AI rhetoric deeply worries me.
"If robots will do everything, what will humans do?" Why AI rhetoric deeply worries me.
- By Swati Jena, Published on February 4, 2017
- Featured in: India , India Tech And Startups , Technol
In all the rhetoric around AI (and I am using it as one blanket term for all technological advancements, not getting into modalities), we seem to have forgotten one key stakeholder.
We seem to have marginalised the very human race in our discussion of the future, and put machines at the heart of it.
Most conversations out there - predictions, futurist talks - it is all about how AI is going to change our lives for better or worse. Almost all descriptions of the world in 2030 is machine-centric, barring mentions of food shortage and world-war-over-water.
The rhetoric is as if humans are audiences to this age of AI and the story is being told from the machine's perspective.
It is weird. And somewhat ominous. That somewhere we are slipping out of our own notice.
Consider just one example:
Everyone is talking of millions of jobs disappearing by 2030, but where is the discussion on what happens to those people who will lose those jobs? Yes, there are lists of areas where jobs will be added, but is it that simple?
Are the categories of job disappearing (and the level of skills required for them) and the categories of jobs getting created - similar? Which means the people losing jobs can upgrade reasonably well and fast to be employed in the new jobs? E.g what about the drivers and people in the transport business and the health diagnostic professionals who may lose their jobs - will the new job categories be easy for them to upgrade to?
Is the equation as simple as 2 million jobs (-) and 2 millions jobs (+)? Is it really sum zero?
And if not, what does it mean? Will there be one group of people who will be spoilt for choice? And another who will be left with nothing?
And if so, will the economic divide increase? What will it mean for the peace and order of the society we live in? Who is preparing for this future?
I could go on.. and this was just ONE example.
The questions looming large over the human society are several, complex and with no easy answers.
But the biggest worry is who is asking those questions - and the with the same amount of enthusiasm as "what all can AI do?"
Will change in healthcare mean greater life expectancy? If so, how do we engage older people in the society? What will the interaction between generations look like? How do we create spaces to accomodate the requirements of the aging and the very young?
How will family structures change? How will relationships look like? (People are already talking of AI fulfilling human needs of companionship)?
Infact, what will 'being human' look like in future?
Almost all these questions require serious thought, intervention and investment across areas of government policies, legal and socio-cultural aspects.
Often neglected from the 'future of work' discussions are the deeply significant practices of law, policy, advocacy, sociology and psychology. These skills will be as, if not more important, than technological skills in future.
Where are we talking about investing in developing these skills at the K12 and higher education level, in our frenzy over artificial intelligence?
Unfortunately, there is almost negligible realization of how critical these disciplines are in the future context. AI is the new buzzword we all like to be associated with, without stepping back to observe the big picture.
Social scientists, lawmakers, policy advocators have a phenomenally tough job at their hand in future. But no one seems to be paying as much attention.
These skills take time to build, and their area of problems even longer to solve. They must be invested upon today, as much as we are investing in technology.
We need these experts as much as the techies.
And finally, we need futurists who can envision 2030, with humans and the rest of the living world right where they belong. At the center.
That perhaps will be Real Intelligence. The kind that allows us to see beyond and better than Artificial Intelligence.
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Seems to me there are already robots who are NT members, judging from their comments.
"If robots will do everything, what will humans do?" Why AI rhetoric deeply worries me."
Die. Thankfully.
Don't be so negative, Randy. How about if we both go fishing?
Robots will bait our hooks, toss out our line, wiggle them to attract fish, set the hook when one bites and squeal with delight when the fish is brought into the net or up on shore. They'll even pour the Guinness for us.
The rate of automation is moving forward at warp speed. The question posed in the article is real, and if we don't start making adjustments to this situation 20 to 30 years from now we'll be standing there saying ''WTF just happened'' behind the power curve once again.
Buzz, Randy fishing will be automated that you will be able to tell the robot what type and parts of the fish to catch.
As an example:
20 to 30 years from now we'll be standing there saying ''WTF just happened''
20 or 30 years from now we'll be dead, thank whatever god myth you believe in.
''20 or 30 years from now we'll be dead,''
That's probably true, but there will be hundred's of millions of people that won't be dead.
That is their problem. I hate to put it that way, but when the last synapse pops in my brain then everything I ever thought or felt or had a memory or loved or ever felt or ever gave a damn for will have ceased to exist forever and will be completely lost. The computer that is my brain will have shut down never to be rebooted. It will all be lost data.
I will not be able to care.
I won't exist to care.
Now to actually address the point of the article, are we missing the boat as far as the tech effects on workers?
Yes and no.
And in actuality it won't matter to the tech. The tech will happen simply due to human kinds on failing, efficiency.
Humans are always seeking out the easier more efficient way of doing things, all human advancement is based upon it.
Fire brought easier to stay warm, better, healthier food, more ability to manufacture even more and better ways to do things.
Tools, from pointed rocks intended to break things in a controlled manner for any purpose, to the hollowed out dried gourd easier to get water to the mouth than using your hands...
Humans are advanced by the advancement of tech.
Our ideals of labor and work are going to change and change forcefully just like they did during the industrial revolution. That one change created a social environment that killed hundreds of millions in the fight from those that didn't want the change to those that embraced it. And eventually as is human nature the forces not desirous of change adopted the implements of change just to keep up or be relegated to history. Communism is a perfect example. (and the latest historical one also)
The improved standard of living that seems to be coming with the next evolution of tech is going to do what such rapid tech evolution's do. Some will embrace it and move on, others will reject it and die off.
Most will just go with the flow....
But the societal upheaval associated with such I believe is going to do exactly what all the other societal upheavals have done.
Kill and maim a lot of people until the human condition adjusts to the new paradigm.
That is what history teaches us. (and one of the truths of history)
All of this has just made me think that I had once said that I wanted my gravestone to say: "I'd rather be fishing".
I prefer Heineken's, Randy.