Re: <nettime> rage against the machine

On 15-Mar-2019, at 2:28 AM, Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com> wrote:

There is much to critique in the operations of Boeing and of the FAA. But it's not about AI taking full control.

https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/13464-structural-design-and-thinking-in-approximations

This short essay by Robert Silman is about another field totally - structural engineering, but the point it makes about our relationship with computers and thinking in approximations is significant. Humans can get a overall ‘feel’ for a system that is far more efficient than a computer in understanding the holistic character of the system - and to do this requires thinking in approximations.

The challenge with the computer is that:

Its capabilities are based in computing power rather than contextual understanding, and the learning and decision making in its intelligence comes from harnessing this computing power to discern sensible patterns within a host of randomly collected factors. The system works well when it is inserted into a context that is within the predictable range of prior learning, but put the system into a complex non-linear context (like wind flow, climate, collective social choice) and every now and then it will hit a situation that lies outside this predictable range. It then falls apart as its analysis is based on finding correlations rather than building empathy or understanding, and it has no way of assessing whether the error it finds is minor or major.
It is expected that the human will intervene in such situations. But because these situations are so rare and random, the human gets habituated to the routine reality revealed by the computer. And because the computer can reveal tremendous visual detail, the human thinks that he/she is getting a far better feel for reality. The human stops thinking in approximations, loses the ‘feel’ for the overall system, and is therefore also ill equipped to deal with crises or errors thrown up by the machine.

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