There are always two sides of a coin. The same applies to the increasingly overused notion of globalization. At first glance, it appears that globalization has provided us with the advancement of technology which boosts vast improvement of connectivity online and offline as well as enhancing the quality of living. However lately there has been a discussion on the rapid growth of automation which can lead to a rise of unemployment among the labour market worldwide.
Nof (2009) explained that the term automation derives from the Greek word automatos, which means acting by its own will, in simple terms today implies self-regulated operation without any human intervention. Among the examples of the application of automation in our daily lives are machines and devices that draw its strength from a major power source such as electricity and solar energy (Nof, 2009). The question is, why the sudden emergence of automation? As a matter of fact, automation started way before the Industrial Revolution where people already started to build windmills and water aqueducts. As the Industrial Revolution blossomed, many forms of innovations and inventions such as steam boats and telegraph are introduced to enhance work productivity and promote efficiency in daily lives (Nof, 2009). Years passed and modernity drives us to an era of striving towards endless technology possibilities. Fast forward to 21st century presently, robots and artificial intelligence are seen as a better substitute to replace humans for more sophisticated work.
In Ireland, it was proposed to increase the numbers of “staffless” libraries, in which CCTV cameras, card-swipe access and automated book-lending terminals are chosen over human librarians in order to enable operation for a longer and sustainable period (O’Halloran, 2016). This shows policymakers are more inclined to turn to automation in the long run to increase profits. The trend is slowly catching up in Asia as well. One of the most recent case studies involves a factory in China where it is reported to be run by 60 robot arms that operates for almost 24 hours across 10 production lines. The article titled “Robot Efficiency Makes Case for Workplace Automation” revealed that the factory used to have 650 workers to aid their production in mobile phones. However, at present, there are only 60 employed people in the factory. Among them, three are given the tasks to examine and supervise the production line, and the remaining 57 of them are assigned with monitoring computer control systems. The rest of the work which are not handled by humans is eventually conducted by machines (Houser & Javelosa, 2017).
Not only that, in an article by Bowler (2017), Richard Baldwin who is an economist introduced a new concept which is virtual migration to further explain the consequence of automation. Virtual migration means citizens in a country could actually lose their job to robots from other countries. Though the robots are not physically present in that country, globalization makes this process possible with great Internet connectivity all over the globe. In the same article, Baldwin citing examples from book The Great Convergence, mentioned that “security guards in US shopping malls could be replaced by robots controlled by security personnel based in Peru, and hotel cleaners in Europe could be replaced by robots driven by staff based in the Philippines.” (Bowler, 2017, p.3). However, at the same time Microsoft founder, Bill Gates and Tesla and SpaceX founder, Elon Musk expressed concern over increasing unemployment due to automation. In an interview, Bill Gates advocated for taxes to be implemented on robot companies to overcome the potential loss of overflowing usage of robots in job replacement for various sectors (Nash, 2017). On the other hand, Elon Musk attributed this scenario to our continuous dependence on technology, and predicts that in no time, both automation and artificial intelligence will take control over 15 percent of the workforce all around the world (Karandeep Singh, 2017).
Based on several readings that I have read, I can describe globalization as a double edged sword. While it has certainly make the world “closer” to each other, but it is true that over dependence of technology can eventually lead to our own destruction. Who would ever thought our own inventions will eventually surpass us and replace us ? I also found a thought provoking video on Youtube titled : How to Become Relevant when a Robot Takes Your Job. You can watch it to have a better understanding on this week's first blog post. Feel free to click on the links provided in the references sections and comments , discussions are welcomed. I would end by saying that a balance during policy making and decisions on matters related globalization especially in today’s economy is essential where capitalism reigns supreme.
References
Bowler, T. (2017, Feb
1).Will globalisation take away your job? BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business38600270
Nash, C. (2017, Feb
20). Bill Gates calls for robot tax to offset jobs
lost to automation. BREITBART.
Retrieved from http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/02/20/billgatescallsforrobottaxtooffsetjobslosttoautomation/
Nof, S.Y.(Ed.). (2009). Springer handbook of
automation. Heidelberg, Germany : Springer. Retrieved from http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/952/bok%253A978-3-540-78831-7.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Fbook%2F10.1007%2F978-3-540-78831-7&token2=exp=1487729594~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F952%2Fbok%25253A978-3-540-78831-7.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Fbook%252F10.1007%252F978-3-540-78831-7*~hmac=4ad35b9701b630586991dccc2274862db200b18bb544b9f33faf1d8534eee7e3
Houser, K., & Javelosa, J. (2017, Feb 17). Robot efficiency makes case for workplace automation. Eyewitness News. Retrieved from http://ewn.co.za/2017/02/17/after- replacing-90-of-employees-with-robots-this-company-s-productivity-soared
Karandeep
Singh (2017,
Feb 20). Elon Musk Believes Artificial Intelligence
to Be Dangerous; Cautions About Mass Unemployment. Racing Junky. Retrieved from http://www.racingjunky.com/elonmuskbelievesartificialintelligencedangerouscautionsmassunemployment/
minister-says-further-23-staffless-libraries-to-open-extra-hours-1.2885167
Robot is nice. But, I agree with your opinion that "it is true that over dependence of technology can eventually lead to our own destruction". And I decide to not having a robot in future, because I can be a "robot" also.. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Noraini, thank you for your reply. I have heard people saying that it is impossible to live without their phone/ Internet. It is really scary to think that we might go crazy without them because new technology has penetrated every part of our lives.
