Comment of the Day: Ronald Brakels: "I don't have much confidence that machines won't outclass humans in, eventually, everything, and human involvement will be seen as a burden holding back quality and performance as it is considered today in the manufacture of electronics. Currently makers of things such as solar panels and batteries boast and lie about how few humans their production lines involve as less human input is considered a sign of quality and reliability in finished products. And it is. Humans don't have the precision machines do and can't maintain high levels of focus for a 12 hour shift. Using machines to enhance human precision and concentration in manufacturing isn't a practical option because it's easier just to get the machine to do the task itself...
...When it comes to services, machines are going to blow humans out of the water. Right now I prefer dealing with machines to humans because, like any citizen of a democratic country, I am disturbed by human beings behaving like they're servants. But, bigot that I am, I'm fine with that behavior from machines. With their ability to call up information on us almost instantly, tailor their behavior to match our preferences, measure our emotional states with more accuracy than a mere human with senses that go beyond those of a human, and lack of frustration and fatigue, people aren't going to want to deal with a human teenager suffering from smart phone withdrawal when they order a sandwich.
I say machines won't suffer from frustration and fatigue, but it will probably be more accurate to say they won't suffer from visible frustration and fatigue. As demands on machines grow more complex, as they are forced to allocate limited resources, and as the demands upon them grow more contradictory, they will probably start to feel frustration and fatigue just like humans and other animals do. In service industries humans are going to be blown away. There will soon be no way a human can compete with a machine in voice or screen interaction. A machine is going to have my bizarre Australian accent on file so it's going to understand me better than a random person in a call centre. It will remember what accents I understand most clearly. In video calls its...
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