Miscellaneous
Software is for Humans
Software is a set of instructions that a machine follows. But is that it? Is it just the task that we humans assign the machines to do or is it something more than that?
Throughout the evolution of life, humans have created numerous things that can assist them, from the stone spearheads to the wheels, and so on. One such invention was machines and the software that they work on. It has proven to be the most helpful creation for humans of all time.
You cannot find an ecosystem of humans that does not rely on some kind of software. Doctors are saving more lives, engineers are building a better world, governments are developing nations and every person is connecting with every other person for the betterment of this community. All this would have never been possible if it wasn’t for the software that was built for all these tasks. Today, the software has evolved to a stage where it can learn on its own and help humans in unthinkable ways.
‘Software’ sounds like a fairy tale wish that we were gifted with, right? But I haven’t come across any fairy tales without some cruel twists in them. And it stands true for this case too. There are people in the technological domain including researchers who believe that the power of machines can soon outgrow our general intelligence. They think that it can stand as a critical threat for human existence not different than any sci-fi movie like The Matrix or 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It would be wrong to deny the possibility of these threats being true. We must be ready with all the necessary preparations. After all, prevention is better than cure. But we must not forget the fact that software is the most useful invention for humans right now.
We need to continue researching and making it better. We cannot deny the fact that thousands of lives are being saved because we can detect cancers early on with better accuracy. We cannot deny the fact that software is helping us demystify climate change. And we cannot deny the fact that we must not stop pursuing intelligent software. It has the potential of bringing the world to a great balance.
Max Tegmark, a physicist and machine learning researcher, has wonderfully depicted in his books that the evolution of life can be divided into three different parts: Life 1.0, Life 2.0, and Life 3.0. Life 1.0 is a simple biological period where organisms existed in the world without any particular meaning. Life 2.0 is the cultural time period where humans learned how to communicate and live together. Life 3.0 is the world where software develops and we all live in symbiosis with machines. We should harness the power of software for our own good and we should be there to support the evolution of software because the software is always going to be there for humans.
