Fields and Dreemz

"Human vs. Machine", courtesy of JennyConnected on Wordpress

A few days ago, I wrote about parenting in the internet age and the avalanche of technology that will have a tremendous effect on my kids as they grow up. While pecking at my keyboard I spied the dog-eared copy of W.P. Kinsella’s mystical baseball novella, Shoeless Joe, in my bookcase. That eased my introspection.

I first read Kinsella’s work not long after Hollywood’s take on the book, “Field of Dreams,” starring Kevin Costner, charmed North Americans in the late 1980s. The book was filled with wonder about life, the afterlife, and how people handle metaphysical curveballs pitched to them. It’s a work replete with plot twists focused on dreams, hopes and second-guessing on choices made. Gooey feelings galore. I saw the movie with my mom, who was pregnant with my younger brother at the time, because I thought she would enjoy the underlying spiritual themes. I went on to relish Kinsella’s many baseball stories in addition to learning about Canada’s indigenous peoples, of which he also used humorous storytelling to inform with wit and grace. His stories entertained, and made me think about how I approached and dealt with the unknowns, and failures, that all young adults grapple with.

Here’s the tie-in with the technology element in the previous post. People like booing umpires after a call is made that we don’t agree with, even when we know the umps are probably right. It’s contradictory and defies rational thinking. They’re human, therefore fallible, those damn umps. But who doesn’t enjoy the theater of the manager ambling out to do verbal battle with the umpire crew chief on a questionable call? Even if he knows he’s in the wrong, the manager will argue and put on a show, sometimes get thrown out of the game, just to show his allegiance and rally the fans and his team. It’s a human reaction. Calling balls and strikes, or making close calls just by the sound of a ball hitting a glove, is nigh impossible to get right every time. But we accept that. 

Thank you, ESPN

Since 2011, ESPN’s K-Zone – a square representing the player’s non-official strike zone superimposed on the TV screen for viewers -- has been visible during its ballgame broadcasts. Traditionalists decry it, claiming it removes human judgement and control from the game. Others think it makes baseball games move faster, with more precision and impartiality. Machines and radar don’t have biases.

Both sides are right. For me the K-zone and other adjustments to baseball are reminders that faith in our humanity and our imperfect ways will continue to triumph over the tech tools we create to assist us. But that’s the same reason I like umpires, not computers, making the final call on a ball or a strike. It’s because of the fallibility of man, the mystery of life, and accepting occasional value judgments rather than cold, binary yes/no decisions.

If I can divine some larger philosophical significance from a book about baseball then certainly the future technology that awaits today’s kids will continue to serve them if we don't delegate control too much. The man versus machine debate will not fade away. Zeros and ones do not govern our squishy thinking. Nor do they determine if a pitch is called a ball or strike. 
The kids will be alright.

HAL9000 and my kids

[Forward: This entry is contemplative and wonky, so forgive me. I must exorcise the thoughts.]

Access to technology has forced the several battles and a strategy rethink amid the Rising Family's childrearing campaign. TV and cellphone screen time have launched a hundred headaches in the last six months. The problem is that one kid now has a basic cellphone. The other one doesn’t, which is an affront to the kids’ perceptions of natural justice. It’s the perennial question: why does she get one just because she’s older? It’s not fair! Slamming doors, tears, and terse silence at the dinner table abound.

So how have these tiny screens -- and the software and the expanding artificial intelligence that make them all so addictive -- provoked such outrage? Why do smartphones, YouTube 'slime' videos and texting hold swath over the Rising Daughters’ budding brains? 

Courtesy of Facebook

Rhetorical question #1: If 2016 proved that Facebook subverts our democracy, what will Alexa do in 2020?

Before Stephen Hawking died, he warned that AI could spell the end of the human race. His prediction feels a lot closer to reality to me when I cannot pry M. away from Siri long enough to hold a real conversation.

Sometimes I get the Technology Terrors when I think about the future. Visions of my daughters being deprived by my weak discipline in the face of the siren song of Tech. Giving in means sleep affected by screen time before bed; micro attention spans; lapses in logical reasoning; difficulty in socializing; incipient ADHD diagnoses; and eventual fears over contact with online predators. These dark visions come with every hour they spend on the PC or with eyes glued to the cellphone. Let alone the opportunity cost in outdoor activities and organized sports. Doom and gloom stuff, right?

Maybe so, maybe no. I think previous generations of parents had similar fears for their kids about the advent of radio, TV, and personal computers. 

Silly rhetorical question #2: 2001: A Space Odyssey’s infamous HAL 9000’s vocal sounds have a Canadian accent. Stanley Kubrick chose a Canadian stage actor for HAL’s voice because he wanted a flat, geographically ambiguous tonal delivery for the emotion-free, murderous supercomputer.

Anyway, I think Technology need not provoke Terror. I love The Matrix trilogy—even the third film. Something about our lives being simulations on another being’s program…supreme fodder for daydreams. And, if nothing else, The Matrix showed that what makes us human are feelings such as doubt/disbelief, fear/fright of things we don’t fully understand, shame/pride, and any number of emotions and feelings that go hand-in-hand with the technology pervasive in present-day life.

Yet humans are not logical beings and we often consciously make poor choices. Computers don’t. Life isn’t as easy to understand as a smartphone application or made easy by rigid adherence to algorithms. So maybe the key is first regulating their technology impulses until the kids can make their own informed choices. Sounds like classic Parenting 101 after all.

We can still deactivate HAL with effective parenting! Thanks to MGM for the screenshot.

I boil this down thusly: kids are similar to tiny drunk adults. They have poor impulse control. They scream bloody murder when their worldview, decision-making, or desires are called into question. That’s when the sober ones in the room have to take away the keys until the time is right to unleash them back into this brave new world.