Licklider said, “Men are noisy, narrow-band devices.” On the other hand, “computer machines single-minded and constrained.” There is a difference between a human and a computer. A computer doesn’t need to take a rest or eat a sandwich. It doesn’t have to rack its brains for an elusive answer.
Artificially intelligent machines write many of today’s sports articles. They accurately provide game data and player scores from thousands of games across the U.S. – and they don’t require to go to the bathroom. But they cannot subjectively describe the warm feeling of sunlight on the face or the happiness of victory and the agony of defeat. Licklider’s vision is not of computers replacing men and women, but of computers and humans working together. He likens it to the symbiotic relationship in nature, such as the way the insect Blastophaga grossorun pollinates the fig tree. The insect and the fig tree need each other to survive.
Love your analysis of that! Thank you for your sharing!
Hi Peter,
This is very true! I think its interesting to consider the absence of human necessities, like eating or using the bathroom, as being central to machine’s efficiency. As the absence of physical sensation also factors into the efficiency of machine, one could argue that feeling the warmth of sunlight is also a human necessity!