What if I told you that every modern technology is simply a chapter in the greater story of meeting human needs efficiently?
What do social media, pigeon carriers and smoke signals have in common?
They are all part of the story of telecommunication! Communicating over a distance.
Pigeon carriers also incorporated the ideas of intercepting and encrypting data from unauthorized access.Did you know that the Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle in 322 B.C. was already contemplating the possibilities of robotics?
Of course he didn't have the term "robot" in his vocabulary. That term comes from the Czech word "robota", meaning "forced labor" and was first used in Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R." in the 1920s .
Aristotle wrote:
"If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords."
I had my students rewrite his quote using contemporary terms:
If every machine, when programmed or even autonomously,
could perform specialized tasks that solve human needs and wants,
then there would be no need for human labor.- Grade 7D 2019
Is Machine Learning a modern idea?
At its core, machine learning is about finding patterns and trends to help humans make informed decisions. We see evidence of ancient greeks demonstrating their ability in this field through the Antikythera mechanism, that was used to help make informed decisions for their society.What other ways throughout history and across the globe have humans met their needs and wants?