It’s no secret that machine learning has augmented and improved the place of humans since its relatively recent birth. The ability to crunch data and learn new things has made computer technology an amazing driving force for a deeper understanding of just about everything.
From science and math to the facilitation of instant translation between different languages, computer technology has enriched the lives of billions across the globe.
Which is why it’s only natural that humans would begin to feel out of place as more and more of the mundane tasks of everyday existence began to be relegated to computers, smartphones and robots.
Fear of obsolescence in the face of technology is nothing new, but the scale on which it’s happening worldwide is.
But really, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Pending some incredible scientific breakthrough, the reality of computer systems means that they’ll never be able to ‘understand’ as humans do.
They can think and learn, yes. But they can only operate within the strict parameters set before them. Just like tearing every chapter out of a textbook except one will no doubt give the reader a limited field of scope with which to view the world, computers are limited by what’s available to them at the time.
They can’t ask questions; they can’t wonder and seek answers in the organic manner of humans.
They simply move as quickly as they can from A to B.
The root problem of fear about the future of computers and the obsolescence of humans occurs because the focus is always squarely planted on what machines do better than humans, not the other way around.
Leadership, creative drive, social skills and the ability to work together. All of these are essential strengths that computers will, in their current form, never be able to achieve.
But machines can augment these human strengths, a pathway into the future that ensures neither party will never be anything less than essential.
The power of human ingenuity with machines as the proxy for increased success is already being seen right across the world.
Driven by the human condition, machines are helping people think and learn in ways never thought possible even a decade ago.
And it’s this idea of working side by side that has made machine learning a crucial part of the collective intelligence world.
The traditional idea of the ‘think-tank’ a collection of individuals working together to solve problems or generate ideas has been turned on its head by machine learning.
The widespread availability of increasingly powerful tools for crunching data and drawing conclusions has augmented the way in which collectives build ideas and provide knowledge that sustains the continued success of humans as a whole.
So much so that many collective intelligence outfits now rely entirely on their machine allies to help them achieve the lofty goals they set for themselves in the world of thought generation.
But increased reliance does not mean that the place of humans in this equation is anything less than critical to its success.
Human input is the guiding hand that means the endless potential of machine learning is something that’s always growing into the future.
Smart machines, while able to eclipse the processing and problem-solving powers of any human, are in reality best likened to the awareness of a young child.
The spark of imagination that brings great thought into being is something that machines, at least in the foreseeable future will always lack.
Which is why, without this spark and a leading hand from those who created it, a machine’s ability to think and learn is non-existent.
Considered this way, the role of machines in collective intelligence is that of a facilitator, dependent on the input of its human counterparts at all stages of the thought generation process.
Which is why there’s absolutely no threat of obsolescence for humans in the collective intelligence sphere.
The essence of collective intelligence is to generate thought and solve problems, a system built to assist humans, just like machines are. Because of this, the big picture of collective intelligence and what it ultimately aims to do will remain a foreign concept to even the most complex and powerful learning computers, no matter how integral they become to the process.
Empathy, critical thinking and creativity are what set humans apart from other species, and in this uniqueness, they’ve become inseparable factors in the process of improving human existence as well.
Which is why if anything is truer of the impacts of machine learning on collective intelligence, it’s that it has the potential to make humans more human than ever before.