What’s the problem with AI, stats and technology?
Jan 27, 2022
“What gets left out is everything that can’t be measured, which is just about everything that counts.” (Margaret Heffernan)
I’m in no way advocating that AI, stats and tech are not incredibly helpful and are moving the world in ways we could never imagine 20 years ago.
Never underestimate a human
I am advocating that we never underestimate or place human nuances and abilities to handle and solve human unpredictability in the hands of technology because an algorithm will never have a gut feeling or feel a situation like a practised and experienced person.
Helpful tool
Technology as a tool to help confirm our suspicions, aid us to express ourselves and bring wonderful efficiencies to our lives is a massive positive. It just cannot blind us from questioning and exploration of alternative routes. The human brain is incredibly agile in a way tech can never be.
No one can predict the future, we can only estimate it and prepare for some of it, but the reality is we can’t be sure what the next hour will bring. The more we bury ourselves in technology, the less we are open to adventure and start to believe we know what will happen because we create a life where so little happens away from our screens.
Sport
I love sport because it forces those who take part to accept unpredictability and adverse results that stats cannot predict. If we remain curios and experimental about improving then we use sport well and learn so much about problem-solving and hanging in because always there is a possibility, no mater how remote, of something strange happening. Sport is full of amazing comebacks, amazing winning streaks, records that would never be broken, being broken and unpredictable results.
Sport brings different opponents, weather, surfaces, multitudes of variation that we have to negotiate and find a way through. Sport is problem-solving practice.
Is this not life?
We can’t map the future until we get there, which opens us to using our imagination to solve these sudden, unforeseen problems.
New problems create new opportunities to think or act differently, so embrace them, otherwise life begins to be predictable until it is not!
And if anything is certain, it is the fact that there will be curveballs and lightening bolts out of the blue! If we have buried ourselves in seeking the safety of predictability, we are totally unprepared for the challenge of the unknown.
Unpredictability
Nowhere is unpredictability more prevalent than in relationships. The ability to communicate effectively rather than efficiently is gold. It takes listening, interest, good questions, and time spent getting to know others, even somewhat, because we never truly know another person’s inner world. Good conversation gives us windows into the private world of others and if we learn empathetic conversation we are granted greater access to another person’s soul. But only a fool thinks they fully know anyone.
I want you to reflect on this sentence that. “A beautiful life is one that embraces certainty and uncertainty in some measure, and remember to include both in ways that challenge your tendencies to one or the other.”
Anchors and freedom
We need anchors and freedom and a spirit that remembers to give us both so that when the unexpected happens we have the capacity to get through and navigate differently. Practice putting yourself in uncomfortable situations so when you're lightning strikes, and you cannot avoid it, you can cope with most of what life can throw you.
The balance is personal because being uncomfortable all the time is as unhealthy as being comfortable all the time and this balance is so variable in all of us through personality and in different stages of our life.
Conclusion
In wrapping up, my thoughts are that it’s so important to live life in and outside the virtual reality that the rabbit hole of technology offers. Virtual reality, social media, gaming can all consume our energies and time in a way that can divorce us from meaningful human engagement.
In work the abdication of decision-making to algorithms and modelling, that the pandemic consistently proved inaccurate, yet politically was presented as reliable when the reality was a virus as unpredictable as human nature. Decision-making relying purely on data and algorithms stifles sensible debate of wider implications and falsely peddles a view that life is predictable.
Technology advances must never disregard the fact that the human brain created it and whilst it is faster and better than us in so many ways it remains a tool and must not undermine our confidence in the abilities of the human brain.
David Sammel
Coach | Consultant | Author