We Still Need Human Judgment

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We Still Need Human Judgment

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Tuesday, June 22, 2010 11:18 PM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item We Still Need Human Judgment

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Post #941499

Henrico Bekker

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 12:37 AM

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You just brought up something I think most people forget, that we as humans still have the power over computers.
It's a 50/50 thing, we need the speed, they need our input.

Good one Steve.

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Post #941526

majorbloodnock

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 3:54 AM

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At the risk of stating the obvious, in the Google story there was a human in the loop, and look what happened Wink

. Certainly a truism that no matter how hard you try to build something that's idiot-proof, nature will evolve a better idiot.

Flippancy aside, I agree with the editorial.

Semper in excretia, sumus solum profundum variat

Post #941621

Raju Lalvani

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 4:10 AM

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It is still some time when computer programs will replace the human minds

Post #941630

blandry

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:04 AM

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Personally, I think its worse than that...

A few days ago I was at a convenience store picking up a few essentials. My total came to $10.47 and I handed the young lady a $20 dollar bill. Unfortunately, their cash register was not working properly and the young lady had to make change "in her head".

It was amazing to watch this young person standing there completely frozen, unable to calculate how much change I was due. A couple of times she politely apologized, but it was clear she had NO clue how to figure out how much change I was due. At one point she handed me $20 and 3 cents, and then mumbled "no no, thats not right..."

I couldn't stand it any longer - I was not angry, I was saddened to see her so befuddled. Finally I said to her, "Start from 10.47 and count as you take change, up to 20 dollars." She managed to work that out and then smiled a huge smile at me and said "Wow! Thats a great trick!!!" I thought, yeah, like I should get a Nobel prize for that one...

More than "us" needing human judgement, in many cases, such as this one I experienced (and not for the first time), computers are to some degree helping to "dumb-down" our youth and society in general. There are a number of futurists who have written about this and painted pictures of a coming "Idiocracy" where humans back-peddle so far in basic knowledge that we become "slaves" to machines - not like in the "Terminator" movies, but simply because we lose the ability to think for ourselves.

Yes, we still need human judgement - but what happens when that human judgement is so watered-down and dependant on machines thats its useless? Maybe our doom lies not in disasters, asteroids, or super-viruses - maybe it lies in our own concerted efforts to be, well, stupid.

There's no such thing as dumb questions, only poorly thought-out answers...

Post #941682

Raju Lalvani

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:11 AM

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We will also lose our ability to spell. Spell check will take both lose and loose as correct. Tongue

Post #941687

spaghettidba

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:20 AM

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Nice editorial, Steve.

I experience the same every day here at work. Looks like people are not paid to do their job, but to push some buttons on the screen.
When something wrong happens, they don't even notice it, because they don't know the business process.
It becomes even worse when you try to ask for information in analysis interviews. Sometimes I think that nobody outside the IT department knows what's going on in the company.

BTW, only in the US you could sue Google for a "wrong" map and possibly win. Here in Italy you can't eve think of that kind of things: it takes something like 20 years to see a civil action end...

Get your two-cent-answer quickly
The Spaghetti DBA

Post #941690

OCTom

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:20 AM

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There have been stories about drivers blindly trusting their GPS and driving into a lake. I believe this is worse in young people who have grown up with technology and have learned to trust it.

Post #941691

hnhaney2

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:35 AM

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Going though college, we were told that “technology is there to better assets us in daily lives, not to replace us.”, and I have adapted this in my work life that what I do is to better assets other in what it is they do, we are a service industry. As for those people that believe technology will replace us, will have a hard time ahead when the “Stuff” hits the fan and one is around to clean up afterward.

Post #941704

chrisn-585491

Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:49 AM

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Technology enables people to make bigger mistakes. Some examples include automated trading programs and weapon systems, each which can be very damaging in their own way to society. Not to mention the criminal mess occuring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Post #941711

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