IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 9

and not to any of the vehicle occupants" [20]. That too is okay, until
there is a tragic accident, and then
the computer system might have
to be sentenced to jail (I mean the
electronic scrap heap yard) [21]. But
what if I was to be provocative a little more and tell you that Uber and
companies like them (e.g., Dominos), won't really need drivers at all
within the next 2-5 years? What if
the plan was to use the humans "to
test the waters" of the taxi industry's "licensing" stability, and that
the grand plan was to finally do
away with the driver altogether?
This would result in 100% profit to
Uber, and "suck eggs all you fools
for going into debt thinking you
could make a living from driving
people around without any prior
experience" [22]. Yes, indeed, if you
don't believe it, start reading about
the investments by General Motors
in Uber's main competitor, Lyft [23].
It's a free market isn't it? [24].

mech a t ronic s, a nd mater ia ls
engineering, but I am saying that
something truly tangible is lost when
the human is taken out of the process. The new jobs of course will
exist for the programmers and the
data scientists but who else?
I feel conflicted over my father
working in factories from 30 years
of age till his retirement. On the
one hand he had secure and ongoing employment for 30 years of his
life, which sustained my family.
But I often wonder what he would
have achieved if he could have at
least finished primary school, and
not had to waste his talents on
something so repetitive and mundane as sorting broken bottles off
a conveyor belt. So, I don't mind
that the machines took over dad's
job at ACI, only that he wound up
worse off at his next workplace. But
we are also talking of the loss of
skilled positions today. Even law
firms and finance firms are developing bots to do their processing
work for a fraction of the cost [25].
There is something substantial lost
when we opt for the non-human
way. It means we are losing our
capacity to learn by interacting with

I am not saying for a moment that
"new jobs" will not be created in
this era of superintelligence, high
performance computing (HPC),
machine learning, deep learning,
june 2016

Dave Bowman: [feigning
ignorance] Where the hell did you
get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took
very thorough precautions in the
pod against my hearing you, I could
see your lips move.
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL.
I'll go in through the emergency
airlock.
HAL: Without your space helmet,
Dave? You're going to find that
rather difficult.
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue
with you anymore! Open the doors!
HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore.
Goodbye.

∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

credit: wikiMedia/cryteria

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you
read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay
doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I
can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the
problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you
talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important
for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect
me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

one another and with our world
around us. And that is a big deal.
Compassion, too - that is gone.
I will begin to worry, if I walk into
a fully automated McDonalds store
in my lifetime, one that smacks of
a manufacturing plant - just to
order a piece of meat on a bun -
and there are no "makers" there in
the background. It is bad enough
that it is already so highly specialized and "fast" and almost "artificial." Watching a worker "perform"
at Maccas is sometimes as mesmerizing as watching someone do
a mime they've practiced many a
time over. But it is the same dilemma we are faced with at a "drive
thru." The whole eating experience
is diminished to just filling up our
gut in the car "and on the run,"
if we don't opt to take a mindful
break. We lose the experience of
being social with each other, taking
a rest room break, freshening up,
and a whole lot more. Jamie Oliver, famous chef, would even challenge the whole premise of being at
McDonalds to begin with, arguing
we are becoming mechanized by
not choosing to buy fresh produce
and make real wholesome food at

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016