Roboman or Humanoid?

Some time back, i booked a cab to go to a particular destination using one of the popular mobile apps. The cab driver promptly came at the scheduled time & after the necessary authorizations, was ready to go. I noticed that he had the omnipresent mobile in front of him showing the map to the destination i had provided while booking. i realized that he was going to rely on the app (Artificial Intelligence) to give him directions & not rely on his knowledge of the local routes (Natural Intelligence). [Just want to remind that, until some years back, it was quite common for driver to use their knowledge to go to different places in the city]. When the cab driver started, i soon realized that he is taking a longer route (as i had gone multiple times earlier to the same destination) & prompted to the driver about it. But, he won't listen to human's NI, but would rather rely on the app giving directions (AI). So, i ended up spending more time to cover the journey & the cab driver spent more on his fuel than needed. When i did some quick thinking on it, i realized that the destination i had entered was about few meters away from the actual place where i had to go & that made the app give a longer route. While this "mistake" would have been obvious to a human NI & corrected, but not obvious to the AI relying driver. This started me thinking if the human race is losing its NI, by relying more on technology, devices & apps (AI).

Call it buzz or hype, but AI is getting increasing focus with many companies scrambling to add the AI/ML tag to their marketing pitch somehow. While it could be still be debated about the reality in AI & its necessity, the question to be asked is whether NI (Natural Intelligence) is decreasing with the rise in AI (Artificial Intelligence). Why is the humanity hell bent on decreasing NI & focusing on AI instead or has NI reached its pinnacle of capacity.

Lets take a closer look at the steady decline of NI with the advances in technology. While general education has spread to nook & corner of the world, the effort is on standardizing knowledge across the populace. People are trained to learn, remember & apply what is learnt wherever possible to solve problems. But, with everyday advances in technology, people are more and more relying on technology to solve everyday problems, while NI is getting restricted to a select few in the population (for ex: those who create the technologies). 

Lets take a few instances to illustrate the decline in NI with the advance in technology. 

About 50 Years back, people could solve basic math problems (be it simple arithematic) just in their mind and now with the omnipresence of calculators, people scramble to use it to do even basic math. 

Similarly, about 100 years back, many people could sing & would love to sing or hear others sing and now, with the omnipresence of record & playback devices (starting with LP, Casettes, CDs, MP3 etc), people prefer to hear to devices, forgetting to sing. [Pls. note that singing or playing music is a type of NI].

About 20-25 years back, people used to love playing (game of their choice) in open spaces with their friends and now, with the omnipresence of TV, Movies, Streaming, Online Gaming etc, people prefer to stay indoors to get entertained, forgetting to play & have fun. [Pls. note that playing a game is a type of NI]

Similarly, some decades back, people traveled to meet others (friends, relatives, strangers) & learn/share about others experiences and now, with the advent of Mobiles, video calling, video conferencing etc, people occasionally travel & rarely prefer to meet. The personal meeting touch is getting lost. [Pls. note that travelling & people to people interaction encourages NI].

Few generations before ours, people used to live healthy with less medicines & more nutritious food and now, with advances in healthcare technology, people rely on tablets, capsules to get their daily dosage of vitamins, minerals & basic nutrition. General Awareness of what food is good for them is getting lost. [Pls. note that general knowledge on foods, evolving from survival instinct, is a NI]

Earlier people had learnt to live in collusion with nature, preserving the fine balance between what is needed for individual survival versus what is needed for the survival of larger human species. With the advent of technology & growth in humans, the balance is getting disturbed with everybody only caring for what they need to survive ignoring what is required for the larger humanity and hence we have climate change as a hot topic. [Pls. note that living with nature is a NI].

I could go on with many more examples & instances reiterating the decline of NI.

With the steady decline of NI, it is not surprising that AI is rising & may soon overtake. We have seen pictures & videos of humanoids (Robots looking like Humans with very high level of AI) being produced & used in some places, but how many of us started realizing the rise of "Roboman".

I define Roboman as humans behaving like machines with very low level of NI and relying on gadgets to do everyday chores, and as one who would be seriously challenged to live without AI in the form of technology & devices. The evolution of Roboman started with the technology revolution and will likely evolve faster with the rise of AI. The Roboman can be easily spotted in today's world, immersed in a device, in a virtual reality of their own, behaving in machine like predictable ways (as opposed to human unpredictability), trying to decipher the innumerable rules around him. The Roboman is typically characterized with his low people interactivity, low EQ, low physical abilities & highly relying on the usage of devices & machines for his survival.

While both Roboman & Humanoid are evolving in the world, it would be interesting to watch if Roboman pervades earth faster than Humanoids or the other way around. At this time, certainly Robomans are leading, but lets wait & watch.

In conclusion, to put things in perspective, while technology has helped humans in innumerable ways & has prolonged human lifespan multiple times, technology that replaces human intelligence, should be dissuaded. Technology that enhances human capabilities or in other words, does things that humans could never do, should be persuaded & supported. For ex: technology that aids humans to fly or that aid humans to venture to space frontiers are things that should be supported as those could never be achieved without technology. In a futuristic "ideal" world, we should have AI options complementing NI options (not replacing NI) with provision for NI option to supersede AI.

Disclaimer: These are my personal views not to be related with my profession.