Striking a Balance Between Human and Machine
June 19, 2013
Math is on the march, as computer algorithms are poised to take over everything from driving cars to granting parole to inmates. Aeon takes a thoughtful look at the phenomenon in, “Slaves to the Algorithm.” The article asks whether the trajectory will leave a place for human judgment. Writer Steven Pool ponders:
“What lies behind our current rush to automate everything we can imagine? Perhaps it is an idea that has leaked out into the general culture from cognitive science and psychology over the past half-century — that our brains are imperfect computers. If so, surely replacing them with actual computers can have nothing but benefits.”
I recommend checking out the article. It is full of developments that have already taken place (some startling), as well as strong indicators of where we are headed with our increasingly algorithm-managed world. The central issue is the degree to which we will allow the math to take over. Example questions include: How would, and should, an automated driver react to an out-of-control school bus full of kids? Or to what extent do automatic content filters hamper free speech? Will news aggregators continue to narrow our personal windows onto the world? Issues that stand in the way of transparency in these decisions are also examined.
There is hope. Unsurprisingly, money is the motive for the first evidence Pool sees of a check to the algorithm’s power grab. Now that high-frequency trading algorithms have shown (more than once) that they have the power to bring the market to its knees, regulators are beginning to impose checks on the use of these tools. The article observes:
“Here, then, are the first ‘algorithmic auditors’. Perhaps their example will prompt similar developments in other fields — culture, education, and crime — that are considerably more difficult to quantify, even when there is no immediate cash peril.”
Perhaps, but I suspect it will take more to spur such “auditors” outside of finance. Meanwhile, now is the time to have a discussion about what we want our future to look like, and how much control we humans wish to retain.
Cynthia Murrell, June 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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