Technology dependency – Helping us or making us lose our sense of judgment?

Historically, technology has made us individually dumber and individually smarter – and collectively smarter. Technology has made us able to do more while understanding less about what we are doing and has increased our dependence on others.

These are not recent trends, but part of the history of technology since the first humans began to farm. In recent decades, three major changes have accelerated the process, starting with the increasing pace of humans specializing in particular skills. In addition, we outsource more skills to technological tools, like a movie-making app on a smartphone, that relieves us of the challenge of learning large amounts of technical knowledge. And many more people have access to technology than in the past, allowing them to use these tools much more readily.

A major downside of increased dependence on technologies is the increased consequences if those technologies break or disappear. Let's take a few examples of technology dependency on a personal and mass scale that led to the loss of life/lives and also created and questioned the makers as well as the ones using the technology.

Consider the Lion Air crash Oct. 29 in the sea near Jakarta by the 737 Boeing aircraft. When Boeing designed its latest version of the 737, it added the new safety feature to combat a loss of lift. When the system senses the plane is close to losing lift on the wings, it automatically commands a lowering of the nose to counteract the risk. However, the chief sensor used to predict a loss of lift — known as an angle-of-attack vane — was malfunctioning on the Lion Air flight. It essentially tricked the system into ordering a sharp dive. The Pilots should have been given a manual or training, to cut the power in such a scenario, however, this was never communicated to them. Boeing being overconfident felt that Because the system is only designed to operate in rare conditions while pilots are manually flying, “pilots should never see” the system in operation. As a result, Boeing chose not to include a description of it in the extensive manuals it prepared for the Max models, said the memo.

In another few incidents pertaining to the audible proximity alerts in cars today, that many drivers are not aware of the limitations of the technology. This was highlighted when Ubers Self Driving Volvo had struck and killed the pedestrian. The entire focus remained on how despite having back cameras and radar sensors, it missed an entire person on the road, forgetting the fact that its more to do with the brain of the human in the driver’s seat. Upon further investigation, it came to light that the driver was watching Hulu until the moment of the crash. The feeling that was passed on was Because the human brain is impeccable in its ability to filter out extraneous information, this type of behavior should have been predicted. 

Similar fatalities have also been reported in Tesla’s Autopilot Mode wherein there is no effort made from the driver to intervene.

In another case, at a major medical center, the patient died as the nurse searched for an anti-anxiety medication in an automated dispensing cabinet by typing only the first 2 letters. She chose the first drug that appeared in the results rather than verifying or cross-checking the same with the prescription mentioned in the patient’s file.

How do people survive and prosper in this world of increasing dependence and change? It’s impossible to be truly self-reliant, but it is possible to learn more about the technologies we use, to learn basic skills of repairing and fixing them (hint: always check the connections and read the manual) and to find people who know more about particular topics. Thinking about what happens if something goes wrong can be a useful exercise in planning or a descent into obsessive worrying.

Maybe we should be more mindful of how often we use technology since it’s been found to alter our brains in these 5 ways:

1.    We now have shorter attention spans and are more distracted.

2.    We’ve improved our ability to multitask (at least we think we have).

3.    We’ve become tech addicts.

4.    Our face-to-face interactions have been undermined.

5.    We’re becoming more forgetful.

Research has revealed that many millennials are more forgetful than seniors — something that can be attributed to the constant use of technology. In order to remember something, we need to move that information from our working memory (conscious mind) to our long-term memory and this hinges on our attentiveness.

I believe the era of technology has changed our mindset in different ways. One of the most commonly asked questions is, has technology affected our creativity?

Technology does not suppress creativity, in fact, technology enhances creativity. The difference between the two is that creativity comes from observing the world, interpreting it, and bringing us new concepts and ideas. Whereas technology enables us to see the world differently, accessing information from anywhere in the world.

The truth is that technology and creativity go hand in hand, and complement each other, enabling us to be more creative and productive.

Key benefits of how technology has impacted creativity:

Innovation. Innovation happens by continuously improving a process or product and technology has contributed to improving many of these. So yes, of course, technology is changing the face of innovation. However, as a business, it is important not to place technology at the forefront of innovation, since relying on technology solutions can, at times, hinder innovation.

Emerging Tools. It is important to highlight the different tools that have emerged through technology, such as 3D printing, digital content creation, and other forms of digital interaction, which give us the chance to explore new things and to express ourselves in various ways.

Accessibility. Technology has enabled us to dream big and, therefore, it has fuelled creativity in many ways. There is a desire to invent and to create and with technology we can enter new avenues easily and connect with information and people around the world.

Technology is a great thing that has helped us in many ways. It is clear that, as a society, we have all become dependent on technology; however, this isn’t a bad thing as long as we don’t allow it to dumb us down.

With the lessons learned, and taking from the many incidents around us, I would like to summarise that individually, we depend more on our technologies than ever before – but we can do more than ever before. Collectively, technology has made us smarter, more capable, and more productive. What technology has not done is to make us wiser. Becoming wise will always be a path of learning by expanding our knowledge and increasing the use of the human brain.

What are your views??

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