Are Machines Friend or Foe?

Posted On 4 August 2023

Last updated on April 5th, 2024

Are machines a friend or foe? People have always had a love / hate relationship with technology. Some people love it, others not so much. Computers and AI are just the current technology with which we are learning to live, work, and integrate into our lives. In reality, though, technology is just a way of doing something. Paper is a technology.

It takes the general public time to adopt a new technology. When I first heard about email, I personally had no use for it – I didn’t know anyone attending another school that I could send an email. Now, I have several email accounts! Airplanes were not expected to do much to change our lives. Many people thought the automobile would be a fad that would pass. Some people saw the possibilities of steam engines while others were opposed to the machines.

Now, artificial intelligence is all the rage! People are excited about it, yet a lot of people are scared by it. Will AI replace them in the workplace? Will it turn on us and kill us off? Let me start with explaining why people have trouble with machines.

People treat machines like foes.

After working with the public and helping them with their cellphones, I have come to the conclusion that some people just need an enemy. Their phone becomes a tyrant that holds them prisoner!

These people can be shown how to do something, then they try to do it their own way. This just makes them more frustrated and convinced that their technology is their enemy.

There are some others who take it as a sense of pride that they can’t use technology. They call themselves a “Luddite” they aren’t interested in learning the technology and would rather ask someone to do it for them. This keeps the technology a foe to them.

People don’t like change (or changing or learning curves)

Some people simply don’t like change. I’m not sure if it is laziness or if learning is difficult for them. Whatever the reason, they simply don’t like change.

These people are of the opinion that the technology they’ve already learned or grew up with is the best. Any new way is inferior in some way, so why learn something that is not good?

People are afraid of what they don’t know.

Fear is a very real thing to the person with the fear. As a kid, I was scared of the dark. My mind would just race and start imagining things. When I learned that scary things didn’t just appear the moment it got dark, I lost my fear of the dark.

Just because we don’t know something doesn’t mean that it will cause us problems. Not everything we try will be right for our situation in life. That’s fine! Something new will come along that will be right for us.

People don’t take the time to learn how the machines work.

Sometimes people will try to make things fit into their understanding of what is right. Working with my father-in-law, we had opposite views of documents. He claimed that the original document was the one he printed, and the document saved on the computer was the copy. I was taught in school that the original was on the computer and a copy was printed.

When we take the time and make the effort to learn how a machine works, we can get the benefits of the machine. It does not make sense to argue that sentence structure is wrong in another language just because it is different from our language. Learn the other way of doing it, then just do it.

Machines need supervision.

“To err is human, but to really screw up takes a computer.” That is so true! Machines are not able to think. A simple mistake such as ordering a pallet instead of a case will not be questioned by a computer unless it has been programmed to look for an error like that.

Because machines don’t have brains, they will keep going – even if something is wrong! A packaging machine can ruin an amazing amount of product because of a jam in the machine. Machines can do amazing things, but they are not human.

Machines can be our friend.

Those who see machines as a friend have learned to accept them and figure out how they work. It is my belief that machines are here to help mankind. They are tools we can use to improve our life and allow us to be more productive.

Machines provide leverage.

Machines allow us to do more and do it faster. Tractors replaced horses and most of the farm hands. Less People accomplished the same amount of work. The farm hands (that were no longer needed) found work in other industries such as restaurants and stores. This increased our output as a society.

Trucks allow a single person to move tons of material to far away destinations. Word processors allow us to easily make changes to a document we typed. When typewriters where used, whole pages would have to be typed all over again to fix errors!

Machines do tedious tasks.

There is only one thing that is worse than doing a dull, insignificant job – doing it repeatedly! From washing machines to mixing food, machines can do boring work for us.

Packaging equipment in factories can handle the repetitive job of packaging goods, applying labels, and loading the boxes. This can allow workers to monitor the machines and keep them loaded with material.

On an individual level, if there is something we text regularly, we can add it to our phone’s dictionary and have up to whole sentences completed by merely typing a few characters. I use this myself.

Machines improve communication.

I have seen so many advancements in technology. I remember when people only had landlines. We could hook up an answering machine so that we could get a message if we were out. Answering machines gave way to voicemail, a service that is now taken for granted.

With the Internet, we have so much information available to us. Maybe too much information! We are now able to work with people on the other side of the country just as easily as if we were all in the same room.

More work and educational options.

With advances in communication, computers, and the Internet, we have more work options now than ever before. We can keep up with our lives while we travel.

Work isn’t the only thing we can do remotely. We can also learn online. I was homeschooled in 6^th grade. The school sent us VHS tapes with the teacher teaching a class. After watching the tapes, we had to send them back. How times have changed!

If we want to learn how to make something, or how to fix something, we can search the Internet. There’s bound to be a post or a video about how to do what we’d like to do.

Machines make it easier to track money.

I remember using a check book register where I would keep track of my checking account. There was no online banking! Now, we can just log into our account, or check the app. With online banking we can even automate our money.

Speaking of apps, we can easily check apps to see what deals places currently have. It’s an easy way to decide on a fast-food restaurant. I’ve also checked the price of groceries on a competitor’s app while shopping!

We can even send money to someone with e-Transfer. It’s fast and convenient! For the rare times that we get an actual check, we can even deposit it with the banking app. There are so many ways that technology makes it easier for us to take control of our finances. We need to protect ourselves to make sure that we stay in control of our online security.

Machines give uniformity.

The final point that I’m going to cover here is that machines give uniformity. Sewing machines make nice, even stitches. Computers can duplicate things perfectly.

Hand-made items have more character to them. Machine-made items tend to come out identical.

We are the masters of our machines. It is our responsibility to learn how to use machines and technology. This is an effective way to improve our lives.

I heard it said that AI won’t replace us – someone that knows how to use AI will replace us. We can either learn to use new technology and adapt to it, or we can become obsolete. Whether a machine is a friend or foe is our choice.