Few days ago, my husband went out to pay internet bill with other things he had to do. He came few hours later and update his wallet app (which I have mentioned in my last blog). He figured that he has not paid the cash at the counter but the agent has issued him a slip as paid. He decided to go and pay in his next visit out.
It reminded me of another similar incident with my friend’s brother who was a cashier in a bank and forgot to receive a huge amount from a person and had to pay from his own pocket. Well… that’s all. Story finished! But this led to a serious discussion between us, I wondered even in the “tech”era where everything is “computerized” we are still far behind in coping with human errors.
In reality, there is nothing to really wonder, while working in tech I believe I know what is wrong with our systems. There are no “compatible” systems!! What do I mean by that? Let’s hear me out.
There are two kind of systems running in the whole world. #1 is manual system in which humans put too much efforts to work (i.e processing routine/job tasks) , #2 is that they have been shifted to a computerized system which let them perform their tasks at a higher speed since it is a machine. So I think I proved what my blog title is that either we work like a donkey (putting too much efforts and not thinking of efficient ways) or like a dumb ass (nothing personal) robot who clicks on few buttons to get things done!
I feel really bad to write this but I think we are failing to support humans through technology instead either we are burdening with new things to learn or forcing them to do stuff manually just like 100 years ago. Our systems are not intelligent enough to learn humans beings and help them; not teach them how to use it.
A human being is not a machine; It has feelings, family, thoughts, issues, wishes & emotions and this is how we work in this world. Coming to the incident which led me to write this, that person could be distracted for so many reasons to forget to receive the payment, it could be someone sick at his home or financial/relationship troubles or as simple as sleeping issues and unfortunately led to more stress for him since he could have paid this from his own pocket if my husband had not gone back to pay. So did the machine help? NO!! Did the technology help him to work efficiently while he is stressed? Definitely, NO!!
The industry needs to grow up a lot higher than this level, the irony is we are working on machine to work like a human and become artificially intelligent but we are not doing anything to improve our machines to aid humans which are not going to become extinct anytime soon!! I might sound a machine hater but trust me, I am not. I love the automation as much as I love writing but humans are precious.
Its high time to think about it, because as someone who works with technology I can see how messed up our systems are & increasing human stress in double making life miserable for them. That’s not why technology came in to this world.