Machines and us

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In 2000, William Nelson Joy (Bill Joy) wrote in "Wired" : 
Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.

Bill Joy was an internet and computer pioneer. Joy's predictions were very ahead of its time. This article was written 21 years ago. We have effectively reached a point in just two decades where we are now completely and utterly dependable on one of the many man-made machines: The internet. Even though the mechanism required to "start" or "stop" the Internet isn't technically as complex as just cutting a wire maybe but the economy as a whole is so dependent on the infrastructure that shutting down the internet is essentially like committing economical suicide. 

With the advancement of Internet of Things, dependability on machines and the internet is only increasing. 


While Google Nest controls your homes' electric appliances and oversees its security, Tesla drives you to your nearest gym where the equipment is connected to the internet and ready for you to plug in your details to pull up your workout information. Everything is streamlined and everything is connected. It only means that all the information is also interconnected and one breach of a network switch can potentially gain access to all your information. Twitter's recent hack is a good example. Someone got a hold of Twitter's administration account and was able to gain access to every twitter account. This hacker was able to tweet from high profile twitter accounts requesting bitcoins. 


You can not shut twitter down to combat this as we are way too attached to the platform and it is essentially one of the only semi-reliable news network. Unlike TV news, the public have the access to post their thoughts on twitter and turn someone else's thoughts into a trend. It is a part of our social structure and like many other social media platforms, servers as a backbone for most young adult conversations. According to a study by Penn State, 77% participants said that society as a whole rely too much on technology to succeed. 

Human beings by nature are a pleasure loving beings. They love to relax as much as they love to not work to earn the relaxation (with some exceptions of course). Technology aims to make our lives significantly easier and so we are naturally drawn towards it. The type of entertainment we get from technology today is known as “passive” entertainment. This could be anything from binge-watching a show on Netflix to listening to a podcast. It does not require much effort. Passive entertainment, or passive leisure, is different from active entertainment or active leisure, which involves the exertion of physical or mental energy. This entertainment is very easily accessible. 


Much like Bill Joy, current tech pioneers like Mark Zuckerburg also believe that the coming years of technology will only make humans more and more dependent on technology. It is only in our hands to control the access and our information. 

 


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