

Automation Makes Us Dumb - softdev12
http://online.wsj.com/articles/automation-makes-us-dumb-1416589342

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jrapdx3
An interesting article that expresses some of the nagging thoughts that "de-
skilling" is becoming more obvious. I've tried to tell myself that I've become
cynical and biased with age, but the author's commentary about medical
practitioners cuts too close to the bone, coinciding with my own observations.

There's a great range of skill among doctors (any specialty), though a hard
thing to quantify. I'd agree reliance on devices may not always be an asset or
promote greater skill. Perhaps it's a bigger issue for the less experienced,
but not really just a matter of years on the job.

Of course using computers to find information (and for so many other purposes)
can be extremely useful. However there's a trend to let the _machine_
determine the scope of info one looks for, and when that happens, it's likely
to lead to missing important clues in clinical practice.

The key to expertise isn't knowledge, it's knowing the limits of knowledge.
Knowing that one doesn't know is crucial and only learned by experience.
Computers can't provide info not programmed in, and even worse, most of the
time won't acknowledge lack of knowledge, that the humans have to rely on
themselves.

I often think about the benefit of experience I've accumulated. I put it this
way, it took thirty years of practice to fully realize what I didn't know and
that's what enables me to be so much better at it now.

When used as a _tool_ , an instrument to extend or refine, not replace, our
powers of observation and problem-solving computers can be useful, our skills
enhanced. But we have to exercise our own unaided senses to optimally develop
our abilities and talents.

The problem that's developing is misconstruing tools to be oracles and
disregarding the power of our built-in computational facilities.

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gumby
To misquote Cicero: O tempora o artis! Or if you want to go farther back,
refer to the Phaedrus, when Socrates attacks writing (by citing Egyptian
criticism as precedent!).

The fact is, since the invention of the water wheel automation has allowed us
to become physically weaker. Some choose to work on their strength, others
choose to use their time elsewhere (when in the past there was no choice). And
this automation has liberated those who are not strong at all.

The same is true of the computer. There is nothing preventing you from
developing the memory skills preliterate societies required, and there are
even contests today of people who have honed (and probably improved) those
skills.

Of course there are areas in which particular contemporary human skills will
continue to be valued (perhaps plane piloting, until automation becomes good
enough; perhaps piano playing simply because some people will prefer a human
at the keyboard). But most such skills will be pursued for fun. I still like
writing PDP-10 machine code from time to time but I hardly consider it a
practical art at this point.

Instead people will continue to use the computer to extend human capability
just as rockets allow people to "jump" higher than they could on their own.
The "human-centered design" (as described by Carr, who should be ashamed of
himself because he certainly knows better) is simply a condescending school of
design. What's truly human centered is using technology to allow people to do
what they want, whether it's to explore space or to write more bad memos and
bad buildings, or simply passively watch more television.

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bitcuration
That is because you never find a higher purpose of yourself. Automation didn't
make anyone dumb, but it certainly cannot make anyone smarter.

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twombly
I'd rather be dumb and have free time than organize files every day and
maintain my intelligence(not sure how this can really be quantified though)

