A Path Towards the Humanization of Machines

Robotics and artificial intelligence, two modern buzzwords, are entering an age of exponential growth. Scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs are breaking down old barriers that seemed impossible to break only a few years ago. Products and discoveries are steadily starting to challenge Moravec’s paradox, which states that "...it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility..." Machines are getting better and better at performing tasks that were thought to be exclusive for humans and almost impossible for machines to carry out. As these technologies make progress the technologists’ questions will start to migrate from “technical HOWs” to “social WHYs”.

The rise of the machines is accompanied by utopian and dystopian visions of the future. The utopian visions predict that humans will reach a hyper efficient era in which all needs will be met, social equality will be reached and humans will be free to carry out the activities that fulfill them the most. On the other hand, dystopian visions claim that machines will bring upon us an era of unseen social inequality, technological slavery, job loss and even hint at the possibility of robots taking over humans. To be honest, these visions strike me as notably biased and I see that they lack understanding of the way that humans have evolved alongside technology since the beginning of our first civilizations. No technology has ever had pure black or white outcomes, we’ve seen technologies being implemented within large spectrums with positive and negative ends. As a good example we have the internet, one of humanity's most powerful inventions, it has been used to gather help, funds and resources for natural disaster victims at unbelievable speeds, but it has also been used by criminals to get black markets to operate with that same speed and efficiency. The true nature and purpose of a technology lies on the creator’s mind and intentions, whether it be a single inventor, government or enterprise, the creator’s intentions and designs will place a technology within the positive/negative spectrum.

In his book, Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots, author John Markoff, gives us deep insight of the never ending battle between AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IA (Intelligence Augmentation) pointing out cons and pros of each posture and the consequences that they might have for the future. The book gives us clear examples of systems that have been designed with the AI mindset and systems that have been designed with the IA principles along with descriptions of how their implementation affected our lives. Although the book makes it clear that both fields are opposite in many aspects and ideals, it does show some ways in which they are coming together and also describes their division as a very fuzzy one, meaning that it is not clear where AI becomes IA or vice versa.

I believe that within this “fuzzy division” lie the mindsets and principles that will help us humanize technology. We must find and understand the best way to merge our technological capabilities with our humane aspects, this is the path towards truly humanizing technology. Humanization of technology, to me, is about bringing out the most humane aspects of our lives with the help of our tools and devices, it is about using not only artificial intelligence and robotics but genetics, biology and nanotechnology to augment humanity as a whole. Augmenting humanity will bring us closer to the utopian vision that was briefly described a few paragraphs above.  We must seek to automate tasks that are not purely humane in their nature and begin to free humans from mundane and irrelevant tasks so that every person can have greater opportunities of fulfilling their goals and living their passions. Humanization of technology represents a big challenge and it is a challenge that has been overlooked mostly by markets, but if we start to solve it with every design and invention that comes along in the future, the future of technology will start to look brighter for technology itself but even more important, for humans and our humanity.

Andres Rico

Inventions that embody the ideas described in the text: Wall-Glider, Sixth Sense, ALICE.