Are Algorithms The Future Of Civilization?

We rely on Facebook to inform us of what's new. We rely on Google search to inform us of the truth. We rely on Google Maps to direct us to our destination. Netflix dictates our viewing choices. Amazon suggests purchases. Eventually, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, such algorithms may even advise you what to study in college, where to work, whom to marry, and even whom to vote for.

And as algorithms improve, they will not only be able to lead and govern people, but they may also replace humans in an increasing number of vocations.

This is true even for tasks that require a grasp of human emotions. For instance, there is a lot of discussion about self-driving cars these days. Self-driving cars or the computers that run them, on the other hand, need to know not only how to get around on the road, but also how to talk to people. They need to understand and anticipate the behavior of both human customers and human pedestrians.

They must, for example, be able to tell the difference between an eight-year-old, an eighteen-year-old, and a forty-year-old who are coming toward the road. They must also know how young children, teens, and adults act differently.

To replace human doctors, computers will need to be able to understand not only our illnesses but also how we feel. The computer must be able to distinguish between a patient's anger, fear, and depression. However, it is quite possible that computers will be able to accomplish this better than many human doctors since anger, fear, and sadness are biological processes much like influenza and diabetes. If computers can diagnose the flu, computers can also diagnose fear.

Of course, as all jobs in driving vehicles and in diagnosing diseases will gradually disappear, all kinds of new jobs, which we cannot even imagine at present, will emerge. However, the new employee will also continue to alter and go.

If we could meet our great-great-great-grandmother and tell her about our current abilities, she would believe we are living in a paradise with no problems. However, in many respects, our lives are far more stressful than they were a thousand years ago. And the level of stress might only increase in the coming decades because again, the pace of change is increasing, and you're constantly under this fear that you will be left behind, will not be able to cope with the next big change, and as you grow older, change is becoming more and more stressful.

So, you can debate for thousands of years, but now, as abilities, especially in biotechnology develop, we may get the opportunity to start re-engineering the human body, the human brain, and the human mind. And then the question arises, which kind of qualities do we want to enhance, and which kinds of qualities or abilities are less important? If you ask the army, or if you ask some big corporation, they will tell you, oh, we want to enhance human efficiency and intelligence and discipline, because we want more discipline and intelligent and efficient soldiers and workers and so forth.