Essay on will Computers Control Humans In The Future
Machines and tools have given us the ability to do more in less time, giving us at the same time, more comfort. As the technology advances, computers become faster and more powerful.
These new machines are enabling us to do more in less time making our lives easier. The increased use of computers in the future, however, might have negative results and impact on our lives.
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In the novel ‘Nine Tomorrows’ Isaac Asimov often criticizes our reliance on computers by portraying a futuristic world where computers control humans. One of the images, which Asimov describes in the book, is that humans might become too dependent on computers.
In one of the stories – Profession, Asimov writes that people would no longer read books to learn and improve their knowledge. People would rely on the computers rather than ‘try to memories enough to match someone else who knows’.
People would not choose to study; they would only want to be educated by computer tapes. Putting in knowledge would take less time than reading books and memorising something that would take almost no time using a computer in the futuristic world. Humans might begin to rely on computers and indirectly allow themselves to be controlled by computers being educated by it.
Computers would start teaching humans without having any choice of creativity. Computer would start to control humans’ lives and make humans become too dependent on the computers. Another point that is criticised by Asimov is die fact that people might take their knowledge for granted allowing computers to take over and control their lives. In a story called ‘The Feeling of Power,’ Asimov portrays how people started using computers to do even simple mathematical calculations.
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Over a long period of time people became so reliable on computers that they forgot die simplest multiplication and division rules. If someone wanted to calculate an answer they would simply use their pocket computer to do that. People in the story ‘The Feeling of Power’ would take for granted what they have learned over centuries of learning and chose computers because of their ability to do their work faster.
The reliance of computers went to such an extent that even Humans began to use computers in all fields of study and work allowing computers to control their lives by taking over and doing everything for them.
According to another story in the book, Asimov also describes how computers would be able to predict probabilities of an event, future. In the story ‘All the Troubles of the World’ one big computer predicted crime before it even happened, allowing the police to take the person who was going to commit the crime and release him/her after the danger has passed. This computer, called Multivac, controlled humans by telling the authorities about the person who was going to commit a crime causing someone to be imprisoned until the danger is passed.
It was the computer that made the decision of someone’s freedom or imprisonment. The decision of imprisoning someone for a crime a person did not commit was all in the hands of a computer. It was the computer that controlled humans and their destiny and controlling other humans who believed in everything that computer told them.