In the midst of a historical revolution, and here we are browsing TikTok...

Welcome back! 

Wishing you a happy new year practically at the end of January may sound a little bit tired and almost redundant. Nevertheless, I hope this year of 2024 finds you well and provides a new set of challenges for you to overcome and keep evolving yourself into the best version of You that you are in the course of becoming.

A quick note to contextualize the following information, at the time of this writing I'm teaching basic computer science at high-school level. We recently had a class on the history and evolution of computers. A topic that is incredibly interesting to me and one I always love talking and learning more about.

While studying the required material for the class and researching some extra bits of interesting information to keep the students engaged, (an incredibly complex feat to accomplish with teenagers), some insights came to my head and I wish to share them with you.

History repeats itself...

The first insight came when I learned about the first written mention of the word computer. Back in the year 1613, the term did not refer to a device, rather, it was used as a job title.

Computers were brilliant mathematicians in charge of solving the day to day calculations that businesses required for their operations often without the use of additional tools. This job title was compromised around the year 1673, when the step reckoner was invented and built by Gottfried Leibniz. This machine was the first device that was able to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

At around this point in the lesson there were two quotes that created a spark inside my head.

Paraphrasing, the first quote was by Charles Babbage who mentioned how every time new tools and technologies are created, some types of labor are inevitably rendered obsolete. The next quote was by Leibniz himself when referring to the step reckoner. He expressed that it was below human dignity to waste time doing a job that can be done faster by using a more efficient tool, (German pragmatism at it's finest).

You may already be connecting the dots in your head. After reading the quotes I told my students that when the step reckoner was invented, it was highly likely that some of the more renowned computers were not very happy about being sidelined by a metal contraption. And while these machines eventually made the job of a human computer obsolete, it didn't however, eliminate the need for humans to be able to still operate in their heads, it just meant that these brilliant mathematicians could apply their abilities to something greater.

We're currently seeing something very similar in regards to AI. It's not the first time in human history that jobs will disappear because of newly invented tools. But it does take us humans some time to find out new avenues that require of our unique talents and abilities. It won't be easy, especially since we've gotten very used to treating menial repetitive tasks as jobs for quite some time. In the long run however, something better and more fulfilling will be needed that will once again "elevate our human dignity".

AI is not here to replace anyone. It may have seemed that way at the start, but as our understanding of it grows so will the realization that only humans can actually create. And having an aide that can quickly learn and analyze vast amounts of data and get results immediately has many more pros than cons.

Moving on:

As the class continued, we moved onto the topic of the evolution of electronic computers.

From the ENIAC computer to the current clusters of multi-core processors powering machine learning models, each generation of computers is defined by the components that make them work.

There's always a big focus on how each new generation of computer was made smaller and small efficient. And with good reason, in and of itself being able to create smaller more powerful components is quite amazing, especially when we consider how little time happens between one generation and the next. However, what caught my eye this time around was that together with the hardware components, the way in which people communicated with the machines themselves was also evolving.

Electrodes gave way to punch cards, assembly language and eventually to programming languages. With each new iteration, the entry barrier to be able to interact with computers was lowered and allowed more people access to a whole new world of possibilities through technology. There are even some coding languages that work "semantically" making them especially simple to understand and implement.

There is still a measure of required education in order to be able to communicate with computers though... Or is there?

"Talking" with computers

In my opinion, Machine Learning's biggest breakthrough is not the automation of higher level tasks, but the enabling of humans to communicate with computers using natural human language.

Now, anyone regardless of their background can ask a computer to create an app, webpage or system. Granted, it won't be as clean or as efficient as if created by an experienced programmer, but consider the following:

The industrial revolution is said to have started with the widespread use of the steam engine around the year 1780 and each new step took around one hundred years to be recognized. After almost three hundred years we are currently living what is called "Industry 4.0".

Computers haven't been around for even one hundred years and the ability for humans to naturally communicate with them is practically new. Imagine what advancements will be made in the next ten or twenty years!

I think it's pretty amazing to be living in a time that will without a doubt impact how we as humans live and interact with the world. 

It took me a while to process these facts, mainly because of how fast technology advances and how consumer culture constantly pushes new things in your face to the point where I tend to block out a lot of incoming information about new tech. Additionally, (and making a call back to the title of this post), being constantly bombarded by social media where everyone demands your attention NOW and keeps trying to be the protagonist all the time, makes it so looking at the big picture requires a considerable effort.

But once you do manage to take a step back, it's clear that it's a very interesting time to be alive and witness the start of a complete paradigm shift!!

Hopefully these insights give you something to think about as well and help you in feeling renewed enthusiasm to march into the new year filled with hope and wonder!

As always, Let's keep creating and finding new things to keep our minds constantly working towards making our lives and those around us better every day!