How do we tame the technological juggernaut for good?
Date : 18/05/2024
(This article has been reposted with minor revisions from the author's blog. Access Part 2 and Part 3)
The first Industrial Revolution used water and steam to mechanize production, the second used electric power and the third one used electronics and IT as its springboard. The fourth one fuses various technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, 5G telephony, nanotechnology, biotech, robotics, quantum computing and the like.
Exciting Days are Indeed Ahead!
Disney World now has an app, and also supplies a visitor with a Magic Band which is to be worn on one’s wrist. The customer can choose and book rides, and is tracked through a web of beacons scattered throughout the park. Booking at the hotel is on one’s finger tips, and so is reserving tables at any of the restaurants.
Amazon Go has already started a cashier-less store in the US. The sales staff is there merely to assist a customer in choosing a product. Japan already boasts of retail chains where there is hardly any human interface.
Rolls Royce makes the Trent engine used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Their latest ones come with 25 IoT sensors that track fuel flow, pressure, and temperature. On top of that, the company provides technology to track the aircraft’s altitude, speed, and air temperature, as well as ways to analyse the data to figure out maintenance patterns and better routing. With increasing crowding in the air space, such innovations make it possible to avoid mid-air disasters, thereby rendering air travel relatively safer.
Robots are already taking over routine jobs. The promise of a driver-less car is already being pursued with much gusto by leading companies.
The possibilities are mind boggling, indeed.
The Perils of Advances in Technology
Yours truly has nothing against technical advancements. What concerns him is the purpose for which we embrace it. Developments in technology need to be evaluated on two parameters: the cost-benefit ratio of utility for the masses, and its ethical and moral dimensions. The latter brings into focus the motives behind each of the developments and its subsequent deployment.
So far, Industrial Revolution 4.0 has brought to fore the following challenges:
Widespread changes in the skill-sets required by commercial enterprises, already leading to severe joblessness.
Values being compromised, both at the development and at the implementation stage; training (or re-skilling) of manpower being accorded a lower priority than investments in upcoming technological advances.
Regulatory frameworks being several steps behind developments being rolled out.
An unholy nexus between revenue-hungry businesses and governments, facilitating promotion of technologies which may be harmful to flora and fauna and even to human beings.
The digitization of individuals and the resultant threat to data privacy.
Skill-Sets of the Future: A Premium on Softer Skills
The World Economic Forum (WEF) was the first one to use the term Industrial Revolution 4.0 in 2016.
As per one of its documents titled Future of Jobs Report, employers are said to anticipate a significant shift in the division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms for the tasks of today.
The aforesaid report states that of the total task hours across the industries covered, on an average, 71% are currently performed by humans, whereas 29% are performed by machines or algorithms. By 2022, this average is expected to have shifted to 58% task hours performed by humans, and 42% by machines or algorithms. It can be readily appreciated that this signifies a very rapid pace of change, something for which leaders need to be better prepared.
The report goes on to project that skills related to analytical thinking, active learning, technology design and technology competency would grow in prominence. It also proposes that such ‘human’ skills as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation will either retain or increase their value, as will attention to detail, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving.
It follows that a more humane approach to handling team members needs to be consciously developed, especially when operating in a business environment characterized by a shortage of skilled workers. In turn, this would pre-suppose a higher Emotional Quotient and a much higher Spiritual Quotient, especially at the leadership level. Even as the reliance on artificial intelligence grows for the analytical part of decision making, the importance of practising the art of remaining connected with one’s inner Self would go up quite a few notches.
When Intuition and Human Values Rule Supreme
What can be more relevant than to consider the case of a hapless pilot who, when faced with a mid-air crisis, reacts quickly, based purely on her intuition and the concern for passenger safety?
On April 17, 2018, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 took off from New York-LaGuardia Airport and was headed to Dallas Love Field. The Boeing 737-700 experienced an uncontained engine failure, damaging the fuselage and a cabin window which led to rapid depressurisation. One passenger got partially ejected from the aircraft and died later. Eight others were injured. The flight had 144 passengers and a total of five crew members on board.
Tammie Jo Schults, a former US Navy pilot, was in command. With her concern for human safety, she managed to steer the ill-fated plane to safety. The crew conducted an emergency descent and decided to land at Philadelphia International Airport.
On the day of the incident, Elaine Chao, the US Secretary of Transportation, made a statement to ‘commend the pilots who safely landed the aircraft, and the crew and fellow passengers who provided support and care for the injured, preventing what could have been far worse.’
On May 1, 2018, the US President welcomed the crew and selected passengers in a ceremony at the Oval Office of the White House, thanking them for their heroism.
The Evolving Relationship Between Machines and Homo sapiens
Machine learning systems, which process vast quantities of data and make decisions based upon that data, are incapable of such competencies as compassion and empathy, which are the firm foundations of human values.
Already, technology has evolved to enable robots to be very effective at collaborating with humans. Yet, humans continue to be much more resilient and possess the unique ability of flexibly changing their plans to cope with unpredicted events.
Unlike thought so far, the man–machine relationship shall become more integrated with each other in the near future. As a result, the combined force of processing billions of data points for efficient decision making by machines, and contextual, emotional and intuitive aspects of decision making by human beings, would be, to that extent, higher and greater in its impact – for good or bad.
One thing is certain. Things are not changing at a constant rate. With each passing year, the rate of change is also increasing. Much like Alice in Wonderland, Homo sapiens are discovering that they need to keep running faster and faster, with nary a respite in sight. Mankind is perhaps bound to evolve further much earlier than what was believed earlier.
Alvin Toffler might have labelled this as Future Shock 4.0!
(Inputs from an IT expert and an aviation expert are gratefully acknowledged.)
Ashok Kumar Bhatia is a management professional. He is an author of management books. The article reproduced here is planned to be a part of his yet-to-be-published book which connects the realm of management with some of the basic tenets of Bhagavad Gita.
He is also an avid blogger and a globe trotter, and loves to share his wisdom with younger and brighter minds. He has addressed management professionals and aspirants not only at premium institutes in India but also in USA, Portugal and Finland. His articles on P G Wodehouse, management, movies and life in general can be found at www.ashokbhatia.wordpress.com.
Picture Credits: Alexandre Debiève via Unsplash
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