In 1871, Katherine Craster published a short poem called The Centipede’s Dilemma. The poem goes like this:
A centipede was happy-quite!
Until a toad in fun
Said, “Pray, which leg moves after wich?”
This raised her doubts to such a pitch,
She fell exhausted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.
There are things we do without thinking. When we form habits for routine tasks, we no longer need our brains to pay attention to these tasks. Then when we begin to rethink those unconscious tasks, it activates the regions of our brain where reasoning takes place. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
There are two contrasting views on this. Some would suggest, with actual examples, that paying conscious attention to routine tasks no longer makes them a habit. As a result, we may no longer be as efficient or proficient as we were when they were a habit. For example, golfers thinking about their swings often perform worse than when they gave their swing no thought.
The contrasting view is that thinking about routine tasks is necessary for continuous improvement. Old habits need to be reformed to improve task performance. That’s the reason a golfer may want to try a new swing.
With the infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) into many work assignments, the centipede effect becomes even more interesting. Will a human’s unconscious performance habits ever form when we rely upon AI to perform these tasks? Or does that matter since AI may replace humans in doing these tasks? But if AI doing routing tasks becomes a reality, how do we seek out improvements?
If instead we change human roles to reviewers of AI outputs, will we become hyper-conscious and lose sight of what our original desired outcome was intended to be? Will we begin to think like the centipede about which leg moves first when we just need to move?
And what might happen if something minor changes. ill AI overthink what’s to be done when there is no prior experience to fall back on? And if humans need to take over, will they still have the mental capacity to arrive at a reasonable solution?
The caterpillar landed in a ditch. What might be the 21st Century ditch?
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“And once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them.” – Charles Duhigg (Journalist/Author)