Man Versus Machine & The Information Age PDF

Man Versus Machine and the Information Age Leonard P. Reyes Jr. Humans and Machines HUMAN MACHINES - Can work constantly - Speed and accuracy - More efficiently to create - No emotional intelligence - Capable of lea...

Man Versus Machine and the Information Age Leonard P. Reyes Jr. Humans and Machines HUMAN MACHINES - Can work constantly - Speed and accuracy - More efficiently to create - No emotional intelligence - Capable of learning, grasping, - Has limitations understanding the concept of - Needs to program various things. - Curious to discover - Multi-talented The Latest Chapter is Just Starting Our history and our literature show us that for most of human history machines were seen as tools to help people do more than they were capable on their own. From simple tools to the inventions of the Iron Age and Bronze Age, technology augmented human capability for survival, competitive advantage and convenience. The ancient Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus told the story of augmenting humans with wings so they could fly like birds. For thousands of years’ life and art mirrored each other in a story of man and machine, working together for the betterment of humanity. Man vs. Machine in the Industrial Age Starting in the late 1700s, as the Industrial Revolution began to take hold, we saw a change to this paradigm. Now machines were a threat to the economic security of the newly formed working class. Machines were no longer simply helping people achieve more but also were now displacing a great many workers. This new relationship between people and technology created economic hardship for the working class. Man vs. Machine in the Industrial Age Perhaps the most famous real life battle between man and machine was the Luddite Rebellion of 1811-1813. While the movement was supposedly inspired by Englishman Ned Ludd’s smashing of textile stocking frames in 1779 it did take on a life of its own. The Luddites were skilled craftsmen; people had spent a lifetime learning their craft. It was the economic and career model of the day where master craftsmen taught and passed on their skills and knowledge to the next generation through apprenticeships. Man vs. Machine in the Industrial Age The rebellion was led by textile workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire, England. The craftsmen had a number of concerns, many of which may sound familiar even today from decreasing wages to the inferior quality of the goods being produced by machines. The fears were real and justified- in fact the croppers, who were skilled at finish wool, were nearly all replaced by machines within 10 year of the rebellion. Protests and clashes between workers, capitalists and the government occurred sporadically through the early 1800s in England across industries. The British parliament even made “machine breaking” a capital offense.  th Man vs. Machine in the 20 Century Third Industrial Revolution, marked by computers and electronics further automating the means of production. Now computers could operate the machines and do the jobs of some people. Computers controlled robots on the assembly line doing everything from precision welding to assembling products. Of course, computers also enabled humans to do work that could not have been done before, spawning new jobs from space exploration to risk management. As jobs are automated, we again see people in the labor force striking back against machines in an effort to maintain their livelihood. Man vs. Machine Today In last few years we’ve seen increasing intellectual battles between man and machine, with the machines coming out the winners. The computers’ victories famously come in the games of Jeopardy, Chess, Go, and others as computers like IBM’s Watson and Googles DeepMind defeat human world champions in these games. These victories, however, come largely from brute force computations on computers taking up more space than a human brain. Artificial Intelligence The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1956, but AI has become more popular today thanks to increased data volumes, advanced algorithms, and improvements in computing power and storage. Artificial Intelligence Early AI research in the 1950s explored topics like problem solving and symbolic methods. In the 1960s, the US Department of Defense took interest in this type of work and began training computers to mimic basic human reasoning. For example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) completed street mapping projects in the 1970s. And DARPA produced intelligent personal assistants in 2003, long before Siri, Alexa or Cortana were household names. Artificial Intelligence This early work paved the way for the automation and formal reasoning that we see in computers today, including decision support systems and smart search systems that can be designed to complement and augment human abilities. While Hollywood movies and science fiction novels depict AI as human-like robots that take over the world, the current evolution of AI technologies isn’t that scary – or quite that smart. Instead, AI has evolved to provide many specific benefits in every industry. Keep reading for modern examples of artificial intelligence in health care, retail and more. Understanding the Perils of Artificial Intelligence When it comes to the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the world is quite clearly divided into two factions: those who strongly believe that AI is a good thing and those who vehemently deny this. The apprehensions, most commonly debated, can be clubbed into four main categories: a. Large-scale Unemployment b. Singularity c. Machine Consciousness d. Oligarchy Large-scale Unemployment This is probably the most tangible and widely acknowledged of all the risks highlighted in the context of AI. Technology and machines replacing humans for doing certain types of work isn’t new. We all know about entire professions dwindling, and even disappearing, due to technology. Industrial Revolution too had led to large scale job losses. Unemployment, particularly at a large scale, is a very perilous thing, often resulting in widespread civil unrest. AI’s potential impact in this area therefore calls for very careful political, sociological and economic thinking, to counter it effectively. Singularity The concept of Singularity is one of those things that one would have imagined seeing only in the pages of a futuristic Sci-Fi novel. However, in theory, today it is a real possibility. In a nutshell, Singularity refers to that point in human civilization when Artificial Intelligence reaches a tipping point beyond which it evolves into a super-intelligence that surpasses human cognitive powers, thereby potentially posing a threat to human existence as we know it today. Machine Consciousness The aspect of machine consciousness perhaps is best described as an ethical conundrum. The idea deals with the possibility of implanting human-like consciousness into machines, taking them beyond the realm of ‘thinking’ to that of ‘feeling, emotions and beliefs’. It’s a complex topic and requires delving into an amalgamation of philosophy, cognitive science and neuroscience. ‘Consciousness’ itself can be interpreted in multiple ways, bringing together a plethora of attributes like self-awareness, cause-effect in mental states, memory, experiences etc. To bring machines to a state of human-like consciousness would entail replicating all the activities that happen at a neural level in a human brain — by no means a meager task. Oligarchy To put it differently, the question of control. Due to the very nature of AI — it requires immense investments in technology and science — there are realistically only a handful of organizations (private or government) that can make the leap into taking AI into the mainstream, in a scalable manner, and across a vast array of applications. Given the mammoth portions of our lives that will likely be steered by AI enabled machines, those who control that ‘intelligence’ will hold immense power over the rest of us. That all familiar phrase ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’ will take a whole new meaning — the organizations and/or individuals that are at the forefront of the generally available AI applications would likely have more power than the most despotic autocrats in history. This is a true and real hazard, aspects of which are already becoming areas of concern in the form of discussions around things like privacy. The Information Age The technology has the power to transform society. The most famous example of this is German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Today the internet and associated information technologies are said to be behind an information revolution that is transforming the way people live and work. Unlike the printing press or the steam engine, no single person invented the internet. Instead it was the culmination of advances in computer technology, reductions in the cost of manufacturing personal computers and the resulting increase in their popularity, and the evolution of networking technology. The Information Age The internet is essentially a vast network of computers. Importantly, it is a decentralized network; it does not depend on a central mainframe computer as networks did in the 1950s and 1960s. the idea for a vast, decentralized computer network originated with the Cold war and the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA scientist and engineers wanted to create a computer network in which any computer could exchange information with any other computer. The Information Age Computers were first linked to form ARPANET, as this early network was called, in 1969. Throughout the 19700s and 1980s, as computers became more common, academic researchers and engineers began linking their computers to ARPANET. As the network grew- branching haphazardly and quite beyond the control of its original creators- it came to be known as the “internet.” The Information Age Many people associate the internet with e-mail. Email is only one of the many ways that information can be shared over the internet, but email as fast, easy, and free way to communicate with colleagues. The Information Age In order to share computer files across the internet, the computers on the network need to share a common protocol, or standard, for how the data will be transported electronically. The most famous such protocol-and the one that propelled the internet to nationwide popularity-is Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. HTML was invented by Tim Berners- Lee, a British programmer who developed the protocol as a convenient way of sharing documents over the internet. In 1991, HTML became the basis for the World Wide Web The Basics of Information Age The Information Age began around the 1970s and is still going on today. It is also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age. This era brought about a time period in which people could access information and knowledge easily. Influences of the Past on the Information Age The Renaissance influenced the Information Age by creating the idea inventions, while too advanced for the time, the basic idea was used to develop modern inventions. The Renaissance also changed literature. At first, only books that told stories of religion and religious heroes were written. During the Renaissance, people began to write realistic books and not just religious stories. People's mindset about themselves changed. It was no longer about what humans could do for God, but what humans could do for themselves. This way of thinking is called humanism. Influences of the Past on the Information Age The Scientific Revolution changed the modern era by introducing important scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Sir Isaac Newton. Their discoveries paved the way for modern tools, inventions and innovations. The Industrial Revolution brought about major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology. This era had a profound effect on the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the world. Inventions and Innovations of the Information Age There were many different inventions that came about because of the Information Age, one of which was the computer. The Internet allowed people to access information with the touch of a button. The Internet has turned society into homebodies, individuals who do everything from the comfort of their homes instead of venturing outdoors to complete tasks. People can do everything online; shopping, communicating, bill paying, working, education, entertainment, even ordering food. This may be good, but it has also made us a very lazy and uneducated society. Inventions and Innovations of the Information Age Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are several important people of the Information Age. Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. Jobs who was created the first effective personal computer called the Apple 1. The Apple 1 was a huge advancement in computer sciences and it carved the path for the computers we have now. Apple has created iPhone, iPod, iPad, iMac, and Apple TV. Gates is also a huge force in the Information Age. He founded Microsoft, which creates almost everything that has to do with computers. Microsoft develops programs like Microsoft Office, Windows, and many other influential products. Changes of the Information Age The Information Age has changed people, technology, science, economies, culture, and even the way people think. The Internet is arguably the most prominent innovation of the Information Age. The Internet changed the way people do everything. It has made people lazier, but it also makes a large amount of the population smarter. The Information Age has made industrial countries stronger. With online companies being some of the most successful and economically stimulating businesses out there, economies receive more from them and keep our world turning. People are becoming more mature and more educated due to things like the computer and the Internet. This time period has reshaped governments, with new technology being created every day. Governments can now have more advanced and effective militaries. Because of things like the Internet, new laws had to be put in place to stop hacking, piracy, and identity theft. Impacts of the Information Age The Information Age brought about many new inventions and innovations. Many communication services like texting, email, and social media developed and the world has not been the same since. People learn new languages easier and many books have been translated into different languages, so people around the world can become more educated. However, the Information Age is not all good. There are people in the world that believe they can live their entire life through the Internet. Also, huge criminal organizations rely on hacking into government systems and obtaining confidential information to continue their way of life. Jobs have also became easier, and some jobs can even be done from the comfort of your own home. Impacts of the Information Age The Information Age is also known as the Age of Entrepreneurship. Now entrepreneurs can start and run a company easier than ever before. It also impacts our work ethics by distracting us and causing us to lose interest in the task we are doing. This time period has also created a shortage of jobs and making many jobs obsolete because machines are now being used to do the work humans once did.