Calling Sherlock Holmes and IBM Watson
Why would a car, going full speed, hit a barrier head-on at a highway turnoff? Was it a lack of paint, making the runup look like just another lane? Was it that the warning signs had all fallen over or been blown away? Or was it that the driver was playing with their phone and trusting the car to drive itself? When investigators looked into the accident, they found that it was all of these things, but mostly the last one. A misplaced faith in the car’s autonomous driving system meant the driver wasn’t paying attention at the point when they could have avoided the tragedy.
Despite what some believe, we can’t make KITT from Knight Rider yet. While the technology for self-driving cars isn’t in the realm of sci-fi imaginary like warp-speed spaceships and robot servants anymore, it’s not progressed to the stage of being taken for granted like telephones and clocks that switch themselves to daylight savings time. It’s more akin to growing and maturing technologies, like facial recognition, social media algorithms and spelling and grammar checkers.
That last one surprised you a bit, didn’t it? Surely, you think, computers can tell when I’ve made a mistake in my writing? Sometimes, yes. They can tell when you’ve put too many Cs or not enough Ss in “necessary”, and they can tell you if you’ve written “is” when there should be “are”. But they can’t tell you the difference between “systemic” and “systematic”, or if you’ve spelt someone’s name consistently (and correctly). No, there’s still a lot in writing that you need a human brain to do.
Still don’t believe me? Take a look at this.
“In regard to GotG cars, the HYDRA steering system, controlled by the JARVIS unit, outperforms any human driver. Combined with the SHIELD safety systems and AIM fuel-economy engines, our line of ACAP vehicles are undoubtably the best on the road.”
Now that all sounds well and good, right? Well, unfortunately all of the acronyms in this passage are from Marvel movies. So, while Captain America might be able to say “I understood that reference”, you’d be hard pressed to find a computer that did.
So yes, we live in a wonderous time where most people carry small magic boxes in their back pockets, but we have to remember the limits of what our technology can do. And when it comes to our writing, we can’t be afraid to ask someone else to take the wheel once in a while, to help prevent nasty accidents.
If you fancy giving proofreading a try, there is a single, critical error in this post. See if you can find it, and leave your guesses for what it could be in the comments.
