Latest in the long list of companies cancelling Working From Home is Amazon. It is a sad indictment of us all that the progressive move to work more from home, forced on us by Covid, has collapsed. Why has it done so and why should we regret it?
Our troublesome world is made worse by people who ignore their responsibilities. The move to digitisation is common sense but it brings with it risks of damage to the human brain and a need for self-discipline we have been sadly neglecting. Process was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. It is also at the heart of a high proportion of things we do every day. Living is itself a process, much of it routine repetitive, as automatic as we humans get.
Thank heavens for process. It largely eliminates human error, saves us the trouble of thinking and improves precision. But just as the motor car saves us the effort of walking, with some dire consequences, so digitisation saves us mental effort, with equally dangerous results. If we don’t walk we get diabetes. If we don’t think we get forgetful, vacuous and demented. The aids to thinking – we’ll call them checklists for shorthand – are valuable and we should use them. AI is still largely a checklist. We should use it.
We should not use any thinking aides to the exclusion of our brains. If we do, our brains will atrophy and we shall become vegetables. Using our brains demands that we discipline ourselves. Not just to think and work but to handle ourselves physically and mentally properly. Instead of forcing employees to make time-consuming and unsustainable commuting journeys to and from work we should be teaching – and rewarding – the responsibility that goes with less supervision and more personal choice.
Personal responsibility has diminished so much that there is widespread belief that the ordinary voter – in the case of democracies – has no effective say in whether we should all indulge in nuclear war or not. With news about everything that goes on in the world so easily available it is reasonable to expect that everyone of average intelligence can have a point of view about how they are governed.
AI is developing at breakneck speed. With supercomputing it will replicate the creativity we know, so nearly that we will be unable to distinguish true ‘original’ creativity when we see it. For all practical purposes AI will then be a substitute for the human brain. Already we can check anything we can’t quite remember or have difficulty in defining with the press of a key. Already our brains are slipping as we surrender our own thinking to the database. Humanity without invention is just another creature. It would be sad if that is where we came to an end.
Shutting down WfH may seem to be a small issue in the global scene of humanity’s future. Just another step along the way, perhaps? Actually it is both symbolically and practically as giant a leap as placing the first foot on the Moon.
It makes sense to explore the Universe.
It makes even more sense to develop our incredible humanity first.
Good morning
John Bittleston
What does your brain do that provides it with exercise and the human race with progress?
We’d love to know at [email protected]. Thank you.
22 September 2024
