Technology, judgment and discretion

Two things that differentiate humans from computers are judgment and discretion.

A computer can be programmed to operate within certain boundaries and parameters given certain data, but they cannot make a judgment call.

Movies like I Robot like us to think that someday computers and robots will develop the ability to think on their own outside of human input. But the very nature of being manufactured by humans negates this possibility.

I have been struggling the past week because a certain company I do business with is set up to only make decisions based on what their “system” will allow. The humans that answer the phones are literally bound by the decisions of the computers. I read the fine print and this is even stated there.

Relying on technology to make decisions for us is lazy and limiting.

Then there is the way people’s discretion goes out the window when posting something on the internet. We say things online we would never say to someone’s face.

I don’t know, maybe the machines will take us over someday after all.