The irreplaceable human

In view of the technological developments of the 20th century, but particularly with the advance of Artificial Intelligence in the 21st some might be inclined to think that the cross-dependency between humans has weakened significantly and will soon be obsolete. The new means of communication have simplified the human contact so much that we can connect with someone on the other side of the world with just a couple of clicks, and not just by voice, video conference technologies have taken a huge leap thanks to the pandemic and have become more widespread than ever. 

However, this experience has shown that sitting in front of a 4x4 lattice of talking heads is only a faint semblance of actual human communication: the constant scrutiny of the camera has nothing to do with life in the office (regardless of whether you work in a real office or just in a cubicle) where access to the personal space of other people is simply limited by the laws of physics. In your real office, there can only be one person, or two at most, standing in the doorway talking to you, but in the virtual one everyone in the meeting can have a direct view of you. In that aspect, I have a lot of faith the upcoming development of immersive environments like Second Life and another few that I have timidly explored (still with limited success). Having a realistic simulation of a physical space will certainly help us to navigate the company of our colleagues in a more meaningful way, while the use of avatars will remove some of the pressure of being constantly "on camera".

Photo: sharyn morrow

Another aspect that will eventually come to the virtual word but is just not there yet is the transcription of non-verbal language. From the very ostensible hand gestures (ciao, Italia), to the more subdued head movements (like the Indian bobble) or even the barely visible facial expressions, they will all be necessary if we are to have effective communication: if we have not chance see intensity of the non-verbal language of the others we will end up like the people who are born blind; we will be gesturing in the virtual world but our gestures could be out of sync with the conversation, either too strong or too mild. There are already ongoing experiments to impart on the avatars some of the gestures captured by the camera, but they are still under development. On the other hand, using camera recordings to project our expression on the avatar still requires a lot of bandwidth. It is yet to be seen which technology reaches the market first.

But even with the best visual simulation, with the current design of the virtual reality systems we would only be fooling our senses by focusing on the hearing and the eyesight. But the touch and the smell are still very important, particularly in those reactions which are below our control: from sexual arousal to the appeasing effect of a mother on a baby, the combination of these two frequently disregarded senses has a powerful impact on how we feel, even if they do not influence (that much) what we think.

Then there is the case of the physical need for other humans: as of today, sexual fertilization can only happen between two human cells sharing the same space. Transplants still require the removal of the organ from one human body and the surgical installation on a new one. Even something as apparently simple as blood cannot be synthesized yet and has to be extracted from healthy individuals for the benefit of the sick.

This afternoon I went to my regular blood donation precisely to try to cover this need that still exists. It is entirely possible that, within a few years, organs for transplantation will be 3D printed, blood will be brewed in labs and embryos will be assembled from the genetic library of the parents or even with paid "upgrades" to get better performance. We might be able to stimulate our brains in ways that will make our sense almost obsolete. But in the meantime, I will continue to donate my blood, kiss my wife, hug my children, visit my doctor in person (at least every now and then). It is possible that we will eventually do not the constant interaction with other people, but for now humans are still irreplaceable. Have a nice weekend.