In Nicholas Carr's The Shallows, he brings up the experiment of Weizenbaum and ELIZA. In these experiments, people talk to the psychologist program, ELIZA, in a very humanly manner. Weizenbaum comes to realize that people who use the program want to believe that is a person who is talking and not technology. People over the century have slowly started to think that humans want to compare themselves to machines. In knowing so, he also becomes aware of the obvious; if we think like humans, then we will continue to be human. Ironically, Weizenbaum is the one who warned the world that we need to create a line between human thoughts and computer computation.
With the turn of the decade, many people are using smartphones. Along with it, the program SIRI has been released. SIRI, at the moment, only does simple tasks such as vocal reminders, shows local businesses, text/call people, and etc. It's seems to pretty strange to me that we would need something like that. I mean those tasks just require to tap the screen and few times, but we still need a helper? Even though these tasks are effortless, this could be only the beginning since our technology constantly advances. Will this go beyond small errands? Have we forgotten Weizenbaum's warning? Could this progress to become the next big thing in our civilization?
I believe SIRI's purpose is to amuse us. My cousin has SIRI on her phone and I swear, she talks to SIRI more than her family! To answer your question "Will this go beyond small errands," I believe that yes, someday SIRI or any technology will soon be cooking, cleaning, doing our chores while we get fat watching television or texting or playing video games. I don't know if I agree that this would be progress. Yes, technology advances, but will humans?
ReplyDelete