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I found the example of the automated email to the ship's captain a bit weak. > The point is that we don’t know, the captain of the ship itself didn’t know, and

by LeonM 6y ago

I found the example of the automated email to the ship's captain a bit weak. > The point is that we don’t know, the captain of the ship itself didn’t know, and that nobody may know It all boils down to abstraction. Just like the captain doesn't need to know why a certain type of steel is used for the hull of his ship, or how the software works that monitors his engines. The captain doesn't need to understand the calculation that goes behind the optimal arrival time of his ship. But I'm sure that, if he's curious enough, he can contact the right people at his employer to tell him why certain decisions are made.

ardy42 6y ago
> The captain doesn't need to understand the calculation that goes behind the optimal arrival time of his ship. But now he can't monitor its performance and intervene when it's wrong or offer feedback. He's turned into an automaton, and we're assuming his central planner has all the knowledge and understanding necessary to successfully manage a central plan and react to (perhaps unexpected) changes. And that's only considering the perspective of task performance, which is not the only angle here. Is it really a better world if all the tasks are performed perfectly, but if almost everyone's reduced to a deskilled, mind-numbed, burger-flipper?
- quintushoratius 6y ago
  > Is it really a better world if all the tasks are performed perfectly, but if almost everyone's reduced to a deskilled, mind-numbed, burger-flipper? In your metaphor you're assuming that the captain becomes a low skill automoton. Is he that, or has automation allowed him to set aside drudge and concentrate on the interesting parts of his job? Do you think calculators make us dumb, or do they help us with the arithmetic while our minds can turn to the important, interesting parts of the problem at hand?
  - natmaka 6y ago
    The "technique" isn't confined into menial tasks. It gains speed on interesting parts and noble avenues, for example automated theorem proving.

by LeonM 6y ago

ardy42 6y ago

> The captain doesn't need to understand the calculation that goes behind the optimal arrival time of his ship. But now he can't monitor its performance and intervene when it's wrong or offer feedback. He's turned into an automaton, and we're assuming his central planner has all the knowledge and understanding necessary to successfully manage a central plan and react to (perhaps unexpected) changes. And that's only considering the perspective of task performance, which is not the only angle here. Is it really a better world if all the tasks are performed perfectly, but if almost everyone's reduced to a deskilled, mind-numbed, burger-flipper?

quintushoratius 6y ago
> Is it really a better world if all the tasks are performed perfectly, but if almost everyone's reduced to a deskilled, mind-numbed, burger-flipper? In your metaphor you're assuming that the captain becomes a low skill automoton. Is he that, or has automation allowed him to set aside drudge and concentrate on the interesting parts of his job? Do you think calculators make us dumb, or do they help us with the arithmetic while our minds can turn to the important, interesting parts of the problem at hand?
- natmaka 6y ago
  The "technique" isn't confined into menial tasks. It gains speed on interesting parts and noble avenues, for example automated theorem proving.