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there may be trouble ahead |
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_POSTED_BY desik
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
 Man Machine Symbiosis
"The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today."
J.C.R. Licklider
IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, volume HFE-1, pages 4-11, March 1960
A Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology predicts a near merging of humans and machines by 2020.
The report focusses on fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines and computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines. The keyboard, mouse and monitor will increasingly be replaced by more intuitive forms of interaction and display, including tablet computers, speech recognition systems and fingertip-operated surfaces. ( hmmmm...we have those now I'm sure we'll be hacking into our central nervous systems by then )
The experts claim that boundaries between humans and computers will become blurred over the next decade as devices are embedded in objects, our clothing or, in the case of medical monitoring, in our bodies.
The report also warns that without proper consideration and control it is possible that we face alarming privacy and agency issues.
The report dubs this the era of so-called hyper-connectivity and predicts it will mean a growth in "techno-dependency" warning that this ever more intimate relationship between humans and computers will be a double-edged sword.
The report compares the widespread introduction of the calculator - widely blamed for a fall in the standard of mental arithmetic - with what may happen as computers become more intelligent and take on new responsibilities.
"Without proper consideration and control it is possible that we - both individually and collectively - may no longer be in control of ourselves or the world around us," the report warns.
As well as the need for language to reflect the newly expanded human/computer environment so too the concept of teaching computer science will need to be adapted.
"Not just teaching children about how computers and applications work, but about their wider impact," reads the report.
Among its recommendations for the future direction of HCI, the report suggests there needs to be greater engagement with government and policy makers .
Bring on the Saviour Machine...
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 July 2009 )
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