DeleteI still prefer the human touch even though robots may be more efficient.
Haha, I think I get what you mean. May we enjoy the best of both worlds, in technology and in maintaining a "humanly" lifestyle.
I like your angle Joyce. It’s really sad to realize that technology device which means to serve human being is going to replace our duty one day. More convenience, productive and effective, less concern and feeling is what we look for but eventually it still related to our needs. We need affection, company, and conversation which are unpredictable and fascinating. That is not what a piece of device can and supposes to react. If one day, digital device started to make commitments in a relationship, I would consider it as haunted! (Just kidding) After all, we should aware that success means nothing if we have no one to share with.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reply, Winnie. Indeed, I think no measure of technology can ever replace real human connection. It is somewhat fascinating to see the progress of technology throughout the years, but I think humans really underestimated the power of our own inventions.
DeleteI stick to the principle that technology can be a friend but never a soulmate =)
Saya suka dengan kenyataan Winnie, sungguh tertarik walaupun hanya sekadar gurauan. Ya saya juga akui bahawa teknologi sememangnya akan menggantikan manusia suatu hari nanti. Dulu-dulu, saya selalu mengimpikan bahawa ingin menaiki kereta terbang, makanan terbang dan segalanya, memandangkan saya teringat kepada Wawasan 2020 yang inginkan negara yang maju. Tetapi apabila saya berfikir banyak kali, tidak sepatutnya perkara tersebut berlaku kerana kita akan mengganggapnya sebagai keperluan, bukan lagi keinginan. Perlakuan manusia akan menjadi terbatas dan manusia akan dilihat seperti tidak mempunyai kudrat dan kepentingannya lagi kerana teknologi telah menggantikannya 100%. Jadi, apa yang boleh saya cadangkan, "robot" ataupun teknologi boleh digantikan tetapi perlulah dikawal kerana tidak semua benda kita perlu bergantung kepadanya sahaja, sesekali kita perlu menghargai kemahiran dan keupayaan sebagai seorang manusia di bumi yang nyata ini.
DeleteDear Joyce, I agreed with your statement about the overly dependence on technology will lead to own destruction.
ReplyDeletePeople claimed that technology is spoiling the future generation. For instance, children nowadays prefer staying at home to play phone or video games instead of participate physical activities such as jogging and cycling. Not only that, people also tends to engage in computer-mediated communication such as social networks rather than face to face communication to interact with each other.
On the other hand, people argue that often rely on technology not equal to over dependency. Globalization contributes to the technology advancement and it has become an important and inseparable part in our daily life. For example, we need cars for transportation, phone to communicate, and internet to connect with each other. With globalization, our lives have become easier.
In the 21st century, it is undeniable that there are pros and cons in related to globalization. In my opinion, people should use a more balance approach when dealing with technologies as well as coping with globalization.
Hi Sok Fern, thanks for your feedback. Indeed, the debate is still continuous because we are indeed enjoying the benefits of globalization. In fact, we cannot deny that we are always looking forward to the next big thing. It is hard to imagine a life without Internet nowadays. Even individuals from older generations such as our parents and even grandparents have to get used to new technology in order not to be left out.
ReplyDeleteWe have to accept the fact that we cannot stop globalisation just because we feel intimidated by automation. It is funny that robots will be our biggest competitor but I hope that everything will be under moderation.
I do not hope to live a technology effective life without the real enjoyment of life. Haha, that's up to us to decide.
Definitely. Our future is in our hands :)
DeleteI am definitely agree with you Joyce that the globalisation is like a double edged sword. It brings us extra benefits which can ease our daily activities and increase the efficiency but at the same time we are getting dependent on it. We lost our jobs due to the same reason. Hence, the development itself has also meet it's failure because it can affect and wipe out humans' role. Plus, if we are too used to the technologies, when we are dependent on it, then our abilities to learn something new about work is also gone because employers will tend to use technologies to do that rather than teaching us the ways to do so. Soon on later, the manual work and skills will go missing and many cultural values will be extinct.
