Some scholars maintain that technology does more harm than good, while others disagree. This was a major controversy particularly in the pinnacle of AI development and design some decades ago. At the time, some believed AI designers should integrate friendliness in their machines right from the outset but should be aware that their designs may somehow prove erroneous as the robot evolves and develops over time. The main challenge did not lie in moral considerations according to them, but in the mechanisms of AI themselves.
It was necessary to select an inbuilt mechanism to be utilized in the development of AI systems that would give them specific automatic functions, thus ensuring they would remain friendly as they grew and evolved. The ultimate goal should have been to guarantee that AI systems would help rather than harm human beings. The notion of AI may be somewhat past its prime at this point, but the idea of technology helping rather than doing damage is gaining new ground. In fact, support for this notion is at an all-time high and growing. And scientists and corporations are acting accordingly, always aiming to improve their products.
Medical technology is a case in point. For instance, knee and hip implants and artificial limbs can help people function. Some devices provide oxygen supplementation and mechanical ventilation to help people with respiratory disorders. Pulse and cardiorespiratory monitors are used to alert patients, caregivers, and physicians to potential vitality problems. Medical technologies not only keep people alive but enable them to lead fulfilling lives, working, studying and being part of the community.
In addition, the internet, allowing anyone to make a website and promote their ideas and pictures with any other person on the planet instantly. It’s an incredible advancement that has transformed life and communication as we know it.
Of course, the question of whether we want to live in a better, more peaceful and happier world goes back to the dawn of civilization itself. At first, it seems like a pretty straightforward question, but at second glance this issue isn’t such a simple one. Scientists and philosophers have debated on what the perfect world would be like for millennia. Despite all their notions and efforts, we have sadly come to create a world that is far from perfect. What is Utopia and is it possible to create? This was the main issue explored by the people backing any and all technological innovations.
Their belief that technology would heal all social ills – in fact, that any one single thing could – was reductive. In the last century alone Communism, the Third Reich, eugenics and a plethora of other political, social, and scientific movements were envisaged as utopian, only that something went horribly wrong. Utopia is a place that does not exist outside our minds. Technology and the internet can help improve our lives, but it will not make them perfect. Any insistence, on the contrary, is ludicrous and misleading. Utopia becomes hell on Earth when you eliminate one-half of the whole because the balance is lost. There is no crime without punishment and vice versa. There is no black without white, no good without evil.