Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Digital Age
When teaching a machine to learn we simulate intelligence and experience by feeding a computer a large set of data. If there is noise in this data it disrupts the learning and can teach the machine to believe false concepts. In the digital age we are surrounded by information. That's a good thing, I'm never lost when I go out, and I have easy solutions to my simple problems. But then there's also the noise, information that doesn't help anything but is easy to consume. It can fill our lives, distracting and disconnecting us from the world we live in. We need to filter out some information, to avoid consuming noise. If we don't we'll become like a poorly taught machine, only communicating in memes and pictures of cats.
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I agree, there is a lot of noise in the information we look at. I would also point out that there is noise in areas other than digital information, which can consume us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the need to filter out the noise but one of the issues that might arise is how we use filters. I doubt we will filter all the information ourselves and we will probably use some sort of algorithm to do it for us. The problem is if and when we don't understand how the filter works. Sort of like how Google can filter out conservative news for someone who is more liberal and visa-versa. We could just as easy filter ourselves into an echo chamber.
ReplyDeleteUnlike a machine if we are aware we can detect when being taught wrong things and can learn from scratch without an initial data set.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that computers learn new things in similar ways that humans learn things: constant repetition (although the human brain is much more efficient in some things). People sort of lose their potential when their "data sets" are nothing more than junk, and their minds become flabby.
ReplyDeleteTechnology isn't inherently bad, it just needs to be used properly. Studying the effects of technology will enable people to make wiser decisions.
ReplyDeleteOr we could just take the extreme approach of the McMillans (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/meet-the-family-that-shuns-technologies-introduced-after-1986/279496/) and shun all new technologies. We would avoid all of the noise, but also not benefit from all technology has to offer.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great analogy. As computer scientists I think we all understand how dumb computers can be, especially if we let them make decisions for themselves. Yet I would be careful comparing us too much to machines. We have much greater potential than they do and are inherently better at wedding through the noise. But your point is still well stated, if we focus too much on the noise, we won't fulfill our true potential.
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