ReplyDeleteHi Esther, thanks for your feedback. I am reminded of the article that Mr Jamali shared on Morpheus, on whether the Internet makes us stupid ? I guess we all share the same concern. We are living in an " instant" culture. Instant food, instant information and so on, so much so that we get so caught up with having the optimum "time and space" to get things done instantly haha.
DeleteYou pointed out a very valid point on how technology can actually demotivate us to learn new skills. Instead of striving to learn more, we simply just give all the credit and "hard work" to technology because we think they know better than us. BUT, aren't we the one that sort of invented them in the first place ?
I do hope automation and the human working culture can coexist peacefully. I think we still need each other.
Hi Joyce, it is pity to know that this is a fact that we need to admit it. Yes, robot is gradually replace us, human in life and what irony is, robot actually is human's innovation to improve human's life but in return, human is defeated.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, we become less independent as technology taking over our life nowadays. As an example, we know how to calculate and we definitely learn mathematics before but when comes to situation that we need to calculate something like simple mathematics questions, we will unconsciously finding a calculator. Because we know technology is always true and we do not believe in ourself even though we actually know how to solve it.
Hi Jia Chi, thank you for your feedback and I absolutely agree with your example. Honestly, we know that we can actually solve a problem without any help from technology at times but we have lost trust in ourselves.
DeleteThrough this study, I realised that we ourselves have become our own back up plan, instead of the other way round. Like in certain cases, we choose to use a particular communication medium to convey our message first instead of having a direct communication.
I think sometimes we have to exercise our own ability to trust ourselves more instead of relying fully on technology.
hai joyce! perkongsian artikel yang menarik. saya setuju dengan pernyataan anda mengenai "revolusi industri" ini banyak mengubah dan mempengaruhi diri manusia untuk mencipta dan bukan di cipta. Makna dicipta ini seperti robot yang kini banyak dihasilkan oleh pakar teknologi untuk menjimatkan masa. ya, sememangnya kita perlu mengikut arus ledakan teknologi pada abad 21 ini, namun amat membimbangkan juga pada masa yang sama, sesetengah manusia semakin banyak yang kurang bekerja keras menggunakan "otak" dan "tenaga" untuk berfikir dan bekerja walaupun adanya kemudahan teknologi ini. nampak mudah namun kesannya berpanjangan.
ReplyDeleteJadi, kita banyak di "set" kan oleh alatan teknologi bukannya kita yang "built and set" teknologi itu. kualiti itu perlu dihasilkan oleh diri kita sendiri bukannya dengan bantuan teknologi. Gunakan dengan bijak. Klik dengan bijak bak kata SKMM (Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia).
Sekian. terima kasih. have a nice day! :-)
Hi Ema, thank you for your feedback. I like your analogy of "built and set" because it is so true.
DeleteRobots can take over our role, and we have no reason to not let it happen because they can perform a job with almost no mistake.
Our society is gradually becoming obsessed with perfection, accuracy and speed where human is seen as a liability, and that it is really sad.
Thanks for your contribution, Joyce. New technology is well-developed nowadays. Yes, I agree that "robot" and "programs" are replacing the "functions" of human in the workplace. Human developed technology, while technology replaces human. It is quite a sad things. People even need to compete with the computer system to get the job. I also worry about we have to face this competence power when we graduate in the future =(
ReplyDeleteHi Jessie, thank you for taking your time to comment.
DeleteI share the same thoughts as you while I am doing research on this topic. Now that we are in our final semester, I think that unemployment is an issue that needs to be taken seriously.
That's why we have to continuously update and upgrade ourselves to be marketable and competitive. I hope we can really have good application of new technology especially communication technology to improve our daily lives.
We need great discernment on usage of technology in the 21st century in order to stay relevant. Instead of being controlled, let us be careful on how we approach automation and the development of new technology.
Thank you Joyce for pointing out that machine automation is replacing human labors. The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in labor have always been a big concern to me. According to an article by Leetaru (2016), technological advancement has brought constant change to human society by eliminating classes of jobs, while creating new and more skilled ones to replace them. Yet, AI somehow became a disruptor to that natural evolution by eliminating jobs without replacing them.
ReplyDeleteToday, we still need technology experts to program the computers that increasingly automate our lives. Even the most powerful AI systems are still based on algorithms designed by humans. However, as AI eventually reaches the singularity point and is able to program itself, while it designs and manufactures the robots needed to expand its physical computing infrastructure, what role will humans play in this brave new world?
Famous inventor Elon Musk once voiced his genuine concerns for the rise of AI. Machines have already surpassed human evolution in some limited domains. For instance, the best human Chess players in the world have been defeated by artificial intelligence (Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov). Just think about that, no human may ever again become the best at this game. Thus, is it that dubious to think that more general talents and abilities could be rendered equally obsolete? What happens when machines become more competent at performing any and all physical and mental labor? If AI become more competent in every regard then what purpose or function would be left for us to serve?
As a music lover myself, I'm aware of the use of AI in music industry. Here's an example, https://soundcloud.com/florin_andrei/sets/ai
This short composition is not produced by a piano. It was created by an AI in an effort to mimic the sound of a piano. Moreover, machine-written content has become so common that you've likely read a few automated articles without even realizing it. Check
http://botpoet.com/
Another example, many of us have likely played around with Google translate. Simply input some text and then a voice will read it aloud. This has been accomplished by having a voice actor read a long series of sentences and words. Then the syllables were spliced into tiny samples before stitched and morphed back together. AI can not only do this in seconds but can also produce MORE natural-sounding speech! It can too produce human-like gibberish. See
https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio/
A recent documentary on Artificial Intelligence helps me understand AI using simple analogy:
"Think of human infants. Infant doesn't really know or comprehend anything. They move around and scream a lot. For the most part, the brain is actually searching for patterns. Systematically attempting to identify recurring events in a effort to make sense of the world: "If mommy and daddy can speak, maybe I can speak; They can walk around on two feet, I can too." A few years of this repetitive learning process, an AI can comprehend anything.
This is essentially what machine learning is all about. Creating a simple mathematical model of the human brain and input a bunch of information. The Artificial Neural Network (AI’s brain) will then attempt to make sense of this information by learning from past mistakes and imitation.Thus,there's really no reason why this system could not be scaled up to human levels and beyond. In essence, an AI could teach itself how to learn new things. By doing so would eliminate the need for a human at the controls.
History shows human have underwent all kinds development to improve every aspect of lives. Yet, there is still a genuine cause for concern as lost in this idealistic quest for improvement is the function of humanity itself. Say we human render a species incompetent. What's to prevent Artificial Intelligence from recognizing that incompetence in us, humanity and taking control? Because how do we control something that is more intelligent than us?...
....(cont)... Think about the way we treat ants. Most of us don't have deep hatred for ants. Yet if they are ever in our way, we could not care less about their existence. Even if we did care, how would we explain to them to move away so not to step on them or something? Similarly, attempt to explain to the millions of animals living in the jungle the geopolitical and socioeconomical reason for why we continue to destroy their home. It's just impossible. They simply lack the intelligence to understand.
ReplyDeleteThat is what so many (including me) are concerned about. That we would lack the intelligence to keep up. This concern of me on AI is no malevolence. It's simply a fear of losing control. It may be sooner than you think while we reap the benefit of technology advancement in the mean time. How long until we (human) lose control of machine (AI)?
Hi Patrick, thank you for your comprehensive explanation about artificial intelligence. Indeed I think for a long time most of us are so excited about artificial intelligence and its potential. I was reminded of the recent victory of AlphaGo over Lee Se Dol , an 18 world champion Go professional player. Out of five games, Alpha Go won four of them. Interestingly, experts pointed out that artificial intelligence is capable of making mistakes (due to miscalculation, wrong prediction etc). During the forth game, Alpha Go calculated that its winning chance is less than 20& and decided to resign from the game.
DeleteIt gave me a temporary sense of relief. That happened last year, and what can we expect for the coming years ? No doubt, artificial intelligence will continue to get better and "perfect".
I think it is time for us humans to really set our priorities. Do we value efficiency that much that we are willing to sacrifice the beauty of our mind and capabilities ?
I predict that the debate on the pros and cons of artificial intelligence will continue ( And I don't need any AI to tell me that hehe )
Lastly, I would like to quote Lee SeDol after the eventful match with AlphaGo.
"Robots will never understand the beauty of the game the same way that we humans do."
Globalisasi sememangnya telah menjadikan dunia ini lebih dekat. Namun, kebergantungan terhadap teknologi telah menyebabkan yang dekat semakin jauh. Sebagai contoh hubungan keluarga yang semakin renggang disebabkan kewujudan pelbagai teknologi. Jadi mengapa perly sesuatu yang mendekatkan yang jauh tapi menjauhkan yang dekat. Sekian. Terima kasih
ReplyDeleteHi Amirah, thank you for your comment. I agree with what you say. Your example clearly illustrates on how our initial intention of inventing a new technology actually backfires and defeats its purpose. No doubt, we can connect people from all over the globe instantly, but we push away people that are close to us by staying " active" in a virtual world.
DeleteThis is another interesting topic to discuss.
Betul tu Jasmine, pandangan Jasmine saya akui kebenarannya. Jadi apa yang perlu kita lakukan adalah mengimbangkan antara teknologi dan manusia. Ada perkara yang kita perlu menggunakan manusia, dan ada perkara yang kita perlu menggunakan teknologi. Jadikan teknologi sebagai pengantara adalah lebih baik daripada jadikan teknologi sebagai keperluan harian yang kita hanya menginginkannya pada setiap masa tanpa kawalan. :)
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