What technological device are you currently reading this article with: your computer, your phone, or maybe your tablet? You may even have a plugin installed that reads it aloud to you while you’re driving in your car or shopping, because that way you can do two things at once. Let’s forget this particular article for a second, can you say exactly how much time in your life is spent surrounded by various devices, or would it be easier for you to answer how much time you spend without them? Before answering, think carefully about whether you wear a smart watch or a device that helps your heart beat, or perhaps helps you hear better? For many people today, life is so intertwined with technology that they have trouble answering these questions, and why should they?
As a student of Interaction Design, I understand that as no one else in my profession will be associated not only with high and modern technology, but also with their implementation in the lives of other people. That’s why I wanted to ask myself at the very beginning of my career, “how much technology do people need? It’s great if they can help people make better diagnoses or make their lives safer, and if they can help increase education, but I also started to hear more and more about the flipside of technology: it can reduce the safety of driving if not used correctly (maybe you heard about the time that the captain of the vehicle lost control because his analog device was replaced with a touchscreen), or it can completely displace people from creative professions that they enjoy (like right now I’ll tell you this). So, given these trends, it is not hard to see that there is a certain boundary between the right level of technology and the alarming level of it, which is unspoken and which nobody marked before we entered the age of information technology. It is this line that is the subject of my interest for this blog.
First of all, I want to briefly outline the advantages and disadvantages of technology in relation to certain industry sectors, because in my opinion, the need for technology is equally distributed between different areas.
Medicine:
Technology has made huge breakthroughs in this field over the past decades. Innovations such as AR, 3D printing, AI, robotic assistants and virtual healthcare have surely saved and improved the quality of more than one life. Recently, an experiment was conducted in which 15 experienced doctors from China and an artificial intelligence called BioMind AI competed against each other in making diagnoses related to neurological pathologies. While the AI could find 87% of pathologies in 225 cases, the team of doctors could achieve only 66% accuracy. Similar results were obtained in a competition to identify brain hematomas. And despite the fact that it is already clear that such technology will displace many extremely talented diagnosticians from the working market, many will say “I do not care who diagnoses me, human or machine, as long as the disease is found”. Since we are talking about human lives, in my opinion, in this case high technology is appropriate and necessary, if it can work more accurately than humans or increase the success of treatment. Naturally, this also requires patience, adaptability and teachability in the medical profession.
Education:
In my opinion, things are more complicated in this field. On the one hand, if every student had a tablet with a complete school program, which would also adjust to the abilities of the learner, it would be great: students could decide at what pace to study and when they could try to pass exams, their cognitive abilities and interests could be taken into account in setting homework, teachers could concentrate on supporting their class and would be freed from the monotonous routine work. However, this sounds utopian enough, and any utopia always inevitably leads to various dystopian scenarios. During the coronavirus, it became clear that students, contrary to all expectations of the adult generation, were not delighted with long sessions with computers and tablets: they complained of back pain, lack of communication and even depressive states. All this points to the fact that in education technology should not be used thoughtlessly and count on it in every aspect.
Art:
This is probably the most difficult area. The vast majority of designers working in the industry use technology for their work, be it Figma or Adobe Suite. In recent years the appearance of new plugins in Figma or brushes for Photoshop has excited the community of illustrators and designers, but after the appearance of Mid Journey, many have become very skeptical of the development of technology in this area, even to the point of asking for the ” cancellation of AI in art “. This kind of antipathy to progress has not been seen since the Industrial Revolution, so it seems to me that this topic is vast and will remain an open question for a long time to come.
As you can see, the topic of technology is totally controversial and can be approached from different perspectives when it comes to different areas. That is why I find it interesting and fascinating, so in my next articles I plan to explore it from different angles.
References:
China Focus: AI beats human doctors in neuroimaging recognition contest – Xinhua | English.news.cn. (o. D.). http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-06/30/c_137292451.htm
6 Ways Technology is Transforming the Healthcare Industry. (2020, 6. Januar). The Manufacturer. https://www.themanufacturer.com/press-releases/6-ways-technology-transforming-healthcare-industry/
Digitalisierung & Gesundheit – GIVE. (o. D.). https://www.give.or.at/angebote/themen/digitalisierung-gesundheit/
Whiddington, R. (2022, 16. Dezember). Independent Artists Are Fighting Back Against A.I. Image Generators With Innovative Online Protests. Artnet News. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/independent-artists-are-fighting-back-against-a-i-image-generators-with-innovative-online-protests-2231334
TechCrunch is part of the Yahoo family of brands. (2019, 11. August). https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/11/navy-ditches-touchscreens-for-knobs-and-dials-after-fatal-crash/
Kirdina, A. & Turner, T. (2022, 13. Dezember). Midjourney vs. human illustrators: has AI already won?—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog. evilmartians.com. https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/midjourney-vs-human-illustrators-has-ai-already-won
