Planet Of Machines: Will There Be Room For Man? - Society

Arguing about the relationship between man and machine, for a start it is worth, as scientists say, "define the terms." Rather, with one term - by "machine" we mean any device so complex that it requires the help of a specially trained person - an operator - to operate it. If you think that this does not concern you personally, then you will have to disappoint - the process of using any modern gadget or computer or simply driving a car automatically classifies us as “human operators”.

Dreams and cars

In recent decades, scientific and technological progress has made it possible to realize many long-standing dreams of mankind in a "literal form." For example, the dream of a free individual flight. Remember, a little over a hundred years ago, people were still wondering why people do not fly like birds. So, today they already fly - all freer and, in a sense, even cooler than the smaller feathered brothers.

In all seriousness, they are already promoting a complete human head transplant. But Professor Dowell's Head was written less than a hundred years ago!

But why is there - what was previously considered a dream is now turning into an ordinary entertainment - now on the beaches you can ride a parachute over the sea or fly on a hang glider. And also “home” space, free movement around the planet, electric cars, the ability to be in touch almost anywhere in the world, etc., and so on, and so on … Today, cars fulfill the cherished dreams of a person, give him new opportunities and … change our psyche.

Electronic roommate

More and more often, psychologists, educators and parents shout that modern youth have stopped communicating with each other, and computers and gadgets are acting as an intermediary. And indeed, with a computer and an iPhone, the user has a personal relationship, almost like with a living partner. Without them, they do not know what to do with themselves. They are missed. They can be offended, angry, swearing and even destroyed for emotional reasons.

At the same time, more and more often we hear that children begin to treat living people as mechanical devices, as a result of which they do not understand and do not accept other people's pain and, accordingly, are not capable of showing sympathy and empathy.

Sex and machines

Machines now interfere with human relationships at all levels, down to the most intimate. How long have we perceived stories about virtual sex or sex at a distance as a joke, but now psychologists directly recommend that couples who have to maintain relationships at a long distance to use video communication for intimate life.

Sexual and even family life with a sex doll is already becoming an alternative to partnerships, and people who practice such relationships no longer consider themselves "quiet perverts" and openly share their specific experiences.

Developers of all kinds of 3D technologies are seriously talking about the full replacement of sex with a virtual partner, using an artificially created reality, and medical technologies of gender reassignment have completely confused the population in solving the elementary question - "are you a boy or a girl?"

Artificial Intelligence

It is even more difficult to predict what changes in the relationship with machines await us in the light of the creation of artificial intelligence. Apparently, not only lost chess games, as in the case of the famous matches of Garry Kasparov with the chess supercomputer.

It seems that marriage will soon become relevant not only with representatives of the same gender, but also with a cyber machine.

"Clip" thinking

The electronic generation has developed a special type of thinking, which has already received the name "clip". Such people are not able to deal with solving one problem for a long time, but they feel good in a multitasking situation.

Accustomed from childhood to the rapid change of the picture on the monitor and TV screen, they begin to live in life according to similar laws - an endless alternation of events and impressions.

They are afraid when there are "many letters", try to use a minimum of effort to assimilate information of any complexity and are not interested in anything for more than five minutes

Without bothering with the consistency and consistency of their own and others' actions, they are constantly looking for new impressions and "change of bright pictures."

Life for the game

Against this background, the film "The Matrix" does not seem so fantastic, especially if we recall the phenomenon of computer addiction, when life according to the laws of the "matrix" some characters quite voluntarily organize themselves. Young people can’t tear themselves away from computer games for days, forget to eat, lose sleep, meet physiological needs right “for themselves” and even die without breaking away from the game.

Another type of addiction is associated with the fact that young people begin to live with a computer or “at the computer”. Gradually, they lose all interest in real live communication, lock themselves in their rooms for years, live on unemployment benefits or at the expense of their parents, settle for simple food, beer and cigarettes supplied by compassionate relatives.

At the same time, they do not show any interest in the opposite sex, social growth, career and other things that can pull them out of the virtual world. In Japan, this phenomenon has already managed to get its own name - "hikikomori".

Who will be called human?

In parallel with this, machines begin to integrate into the human body, and all this is already changing us as an anthropological species. All kinds of implants, prostheses, pacemakers and other miracles of medical engineering not only increase human capabilities, but raise the question of the very nature of "homo sapiens".

In a specific historical time, there is always a certain idea of what a person is: how he should look like, what is his average life expectancy, physical capabilities, and so on. And the whole civilization is oriented towards these parameters.

From the moment a person is born, we can predict in advance how long he will live, what he will need in life and how many years he will work for the state. Now imagine that the dream of a hundred and twenty-year average life expectancy will come true. Can you imagine the global scale of general restructuring?

Foggy prospects

Another problem is related to the direction in which a person will develop and with the help of which he will carry out this development. Already now, all over the world, teachers have deeply thought about what a person will need to be able to do in the future and what skills will be mandatory for him.

From a psychological point of view, these are not such simple questions. For example, it has long been known that the mental development of a child is directly related to fine motor skills, that is, with the ability to perform small operations with the fingers, and one of the important components of this skill has always been handwriting. And how will the nature of the development of children change now if a couple of generations have already grown up, for which the computer keyboard has replaced a pencil and a pen practically from birth?

The hour is not far off when the skills of driving a car will not be obligatory for part of the world's population. And the process of "freeing" a person from complex skills seems to be just beginning.

Victims of competition

In the optimistic version, it seems that there will finally be time for "spiritual development" and other difficult things. But optimism largely diminishes the flip side of this problem: how many highly developed people will be needed to perform the functions of operators in super-complex systems? And what should the rest of the billions do? Indeed, by and large, these people run the risk of being in the position of "victims of machines."

The processes of replacing a person with a machine have a long history. And here it will not be superfluous to recall the famous Luddite movement - participants in the "rebellion against the machines" in England at the beginning of the 19th century. Only the scale of the transformations that are now taking place is incomparable with the events of two hundred years ago. Whole countries and even continents fall into the category of those who are not very much expected at the festival of superproductive labor.

It is not for nothing that futurologists are seriously considering the possibility that humanity will eventually split into those few who will operate machines and develop high technologies, and those who will lead, so to speak, a "simpler" lifestyle. What concept of further development do you consider the most realistic?