Smarter Tools and Dumber Consumers

Our morning walk topic turned to the gen-next and its dependence on tools, especially Google Maps. We regularly see drivers missing the signs on the roads when following Google Maps.  A late turn here and missed turn there make the driver look lost.  We see an absence of common sense and over-reliance on the maps for directions.  We wondered how we managed to find our ways over two decades ago.  We used to read the map and memorize the directions to the best of our abilities, supplemented by small notes in case our memory failed.  Most importantly, the focus was on how to not miss a turn. We would remember the street that proceeds the one that we must take.  

But every generation goes through the learning of new tools.  Why do we complain when the next generation uses maps? This article is an attempt to identify the missing factor - learning. 

Let me take the field I am most familiar with - programming.  Generations before mine used assembly programming before high-level languages were created. It definitely made our lives a lot easier.  But we also picked up the nuances of the languages.  We spent hours optimizing the code, making it more readable, ensuring standards, and so on.  We were the users of the tool.  A few brilliant programmers identified the shortcomings of one language and tried addressing them in a new language that they could create.  The cycle continued and now we have more complex software developed in a much shorter time.  There is also an overall improvement in the quality of software.

Such an improvement is also seen in Google Maps.  The audio cues are getting better, and the reroutings are getting smarter.  The system became more intelligent because of its usage by consumers.  Yes, they are different from the users of the tools mentioned in the previous paragraph.  These are not users who improve the tool by their conscious usage, but consumers who make mistakes that are used by the system to improve itself.  This led to the statement - that the phones got smarter and the people got dumber.

The question is - can the consumers of Google Maps become users who consciously improve it?  It may be possible for a few heavy users to figure out the nuances of the tool and improve upon them.  But Google will do a lot better than them.  It has data from millions of consumers from around the world.  It has the systems in place to learn about the mistakes they commit and possibly a team of analysts who figure out the deficiency in the software and fix it much before the smart individuals can act.  

Machine intelligence will gain with the stupidity of the consumers.