By Harper Skrzypczak, Editor-in-Chief.
As the world around us becomes more automated, few people are stepping back to examine the relationship between humans and machines.
On Wednesday, Feb. 10, Nicholas Carr, a New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist will speak at Delta College about this topic.
The speech, which is part of the President’s Speakers Series, will be held in the Delta College Lecture Theater, G-160, at 10 a.m. After his presentation the author’s books will be for sale and he will be available for book signing.
Carr’s most recent novel, “The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us,” discusses our dependence on computers, machinery and automation and how this reliance affects us as individuals and as a society.
“As human beings we seem to have this deep desire to make things easy for ourselves. And that’s why we’re so quick to look to machinery or computers to take over work we used to do ourselves,” says Carr, via phone interview.
According to Carr, the more we automate the more control and information we give to computer companies.
“What’s happening in essence is that because we can now program computers to automatically analyze information and output suggestions or recommendations, and because computers can do that very quickly, it becomes attractive for many companies to replace even white-collar workers, analytical workers with computers,” says Carr. “Or, if they don’t replace those workers, they require workers to rely on software to do their jobs.”
Few professional occupations are immune from automation, according to Carr. However, he says that doesn’t mean all jobs are going to disappear. Rather, all jobs are going to change as people become more reliant on computers and software algorithms.
Carr suggests that we take a step back and “defend our human selves and not simply fall into the trap of saying that because computers are quicker at things they’re… better at them.”
Although Carr believes that there are many positives that come from technology and automation, there are negatives that need to be examined. One of the biggest problems he has with automation, particularly computer automation, is that the design is often technology-centered.
“The person who is writing the software or engineering the computer system starts by saying ‘Well, what can the computer do?’ And then everything that the computer can possibly do is handed over to the computer and then what’s left over is given to the human being. And, often what’s leftover is pretty dull stuff like monitoring computer screens or inputting data,” says Carr.
This is a problem because “it steals from people the opportunity to develop their own talent. We become very passive and defer to the computer.”
Carr believes a better approach “is not to say, ‘Let the computer do everything the computer can do,’ but to think about what people are good at and what computers are good at. And, then divide responsibilities in a way that allows people to continue to build their own talents and their own insights while using the computer to speed up certain routine tasks.”
This approach, according to Carr, is called human-centered design. This way “we can get the advantages that computers provide, but we can also make sure that we continue to be challenged… and to continue to get the satisfaction and the sense of fulfillment that comes from developing rich skills and overcoming hard challenges rather than simply saying, “ Well let the computer do it.”
Kirk Wolf, a professor of philosophy at Delta and member of the President’s Speakers Series Committee, recommended Carr as a speaker to the committee. Barb Handley-Miller, chair of the committee, made Carr’s lecture at Delta possible.
Wolf says Carr is “not opposed to digital media or the internet. He’s not a Luddite,” and that “He does raise serious questions about our dependence on [technology].”
The danger of our ever increasing dependence,” says Carr, “is that we become kind of trapped in a compulsive cycle of information gathering and messaging. And if you look at patterns of the way people use Facebook or use their smartphones or use Google what you see is really this kind of constant compulsive scanning of information.”
Carr says that all of the distraction and interruption via phones and computers makes it so that “we have less and less time to back away from the flow of information and to concentrate and be attentive to very complex issues, complex subjects.”
When asked what tips he can give to get into a state of flow and focus, Carr says that if people “value the deepest forms of thinking, then they need to make room in their day to day lives to engage in that.”