Chapter 3 of Philosophy looks at minds and machines and our progress towards artificial intelligence (AI). Hubert Dreyfus is a philosopher who predicted that AI would never beat him at Chess. When he lost to a computer, he didn't believe it would beat a grand master. Eventually Deep Blue did 'beat' Gary Kasparov. His argument though is that it is not the same thing. Humans don't go through each and every possible position and evaluate the alternatives. There is something else going on. A grand master takes only a few seconds using highly developed common sense through generalisations and judgement. Computers follow rules. They are really good at the boring stuff. We are incredibly good at the fun stuff.
Our Elephants are incredible. I first really noticed Elephant Magic when I learnt to touch-type only a few years back. I decided my two finger keyboard watching didn't cut it. With a little bit of help, my Elephant figured it out, and it is a little scary. You don't think of what letter to push next. It just happens. We do lots of this. Computers don't. They know every step, they just do it incredibly fast, and are less susceptible to human mood swings and anxiety. Computers are a long way from doing what we can do, but they are certainly taking away the boring bits of our jobs fast.
As Ken Robinson describes with little people at school, 'if you sit kids down for hour after hour doing clerical work, don't be surprised if they fidget'. The same probably goes for big kids at work. In both schools and at work, computers are slowly eating away at the boring stuff. If your job is boring and uncreative - a computer is likely coming to take it. Average is over. As Education gets redesigned along the lines Robinson suggests, I believe we will stop delineating between school, work, and retirement. As we do more and more of the fun stuff, concepts like 'school dropout' and 'retirement' will fade to black. We will always be creating. We will always be learning. We will always be teaching our Elephants new magical ways to dance.
Our Elephants are incredible. I first really noticed Elephant Magic when I learnt to touch-type only a few years back. I decided my two finger keyboard watching didn't cut it. With a little bit of help, my Elephant figured it out, and it is a little scary. You don't think of what letter to push next. It just happens. We do lots of this. Computers don't. They know every step, they just do it incredibly fast, and are less susceptible to human mood swings and anxiety. Computers are a long way from doing what we can do, but they are certainly taking away the boring bits of our jobs fast.
As Ken Robinson describes with little people at school, 'if you sit kids down for hour after hour doing clerical work, don't be surprised if they fidget'. The same probably goes for big kids at work. In both schools and at work, computers are slowly eating away at the boring stuff. If your job is boring and uncreative - a computer is likely coming to take it. Average is over. As Education gets redesigned along the lines Robinson suggests, I believe we will stop delineating between school, work, and retirement. As we do more and more of the fun stuff, concepts like 'school dropout' and 'retirement' will fade to black. We will always be creating. We will always be learning. We will always be teaching our Elephants new magical ways to dance.
Exciting times.
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