When I see some clever robot being developed, I get excited. The comments, not so much. The comments are mostly like:
“We are all gonna die when they take over”
“Innovation is making humans lazy”
“Some religious rant..”
I do believe that there is a possibility when humans suddenly get obsolete, but looking at the current pace of development(which is not that fast), something immediate to happen is unlikely. Also we should not completely dismiss something if there is a potential threat, best is to find way to solve it and not shutting it entirely.
What I said above can be explained with an example: Let’s go back 1000 years and bring the same people in today’s world, I am quite sure a lot of them will not so useful in today’s world. The so believed intelligent people at the time might not find a place in today’s world. But, it took 1000 years to reach here, there were multiple and gradual breakthroughs that led us here and not everyone had their skills go obsolete at once. The argument of exponential growth could be made that 1000 years of evolution can happen today in 30 years, but if you have been following the Moore’s law is even failing. And the same slow growth is true even for various other industries, looks like exponential growth has a ceiling in real world.
I also believe that if two generations of people are doing exactly the same thing, then that generation has failed. If 4,5 generation are doing that, then civilisation as a whole has failed. By same thing, I don’t mean the same line of work, but the way they do it. If someone has a small restaurant, and 4 generations later they are running the same place at same capacity and revenue then they have failed.
So, how does this all relate to machines?
The thing is, machines for centuries have allowed us to break out of certain tasks and achieve something bigger. If automobiles and trucks had not replaced the animal carts, we would have never reached the level of infrastructure that there is today. If you look at any major video games 30–40 years ago, they could be built today by some independent guy in few days, so has this made those designers and developers from 40 years ago obsolete? No. Instead we have much more complex and better games today, thanks to superior game engines and technology as a whole which took care of a lot of things that had to be dealt with earlier,
The above examples are from within the same industry, but machines have also allowed various other work paths that are non essential but have led to better lifestyle. The whole entertainment industry is non essential in the survival sense, yet they exist. That podcast you like? or that OST you listen all day? Machines have indirectly allowed these to exist as less and less people are needed for various tasks even though population has been on the rise, this has opened opportunities for people to venture outside of survival and essential jobs.
Remember, when one thing is automated we look to improve it or try something else altogether. This allows us to do things that wouldn’t have been possible earlier.
So rather than criticizing these developments, we should embrace it and be excited for what we would be doing as some thing is now taken care-of by machines.If any threat can be seen then some regulations could be setup but completely trying to stop this will lead to a failed generation of people who unknowingly wanted the future generation to be stuck with the same stuff that they are doing.
If we keep this progressive mindset, we can also become a part of a successful generation just like our previous ones have been.
