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#BattleFest2015: Is technology limiting our humanity?
From Big Data to the driverless car, we seem
to live in an age of dizzying technological progress, which many hail
as a ‘new industrial revolution’. Robotic intelligence is becoming so
advanced that many warn machines could take white-collar jobs within a
generation, while computers are moving ever closer to passing the Turing
Test. Meanwhile, smart technology is increasingly marketed as desirable
for reducing the capacity for human error: Google’s developers note
that most accidents had by their driverless car are caused by other
drivers. Global companies such as IBM are involved in designing
purpose-built smart cities, such as South Korea’s Songdo, which can
manage the climate and water supply or respond to citizens’ movements in
real time.
While much of this seems cause for celebration – liberating us from
banal tasks and informing our ability to make choices – others sound a
note of caution. Wall Street’s ‘flash crash’ in 2010 was allegedly
caused by ‘spoofing’ technology tricking automated trading systems into
believing a share crash was taking place, wiping over £500 billion off
the market in a few minutes: an example of the real-world impact of
entirely virtual activity. It similarly remains unclear how the
driverless car would respond to systems failure or pedestrian behaviour.
Architect Rem Koolhaas raises the concern that cities where citizens
are ‘treated like infants’ with no ‘possibility for transgression’ are
not necessarily desirable places to live.
Is it troubling that innovation seems so concerned with eliminating
human failure or has that always been the aim of technological
development? Is humanity facing its ‘greatest existential threat’ from
today’s robots, as Tesla’s Elon Musk warns? Does the ‘new industrial
revolution’ mean a welcome transformation in how we interact with the
world or a limitation of our capacity in act waywardly and
unpredictably?
Speakers
Dr Tom Chatfield
writer and broadcaster; author, Live This Book! and How to Thrive in the Digital Age
Dr Norman Lewis
director (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation
Juliette Morgan
C&W Tech Global Lead – London
Head of Property – Tech City UK
Andrew Orlowski
executive editor, Register; assistant producer, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
Dr Paul Zanelli
chief technical officer, Transport Systems Catapult
Chair
Claire Fox
director, Institute of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze
View all episodes
By academyofideas
3.9
77 ratings
From Big Data to the driverless car, we seem
to live in an age of dizzying technological progress, which many hail
as a ‘new industrial revolution’. Robotic intelligence is becoming so
advanced that many warn machines could take white-collar jobs within a
generation, while computers are moving ever closer to passing the Turing
Test. Meanwhile, smart technology is increasingly marketed as desirable
for reducing the capacity for human error: Google’s developers note
that most accidents had by their driverless car are caused by other
drivers. Global companies such as IBM are involved in designing
purpose-built smart cities, such as South Korea’s Songdo, which can
manage the climate and water supply or respond to citizens’ movements in
real time.
While much of this seems cause for celebration – liberating us from
banal tasks and informing our ability to make choices – others sound a
note of caution. Wall Street’s ‘flash crash’ in 2010 was allegedly
caused by ‘spoofing’ technology tricking automated trading systems into
believing a share crash was taking place, wiping over £500 billion off
the market in a few minutes: an example of the real-world impact of
entirely virtual activity. It similarly remains unclear how the
driverless car would respond to systems failure or pedestrian behaviour.
Architect Rem Koolhaas raises the concern that cities where citizens
are ‘treated like infants’ with no ‘possibility for transgression’ are
not necessarily desirable places to live.
Is it troubling that innovation seems so concerned with eliminating
human failure or has that always been the aim of technological
development? Is humanity facing its ‘greatest existential threat’ from
today’s robots, as Tesla’s Elon Musk warns? Does the ‘new industrial
revolution’ mean a welcome transformation in how we interact with the
world or a limitation of our capacity in act waywardly and
unpredictably?
Speakers
Dr Tom Chatfield
writer and broadcaster; author, Live This Book! and How to Thrive in the Digital Age
Dr Norman Lewis
director (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation
Juliette Morgan
C&W Tech Global Lead – London
Head of Property – Tech City UK
Andrew Orlowski
executive editor, Register; assistant producer, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
Dr Paul Zanelli
chief technical officer, Transport Systems Catapult
Chair
Claire Fox
director, Institute of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze
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