Wednesday 25 November 2015

Automation


MAN V MACHINE

The technological revolution is here and according to Moore's Law, it's doubling in power, improving and evolving at an increasingly faster rate.

Never before in history have we seen such a transformation to our lives like those experienced with the current technological advances in computerisation - particularly over the last few years. 


Rise Of The Super Computers
Human beings are essentially themselves just biological computers and although the human brain is the most complex/advanced organism in the known universe - it will struggle to retain that crown for much longer. 

A singularity - the point at which our computers will pass humans to become the most advanced and intelligent beings in the universe - is projected to arrive in the not too distant future according to Ray Kurzweil, futurist and author of an interesting book on the possibilities to enhance humans and challenges this will face our future generations.

And so, should we manage to avoid destroying the planet and/or ourselves in the meantime, how will we cope with some of the immediate effects shown in the above video? Self driving cars are already here - albeit in the early stages, but essentially doing a job that millions will lose when the technology irons out those minor glitches, could throw the world into economical melt down. 

We're going to need to adapt fast. Many manual jobs have already been replaced by machines, but if human creativity can even be mimicked and automated too, where does it leave us with work? Just as utilising the horse for transport has long since been replaced with the combustion engine, we will be obsolete in many more ways. 

The Human Aspect
There will still be a need for social interaction/empathy and the human touch and that's where the bulk of the work will be available. Anything that still requires the human element, ie. meaningful connections with other human beings in a genuine, heartfelt and sympathetic way, will still be required, and in even greater demand.

Thus, as computers get better at processing big data, faster at dealing with complex processing and number crunching. it will be the skills of the sympathetic human beings offering their encouragement and support to all those who have become broken trying in vein to keep up. So, it stands to reason, that if we want to future proof ourselves, this will be the greatest commodity for us to master for greatly benefitting ourselves and the future generations to come.

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