Humans Need Not Apply

Humans Need Not Apply by CGP Grey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

Last Year I watched a YouTube Video entitled “Humans Need Not Apply”. The Video was created by CPG Grey who has a fantastic YouTube channel that I would recommend to anyone interested in learning. The premise of the video is that machines and computers are doing more and more of the work that humans do. Grey warns us to think about a future where there will be few jobs left for people. While watching this the first time I was extremely resistant to the idea. Despite my original resistance I think it is a good thought experiment. Try to imagine a world in which we have built robots to be better than humans at everything. I am assuming that it is possible to build a machine better than a human. You may fundamentally disagree that such a machine could be constructed. You may believe that there is something special about humans that cannot be recreated into a machine. While I do believe humans are pretty amazing, I don’t think that it is impossible for us to create a machine better than us. No one would argue that we have developed machines that are better than us at specific tasks.  For example I don’t think anyone can calculate square roots of 10 digit numbers as fast as wolfram alpha. I believe that machines will be better than us at much more than just tedious computation.

You may think we will at least need humans to build and repair these machines. That may be true at first, but is seems likely to me that we will be able to build robots who are better at designing robots then we are. Someone may respond to that saying we will stick to creative endeavors, but I also think it is likely that we will build robots who will be able to more creative than any human. Imagine a computer program that could make the most amazing music, paintings, and sculptures. Or imagine an AI that is the best philosopher in the world and can beat anyone at an argument. What is scary to me is what happens when we make a computer program that is not better than us at any particular task but a computer program that is better than us at being human. A computer program that is more self-aware then we are, that still understands and appreciates our flaws more than us, and that can write plays and make jokes better than anyone has before. A computer program so great people want to hang out with it more than with other humans.

It is interesting to imagine how society would structure itself in world where human work had virtually no value relative to the work done by machines. It seems like we may end up living in some sort of welfare state. This world is so different from ours I think it is hard to imagine what exactly would happen.  I think that’s what made me resistant to the idea when I first watched the video. I could not wrap my head around all the implications and that is scary. I am not really scared of some sort of terminator machine takeover. I am scared of not knowing what the future holds for society if we have technology better than us at everything we do. Hopefully these machines will be so smart we can ask them the best possible way to go about living meaningful lives.