As much as we hear or express concerns regarding the future of technological advancements in the face of rapid development of AI tech and robotics, in the end it is us humans who make the choice. Is it possible that there is collective cognitive dissonance regarding machines? Machines of all forms, be it gaming consoles, be it smartphones, be it vehicles, computers, etc. Machines have been part of life long before AI or robots became reality. Any sophistication in modern machines is merely the result of continuous accumulation of collective knowledge, skills, and efforts. This process is never going to stop.
Things are different today, and changes are more rapid than they used to be before. While we had an ability to imagine the future and come close with our predictions of the future, it nearly impossible the predict the advancements in a few decades. One thing is for sure, machines are here to stay, and we all love them. At the same time desire to preserve the status quo stronger than before. In the past we may have not been patient and couldn't wait for the imaginative future to become realities. Countries and governments continuously made effort to be the pioneers in tech. Now, it seems the sentiment seems to be changing and inner voices saying - "slow down, no need to rush".
We spend more time playing video games, staring at our smartphones, getting work done on computers, etc. This all takes time away from human connections in real world. This phenomenon can be observed everywhere. Many meetings in business settings have shifted from gathering at conference tables to virtual ones using apps like teams, zoom, slack, etc. Even after pandemic officially ended, more people choosing virtual meeting rather than physical ones. I see this everyday. Then we like to provide different excuses like efficiency, productivity, saving time, etc. Is that it? or do we just like be in the company of our machines more. More and more screen time.
It is true there are also those of us who try to balance machine vs human experiences. There also those of us who choose to abandon the matrix and go offgrid. There are merits for all of these choices. Human choices. We are here because of our choices, and future will also reflect our current choices. If machines start taking over the world, that will only be because of the choice made. I am not talking about some kind of apocalyptic future where AI powered robots rule the world, or even coexist among humans as entities with equal rights, etc. My thoughts are more about how we utilize the technology, to build healthier and human-centric environments or more focused on productivity, efficiency, and business minded environments.
Machines are awesome. They do the work. They get things done. They can do anything. Now with these innovations and capabilities, the future that can become reality is where we can produce abundance of healthy food, abundance of fresh water, build houses with greenery and sustainability features. Machines can do what humans can't. They can clean the oceans, they can plan trees, they prevent wildfires or stop them when they happen. Of course not all can happen now and not everywhere. But there is enough technology and know-how to make this happen. We can choose something like this.
I would even argue machines can bring a future where human and nature connections are more important and possible. Machines can do all the boring and difficult stuff, humans can focus on their talents and interests and not worry about getting some boring things that need get done, or doing things they never liked to do in the first place. In theory this is possible. But we would let such things to happen, at least not easily. We do enjoy making thing more complicated, when there is no need to do so. Keeping thing simple is not our forte.
But if we do choose to keep things simple, we can still do ok.
This St. That St. The Other St.
Things can be simple just like this and work fine with zero confusion. Or we can choose more complicated, spend hundreds of hours to find unique names, give the meaning, patent, and protect the naming rights.
Machines are not the problem, it is all about our choices about how we will use them.
Another example for the beauty of simplicity vs complexity is bitcoin vs fiat. Bitcoin simplifies money. Not necessarily in technological sense, but rather in sense of idea for what money is or should be. Everybody can agree that money used by all should be corrupt or manipulatable by one or group of entities. Having a limited supply and working in decentralized network bitcoin simply does that. Money is property and owners of money should have full control. Bitcoin does that. Money should easily be transferrable without huge obstacles. Bitcoin does fast and cheap transfers with ease, compared to arbitrary restrictions set for fiat. Yes, we still choose fiat. Even though we can't fully understand what fiat is or how it works due to complexity set by those who control them.
Back to machines. The machine I looking forward to see in action is Apple's Vision Pro which will be launched early next year. What machines do you choose?