Reading

Men machines and the world about
Norbert Wiener
In this paper Norbert Wiener talks about the development of machines and the social consequences that could come from developing them. He draws very interesting parallels between how humans work and how machines could work and takes inspiration from these parallels for solutions to difficult problems in creating automatic machinery. This first part of the article is very interesting and adds a lot to my understanding of the history of machines.
However, the second part of the article which talks about the social dilemmas presented by replacing people with machinery is very much more interesting because it is still relevant today. In the second section, he talks about how if we “worship” the machine and “sacrifice” the tasks of man to it, then we are going to end up with much larger problems than could be imagined. “If that does happen, heaven help us, because we will have an unemployment compared with which the Great Depression was a nice little joke.”
He then goes on to emphasize this point and he compares the moral problems of machinery to the moral problems of magic. “If you have a machine which grants you your wish then you must pay attention to the old fairy tale of the three wishes, which tell you that if you do make a wish which is likely to be granted, you had better be very sure that it is what you want and not what you think you want.”
This paper was also valuable because it showed the importance of addressing and realising the consequences of your designs.