The reason for the Existence: A Common Dystopian View on Automation
Human beings have been suffering from the question of existence.
Why on earth do we exist? On what purpose are we alive?
Then our answer varies, ‘God sent us’, ‘God made us human’… Each of us has his/her own answer (or hasn’t found one).
Yes, Human beings crave for reasons of existence.
We spend our whole life trying to find who we truly are, and what we live for. We made packs of us called ‘society’ to live together, appointing each other certain roles with names. It’s a basic principle of how human species live.
Technology and people who contribute to its progress run with one clear vision. If I do not advance today, someone will tomorrow. Technology competitively grows after one another, as it always has been the seed of innovations, yet oftentimes of disasters. Why anyone would hate Newness, no one. The thing is it does not wait for normal people to catch up. It becomes harder and harder. Even a number of human beings came to feel afraid of its speed and impact on themselves.
Why do I say these things? It’s needless to say, after all, what is to happen happens. Yet the problem is no one knows this time.
Not many realize that we are facing a fundamental crisis of human dignity.
Although it becomes clear that automation takes places of human brains, no one seems to question why. Not many voices are heard to stop or at least, consider this replacement. Under the name of convenience, as no one denies the convenience modern technology has brought, automation is welcomed and promoted by the rules of capitalism.
I am not saying it’s all wrong. I am on the side who promotes automation technology, as I currently conduct researches on autonomous vehicles.
It is just we need to be aware, that we will have a hard time finding what to do in the future. Artificial intelligence or any form of agents will do whatever we request -even the things that we did not ask for at the first place, making average human beings just incapable of doing anything that seems hard, time-consuming, or creative.
I study autonomous car and I enjoy it. However, the other side of my brain is afraid of its power of incapacitation. It might threaten human identity as driving selves. Human beings have been riding ‘vehicles’ including horses, cows, camels, carriages, cars, boats, and airplanes. We were always in control and we enjoyed controlling them.
Yes, of course, safety first. Human drivers are the ones who make critical mistakes. Human errors are impossible to eradicate. Less human driver, less tragic accidents. But what about the driving self? What about the freedom and enjoyment of driving? I see Google cares less for that. Full automation undervalues this aspect of human desire.
And in other areas, it is the same.
Sometimes automation empowers us and at the same time, it incapacitates our abilities. It is critical, as it might replace all of human workers and thinkers. We are so close to being lost in the middle of nowhere, seeking for the reason of our existence. If we do not have anything to work on, if we start to think that we are of no use in this world, we are lost completely to the point that no one can save anyone.
