Machines vs humans: machines have won

The most vivid dystopian movies in which machines threaten humans tell of a hostile race of evil robots intent on wiping out humanity. Terminator and I Robot come to mind. But naked agression and physical violence is not how this machine vs human competition will play out.

I took a longish road trip in my new car this past week. It's about a 300 mile drive up to the Gunflint trail which gave me plenty of time to try out some new “features” on my 2021 Subaru Crosstrek that I picked up last week. When using cruise control, my car now slows down when following a car ahead too closely. It bings at me and pulls me center if I drift over into another lane. It flashes at me when a car is in my blind spot. I did not need to use this, but supposedly the car will break harder if it senses I am going to run into something. Pretty amazing.

But also pretty disturbing in some ways. I now have to pay less attention to my driving and think less about safe practices while doing so. Hey, if the car will keep me from running into the guardrail along the road, why can’t I program my Sirius XM to play golden oldies while going 80 mph?

Cars have for a long time been getting “smarter,” allowing drivers to get dumber. Automatic transmissions, power windows, keyless entry and start, climate control, auto headlights, remote starting, and, of course, cruise control allow the driver to simply not have to think all that hard. No more lessons in “Pump the gas pedal once. Put one foot on the clutch. Slightly depress the gas pedal. Turn the key - but not for too long!” Now it is “Put your foot on the brake and push the button.

Automotive technology is not the only one of course which has lessened the need for humans to exercise their intelligence. Who doesn’t love spell checkers with auto correct. (I hope Subaru's safety tech is more accurate than auto correct.) Who needs to cook when a microwave is available? GoogleMaps keeps me from actually having to think where I need to turn next. It’s far less mentally taxing to watch a Netflix miniseries than to pick up a thoughtful book. Why read the newspaper when all the important stuff is on Facebook and Twitter? Balancing a checkbook, paying monthly bills by check, doing long division, placing a long distance call - you guys used to do that stuff?

Machines will not destroy us with laser guns or long metallic fangs. Instead, they will continue to dumb us down until we have only the smarts and skills enough to float in a lounger like the humans in Wall-E. And we will become too complacent to even reproduce.

 I would like to think that the thinking time saved by our devices might be put to more productive and creative mental efforts. 

But as this blog post shows, I wouldn’t bet on it.