Technology is changing humans

Technology!! We do certainly live in an era where the perception of the world and society is different because of social networks, smart phones, tablets, television, etc. Our homes and lives are becoming an atmosphere of little privacy, and that can sometimes be burdensome.

Our fears, curiosities, beliefs, and even our love are all being shared. We are more like "indivisible-social groups" rather than individuals, in the abstract sense of our needs.

What is it then that we’ll see in the near future, and even in our progressive future?

The more we advance as humans, the more we enter into the new concept of interaction: the "man-machine", that deepens the inherent fear, and that as rational animals, is consuming every day of our lives.
We must seriously look into the fear that is invading our lives, both individually and collectively.

Technology connects us to each other; more than ever before. In doing so, that makes the extent to which we are defined and planned by others very much explicit: meaning that the ways in which our ideas and identities not just belong to us, but are part of a human being much larger.



This has always been true, but has rarely been more apparent or has been constantly experienced. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world’s population must not only read and write, (which is an achievement of less than a century old in itself) but also be able to actively participate in the written and recorded culture. That is courtesy of the connected devices that permeate almost every country on earth.

This is somewhat surprising, disconcerting, and delicious. The crowd in the cloud becomes a stream of shared consciousness.

We think of ourselves as individuals having rational minds, and on this basis, we describe our relationships with technology.

Subsequently, there is a question of how we see ourselves. Human nature is a loose concept of large capacity, and technology has also transformed ourselves and expanded throughout history. Digital technologies challenge back to ask what our place in the universe is. Frankly, we are being creatures who speak, have self-awareness, and rationality.

Our machines are not yet minds, but are increasingly taking on the attributes we use to think as humans do. Some of these attributes inlude logic/reasoning, action/reaction, language/communication, adaptation, and lastly, learning. Rightly fearful and hesitant, we are beginning to ask what consequences will bring transformation to this usurpation.



We call these entwined anxieties that come together with a shared error, which is the overestimation of our rationality and autonomy. When asked what it means to be human, one is immediately prone to think that a human is a single, rational mind. To describe our relationship with technology, and on this basis, we are: as "users" isolated whose agency and freedom are a matter of skills, and reasoned choices. Our task-performing are existentially threatened by any efficient agent.
Evolutionary pressures surrounding the machines are so intense that nature itself is beginning to show its own limitations.

This is one view of the man-machine interaction. However, it is also a story of human beings that give us both little or too much credit. It is understood that humans are intensely social, emotional, and intractably enshrined creatures. Much of the most recent work in economics, psychology, and neuroscience has emphasized the extent of the integration in various capacities as boxes similar to those machines, different memory, processing, and output.

Neither the language, culture, nor the human mind can exist in isolation, or will soon become completely deformed. It is rarely admitted that we as human beings are interdependent to a degree. We have little in common with our creations as well as the bad habit of blaming them for things we are doing to ourselves.



What makes all of this urgent is the brutally Darwinian nature of technological evolution. Our machines cannot be "alive", but the evolutionary pressures that surround this topic is as intense as nature, and some of its limitations. Large amounts of money are at stake as companies and governments compete to build faster, more efficient and effective systems to maintain the sharpest consumer upgrade cycles. As a result, what’s left behind? To refuse, automate, or take; as it turns out, competitive.

As the philosopher Daniel Dennett amongst others has pointed out, this update logic, and decision extends far beyond the obvious industries such as finance, warfare, and manufacturing. If a medical algorithm has been shown to produce a more consistent and accurate medical diagnoses, then it is unethical and legally questionable to never use. As self-driving or semi-autonomous cars are becoming more affordable and approved on the roads, it is becoming much more difficult to argue against the ethical and normative case to make them mandatory. And even so, few areas of human activity are likely to remain intact.

In other words, machines are becoming incredibly adept at making decisions for us. Based on large amounts of data, machines are getting better at these actions with an equally impressive rate. Disregard the unlikely emergence of general purpose artificial intelligence for a moment, and focus on the delivery of what is happening in our world with the speed and efficiency of rash decisions.



This is precisely because our current machines can think and feel that this is a focul point to the sustainabilty of the advancement to our race. These machines are often called "intelligent” and marvelous at their powers.There are painted images of a world in which they, not us, can determine what we do, and how we cannot help ourselves. We do not see a purpose, intention, or autonomy worldwide.

However, to attribute agency and intentions of our tools that we do not possess, is resulting in a huge misunderstanding of several key points. To start, humans are not slow, dumb, and heading towards an evolutionary debacle. Consequently, the efficiency of the machine is a poor model, due to the misunderstanding of ourselves. It is necessary cut the people of each loop as efficiently as possible - to best ensure speed, profit, protection, and/or military success-. A bad model for a future in which humans and machines alike will certainly maximize their abilities.

Our creations are effective in part that these creations are without a doubt the most burdensome of what makes humans human; the grill pan biological emotions, feelings, bias and belief of what constitutes most of the mental life. We are influenced, beautiful creatures, and technology, and intellect has allowed us to externalize our goals. However, the purpose intended are the ones we chose.



Are incentives and our tools have relentlessly pursued on behalf of the inclusion of significantly prosperous human labor and interactions? Do we believe that these things can be unreachable, unknowable, or even worthless? If not, when are we going to change our approach?

If we want to build not only better machines, but better relations with and through machines, then we must have to start talking a lot more about the qualities of these relationships, and also the accuracy of how our thoughts, feelings, and prejudices. To also build better machines, we must also comprehend what it means to point, beyond efficiency, whether in life worth living.

What looks like a successful collaboration between humans and machines? One of them, I would say, in which humans are kept in the loop in a transparent manner, it is able to assess the incentives of a system, and either to influence their address or discuss their alteration.

What looks like a successful collaboration between humans, mediated by technology? We have plenty of them already, and are characterized by maximizing all resources involved which are human creativity and questioning, the search of the machine, processing speed and memory, an interaction between all parties, and the recognition that efficiency is not an end in itself, but simply a measure of speed.



Furthermore, let's be clear about one thing. We are in an incredible time to be alive; as we have been discussing these issues together. If there is one thing that our collective inflammatory joint as a species brings home, it’s that people care about everything else such as what they think, do, fear, hate, love, laugh, and what we can do together.

Our creations are determined to grow beyond our current comprehension of how far and how fast is perhaps our most urgent existential question? Our best hope of progress, however, remains deceptively familiar. It is to better understand ourselves because wondering what targets can serve not only to our survival, but also our prosperity. Also, trying to build systems that serve more than subvert them.

We know that we are prepared for the advances in Physics on the reality of nature, Neuroscience on the design and replication of neural structures, or Artificial Intelligence to do better programs, algorithms, and manufacture spectacular hardware. But are we ready for the advancement of the integration and culmination of all conjunctival dynamics?



Finally, what would happen to the spirituality of humans? Will man be able to withstand the questioning of their religious beliefs? Or will they re-encounter their true faith and perhaps abandon it? There are many questions that human beings have answer, but it is certain that our position in the universe is beyond what we imagine. Technological advancements have been, and will be designed to advance the human cognitive skills, and develop their inherent transcendental faith.

Sources:

Humanities Research Center of Oxford
Tom Chatfield
NMJ Library

YOUR INPUT IS MUCH APPRECIATED! LEAVE YOUR COMMENT BELOW.

Share this: