MSP69 [] Fixing It: Working for the Machine

Is your technology working for you, or are you working for it? Why machines want us to prove that we are human.

Produced by Jeff Sandhu for BFM89.9

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Episode Transcript

These shows are dictated to and transcribed by machines, and hurriedly edited by a human. Apologies for the typos and grammar flaws.

One of the reasons that this show exists is to demonstrate some of the many ways that technology is dramatically improving our lives. But what do you do when the technology that is supposed to be making our lives easier seems to be serving other masters?

This sounds like another of those Game of Thrones inspired episodes. Are we back to your master and servant theme?
•Indirectly, I guess.
•This is another one of those episodes I’ve had sitting on the burner for a while.
•And then the brouhaha about Facebook’s supposed pivot towards privacy broke cover last week and I thought it was time to tackle this one.

Before we head into Facebook land again, do you want to give us a little background for today’s show?
•As you mentioned in the intro, I think technology is fantastic.
•For the majority of humans – in the developed world at least – this is still the best time to be alive.
•And part of the reason for that is technology.
•Whether it’s technology delivering information to your hand, safer and more reliable modes of transport, cheap and plentiful food, incredible medical advances.
•Everywhere you look, technology is chipping away at the brutality of the past.

You could argue that some of that technology is pretty brutal too.
•Absolutely. We have an enormous capacity for violence and destruction.
•And one of the first things we do with a lot of technological developments is to weaponise them and use them for so-called defence or security purposes.
•Whether it’s video cameras or advances in sonics.
•It’s not what we’re talking about today, but if you are interested in that part of our development, there’s a great article at New Scientist called How Humans Evolved to be both shockingly violent and super co-operative.
•Not the snappiest title, but the piece, written by Richard Wrangham, looks at the evolutionary and societal case for violence and cooperation.

When do you think we lost control of the technology?
•I’m not there’s even an answer to that question.
•You could say that we lost control of technology hundreds of years ago.
•Donald Trump loves to tell people how well walls have worked for millennia.
•And yes, they keep marauders and bandits out.
•History is full of walled cities that fell to invaders.
•Some were more technologically advanced than the invaders, who simply encircled them and starved them out.
•But often it was technology that breached the walls.
•Siege engines. Catapults. Crossbows.

I thought we weren’t talking about wars and violence?
•Yeah, but if I start talking about looms and steel mills people are going to switch off.
•The things most people seem to remember from their history classes are the battles and the wars.
•And greater technology has often – not always – played a decisive role in who wins wars.
•The US Civil War is a good example. The industrialised Union States literally had an enormous war machine that the more agricultural and slave based economy of the Confederate States couldn’t compete with.