REMAINING HUMAN IN A ROBOT SOCIETY
The ongoing technological revolutions have completely altered the traditional structures of organizations and the human society. These technologies are used to develop machines that can substitute for humans and replicate human actions. Robots have been the one of the technological breakthroughs of humans. Recent innovations in robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the society, business structures and even our personal lives. The arrival of non- human driving cars, delivery drones, sex robots, warfare drones and others are unsettled by machines taking a wide range of responsibilities. New ways of working, living and interacting have also emerged through the advances of robotics and AI. Critical questions arise which include; Will robots take over the human society? Do robots pose any threat on human society? Will machines eventually overtake human beings?
Robots can be used in any situation and for various purposes, robots improves quality of work done, increases productivity, eliminates error. Similarly, robots are not affected by environments whether conducive or hostile, they also thrive in places where humans cannot survive. Robots are programmed to replicate walking, talking, speech recognition and most functions of human beings.
In offices, industries and home, they carry out cumbersome and routines tasks without boredom or fatigue. Most uniquely, robots do not need to be motivated or remunerated, they do not need to take breaks or rests or even get entertained.
Humans play a lot of roles, ranging from the simplest to the most cumbersome, abstract and concrete roles. The human functions cannot be completely shifted to robots, a robot can fight in a war and kill enemies but it may not be able to save a wounded soldier who is not an enemy! They may act possess certain human qualities but they cannot in many cases function completely like humans. The society is and was first a human society before a technological society, the human society is older than the robot society and even though the use of robots have become ubiquitous, human beings possess far more superior qualities than robots. The work of machines are limited to the tangibles like output, quality, speed, service delivery and error elimination. Talk of the intangibles like innovation, creativity, motivation, and flexibility, these are core organizational needs where only human inputs are indispensable. No organization can completely thrive on robots, even an alien community needs programmers and people who work behind the scenes to develop robots and assign responsibilities to them.
These machines cannot initiate any idea but are tied by design to very special tasks.
It is a big challenge to organizations to manage the human resource in the age of increasing robot dominance. Although managing the duo has been perceived by many as mutually exclusive, it is really not easy nor inevitable to remain human in the robot society.
To stay human in a robot society, we must first understand and apply the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence is one of the most current demands in the human society.
Emotional intelligence deals with how best to handle ourselves and others, it relates to managing feelings of people and enabling them work together smoothly towards achieving their common goals. EI also gives understanding as to who people are and why they do things differently. In the face of increasingly robotized society, managers must consciously work to be effective with humans rather than being efficient with them.
We can be efficient with machines and not humans. With a good grasp of the EI techniques, the society will have a more human outlook than a robot outlook. Robots have no feeling, no consciences or brains and as such, the dynamic nature of human beings are unfamiliar to them. Managers must be aware of human feelings, show empathy, communicate effectively and remain flexible.
Secondly, we must understand that robots are the creatures of men and that humans are not the creatures of robots. To stay human we must bear in mind that machines are created to help human beings and not to replace them. It would be a great mess when we leave every responsibility to robots even when they are naturally designed to be carried out by men. Take for instance parenting role which is a highly flexible function or teaching a child which is also dynamic, even when a robot is programmed to teach, it is not programmed to understand the state of the mind of the learner, respond to or “out of the context” questions. In the context of organizations, robots cannot set goals, monitor performance, take initiatives, avert risks, motivate workers or manage businesses.
We humans must have clear cut areas where human beings must function and not robots. We must develop the limits in the adoption of machines else the human relevance will fade out and the dominance of robots begins. Much is talked about the fourth industrial revolution and it seems like the process will completely reduce human influence, it is however importance for us to know that the planet we live in is a planet for humans. Scientists must use Robotics as a way of improving lives and not a way of substituting it. Robots must be made to solve our problems and not increase it. Robots should be used in ways that do not reduce human relevance. We can use robots, but we should not allow robots use us.
According to Drucker, “a man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths”. The best of human efforts come out when they work in the areas of their strengths otherwise, it would look like they are non-productive and hence, robots would take over since no society can function as a society unless it gives the individual member social status and function, this social status is gained when people are effectively utilized. Staying human is guaranteed when people are properly utilized and made to function in areas where their skills are required. This will not only lead to organizational growth but also the attainment of the self- actualization need which according to Abraham Maslow is the apex in hierarchy of all human needs.
Living in a fast changing society requires the possession of highly specialized skills which are needed for the positions people occupy and roles they play, it is a belief in management that an individual is useful if he possess the skills and knowledge for which he was hired for, this implies that people could become useless in an organization when they lack the necessary skills. It is very expedient that individual continuously learn new skill and acquire new knowledge to remain useful in the organization. It gets to a point in an organization when obsolete workers are laid off and their jobs are normally taken over by machines. Managers must make it a priority to train their workers for greater productivity in the organization. Employees should also be willing to challenge norms and conventions, and always seek to remain relevant, this is more to than getting a college degree or a fanciful certificate but constant value addition to themselves.
It may be difficult to remain human when human beings do not reinvent themselves. Information and knowledge have become common in our technologically advanced world, hence we must utilize them for our improvement.
Synergy is the concept that makes the human society distinct from the robot society, cooperation and collaboration are the areas where humans have an edge over robots, the diversity of human beings make collaboration not just important but indispensable. To remain human, people must leverage on their diversity in problem solving, organizational development, institutional change and even in our personal lives. Through synergy, we pull together the great wealth of the human resource and discover better ways of solving the problems of humanity. Even in the pursuit of solving human problems inventions will always emerge. Synergy also imply that we spend time with each other, share our feelings and emotions with them, hugs and handshakes from humans have a way of communicating non-verbal messages only human beings understand. This is when we will gradually put robots in the right perspectives.
Finally, the Human Centered Design (HCD) framework should be adopted in management and development of robots. The human perspective in all robot usage should not be overlooked. Human involvement takes place in observing problems within the context of humans and not robots. Human being are endowed with brains and body systems far more developed and superior to their creatures – robots. Tapping into the human intelligence reserve, thinking for ourselves, brainstorming, weighing alternatives and making our own decisions will increase quality of the human society. We must resist the urge to make a robot- human substitution, we must give room for continued face to face interaction between ourselves and value human nature more than machines, artificial intelligence or robotics. Machines have no understanding of ethics, morality love and emotions like human beings do.
Artificial intelligence is a wonderful invention of man, it is created to help humanity, to reduce the stress and burden we may undergo when we don’t use it. Robots improve life by also relieving us of certain roles and responsibilities, in the world of increasing robots, we must chose to live, act and remain humans.
FERDINAND OCHOR
According to Christopher Reeve, “Once you choose hope, anything is possible”, this holds true for every situation and in the face of every problem we may face. The way of hope is like a journey in a long dark tunnel with light at its end. Only the patient man will embrace the light after the stress of the dark journey.
