By Jerry Riley

For a long time I’ve said I like technology but the more we rely on it, the less reliable we become. Well, I saw it first hand. I guess you could say, “I, a mere human, defeated a machine.”

I’d noticed a small scratch on my glasses when reading. Since I had to go to the optometrist, I decided to get my eyes checked. The machine was searching my eyes. The technician said it would help set my prescription. The machine beeped and whirred and a mechanical voice said “No Target.” I figured I had done something wrong. The technician was also sure, so she reset the machine, but the results were the same. She called in another technician, but the machine was adamant that it could not find a target. They switched to my other eye, but the results were the same!
I returned to the waiting area. While I was stilling there I came up with the answer to why the machine couldn’t find a target in either of my eyes.
I’ll just say that like me, my eyes are not quite normal and the machine was calibrated to examine “normal” eyes. On my drive back to Eureka I remembered a Star Trek episode, “I, Mudd,” where computers were defeated by illogic.
I recall a NASA story that the Mars rover may have inadvertently killed life on Mars simply because it may not have been programmed to recognize it as life.
Computers and technology may be faster than the human mind. They may be able to do calculations better than our mind, well, my mind for sure.
Never forget humans built the machine; humans programmed the machine.
Our brain is superior to any computer. It has been estimated that most people use about one tenth of their brain’s potential – and, what a revoltin’ development this is!

Jerry Riley is an occasional commentator for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.
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