COMPUTER SCIENCE #6

It's kind of cool how in my previous post I was talking about the relationship of laziness and how that allowed us to create new innovations in order to accommodate for our need to make things more accessible and easier to use. However, in this weeks class, Danny touched upon the idea that technology may actually impede the improvement of our lives. In fact, production actually dropped for the first few decades after the Industrial Revolution and lengthened the working day. Although this seems almost impossible because technology now-a-days represents shortcuts, it is understandable as to why technology actually worsened the lives of citizens in the late 1700s to the early 1800s. My prediction is that technology during the Industrial Revolution had not been working as efficient and quickly as contemporary machines. In fact, it probably broke down requiring constant maintenance or repair. Thus, in order to fix these bugs or small mechanical mistakes, it took time and money away from the workers. So, why would shop owners turn to technology if machines had these glitches? The answer to this would be the fact that machines do not need breaks nor food in order to survive. Accounting the cost to pay for a worker far exceeds the cost of obtaining and maintaining a machine.
Anyways, back to this weeks class. We also talked about work and the effects of current technology in decreasing ones time needed to create the same amount of output. One interesting fact I learnt was that the "Crunch Mode" is ineffective due to the fact that the maximum level a long-term worker can input effectively is 40hrs/week. Productivity will drop substantially if these workers work overtime. In fact, did you know that if you work over 21hrs your optimal amount of time, it's equivalent to being legally drunk?
I guess this just shows the importance technology plays within our lives. Without technology, the work we could put into 40hrs would be considerably less. In fact, by having these technological advances, it saves us from having to over-work ourselves to the point that we are continuously making careless mistakes due to the drop of our cognitive ability.
I guess this demonstrates the fact that humans have a limit unlike machines. However, what we have that machines don't have is motivation and our ability to improve through practice. With our motivation, we can work harder and faster. In fact, we can learn from our mistakes and continue to learn without a need of a program.

I wonder if machines will ever reach the stage of having this ability to self-improve. If that day ever comes, will there really be a difference between technologically-made machines and humans? Food for thought : )