Articles
As technology has infiltrated our lives, from iPhones to computer-controlled cockpits, we’ve handed over a surprising amount of decision-making to software and automated devices. While author Nicholas Carr admires the progress this has driven in our societies, in his book The Glass Cage he exposes the darker side of automation, and the negative impact it may be having on us all.
With algorithms now informing anything from our medical diagnoses to multimillion-dollar deals on the stock trading floor, Carr asks whether automation is affecting our ability to solve problems, forge memories and acquire skills.
The psychological studies he explores find that we perform best when fully involved in a task, while the principle behind automation – that humans are inefficient – proves self-fulfilling. The ‘glass cockpit’, Carr says, is fast becoming a ‘glass cage’ that traps humans out of the decision-making process, with potentially disastrous consequences.
This process is illustrated in automation-gone-wrong case studies. One involves a jet equipped with the latest ‘glass cockpit’ controls autopilot, which routinely switched itself off and crashed into the Atlantic, with its pilots panicking and unable to regain control.
In his absorbing book, Carr looks at the rise of the machine and our conflicted response to handing over control to technology. Rigorous analysis of research on the cognitive impact of automation makes for a fascinating, and often disturbing, read, particularly for those who work in highly automated fields.
While undoubtedly written to draw in the mass audience with its doomsayer rhetoric, the book asks some important questions and reveals an ever-growing body of evidence that automation may be guiding us down a dangerous path.
The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr is published by Vintage Books at £12.99.