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Tag: humans
Ironies of Automation
“…the more we automate, and the more sophisticated we make that automation, the more we become dependent on a highly skilled human operator.”
-Adrian Colyer, “Ironies of automation.” the morning paper. January 8, 2020.
A robot surgeon might be a great idea, but it’s going to handle the routine, the easy surgeries. What’s left is what’s hard. That’ll be the new work for human surgeons.
And who fixes the surgeries that the robot got wrong? Who watches the robot surgeons and steps in when they can’t do they job?
This is true of automation in every area. The jobs it eliminates are the easy, routine jobs. With more automation, the level of difficulty simply goes up.
If the robot does the job better, then they get the job. But, someone who does the job better than robots will always have to evaluate their work and step in when the work is beyond them.
Where will we find such people, if we don’t become them?
CRISPR Enzyme Programmed to Kill Viruses in Human Cells
“Many of the world’s most common or deadly human pathogens are RNA-based viruses—Ebola, Zika and flu, for example—and most have no FDA-approved treatments. A team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has now turned a CRISPR RNA-cutting enzyme into an antiviral that can be programmed to detect and destroy RNA-based viruses in human cells.”
—Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, “CRISPR enzyme programmed to kill viruses in human cells.” Phys.org. October 10, 2019
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