The Real Danger Is Not That Computers Will Begin To Think Like Men Analysis

Research question quote – “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.” – Sydney G. Harris

The most basic meaning of the quote, “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but men will begin to think like computers” according to me is that humans should think outside the box, open up our minds and to try and understand what is happening around us instead of what is being told to us. Scientists and philosophers only think about what might happen if computers will think like humans but the real issue is the total opposite of that which would be what if humans begin to think like computers. The repercussions of the latter are more devastating than
The quote reinforces this idea into any reader by creating fear by using the word “danger” in the quote which has an adverse effect making us believe that it is really bad for humans to think like computers before we even understand the quote fully itself. Emotions, intuition and learning from experience is what makes us humans. Computers on the other hand are solely based on computational processes, inputs and outputs no matter how complex the system is. The danger Harris talks about and fears is that we would become emotionless and not be able to differentiate between right or wrong. We would make decisions based only on logic and reasoning and not what feels right. Emotions play a huge part in being a human in shaping any human being and losing that would be losing being a human. Harris fears that one day every human being would be without any sort of personality and just do what we were being ordered to do, getting inputs, processing it and producing an output without bothering to think the situation over. There is a difference in human’s lifestyle and a computer’s life style and we should stick to it and not create an imbalance between the two is what I think was Harris’ ambition by saying this
In the Pensées, the difference between computers and humans were explained, where computers have a “spirit of geometry” and humans have the “spirit of finesse”. The key differences between these two were that computers work using deductive reasoning and logic but humans work as mix of reasoning and emotions giving us the ability to possess an intuitive mind. For example, we know that Einstein did not have extra information which was not known to the other physicists of that time period when he came up with the theory of relativity. All he did was deduce the same information which was known to all in a completely different way, thinking outside the box, tested these deductions and hence proving them. This was all possible due to imagination which is something humans would lose if we started to think like computers. This example another quote by Einstein which is, “Laws are only reached by non-logical methods. To make a law one has to have an intellectual love of the subject”. The keywords in this quote are “love” and “non-logical”. A renowned scientist as Einstein himself agrees that imagination and feelings are far more important than just logic and reasoning so we should fear giving all this up. Human thinking is something which cannot be equated with some given set rules and theorems hence giving it that