Teaching computers to help us

This is not an AI or ML article. We are not going to feed large datasets to computer about human behavior or one's own life data so that a computer can tell us what to do and what not to or do any project. How many think of computer as that strict friend or teacher in one's life? Or is it a good, warm friend or that cool, friendly teacher who was very soft natured and nurturing when it came to teaching us new things ? What kind of apps does one have or would like to have that really enhances one's quality of living. Remove the clutter and needless chatter and toxic nature of the internet and other chatty people in online/offline world, what is the nature of an app that one goes to early in the morning similar to going to a yoga or a nice workout routine or a run in the beach or a great park ?

Generally speaking, teaching computer to help us equates to writing a Data science model and then feeding that NLP or LP or any other model that you choose real life data. As the data sets grows, the model starts recognizing patterns and input / output matchings are made or the "self learning" starts to happen mimicking the human way of growth and learning. Computers are phenomenally awesome at crunching numbers and doing mundane automated tasks for humans. Thru various interfaces and user friendly behavior, we can abstract a series of tasks, join them and make computer do a complex set of tasks which are broken down to simpler tasks linked to each other via services and apis. These days AI enabled computers also help diagnose diseases, drive cars with help of sensors, make paintings, generate stories and content and if hollywood is to be believed replace humans in many tasks or even dominate them or rule them. Look closer, and truth is far far far away from this fiction. If all tech and finance companies vanish, no major change will happen to humanity. The knowledge is there in libraries and online and offline servers. It is easy to boot these and write search algorithms and indexes. It is easy to create social media network sites from scratch. Easy to create banks on top of credit unions that supposedly do very complex quantitative analysis ( 2008 recession proves that point, not me!).

For most part, humanity and vast majority of humans want basic needs like clean drinking water, electricity, clothes, shelter, transport, good governance, good defense, stable currency, good healthcare, travel, connections with other humans and animals and nature and so on. The 80-20 or more so 90-10 and more acute principles apply to a vast other majority of products and services that humans consume. Now imagine there is a computer that helps us in these important day to day tasks. Dating sites are a joke these days but imaging something that is very well done and managed and something aids people in a real way. This site or service then becomes an asset then. Same with video games that help learning. Though it is far few in between. A good, organized wikipedia or a map application or email application or any other tool - not necessarily something that you require a computer to consume but something that is not even linked to a computer - these sort of things aid us. A roomba is a good example assuming you are satisfied with its performance, can afford it and get into a mindset where you think that is a good aid to you. It should be same way with other applications. Most people use many software for its ubiquity. Prime example is Microsoft Office or many other online docs or OS like Mac or Microsoft windows again or even search tools like a Google or social networks like Twitter or Facebook. Many people use that since others are using it and there is wide adoption but to what extend is it useful and how much does it helps us? Same with airbnb or uber or many other services. They all have their utility value doing the menial tasks. There are alternatives too for any of these things. In that sense it just becomes a choice.

Boil out and distill all these things and innovation, you as a human have exactly the same need as anyone else in the planet. With few degrees of variances, almost all of us want food and other basic things. Without getting into spirituality, there is aspects of mind such as patience, focus, courage and various other values that intrinsically drive us on a day to day basis. How many apps are there that really help us develop these things incrementally ? How many services and tools are out there that can help us tap and realize this potential ?

There are lots of workout tools that target specific parts of your body and help tone those muscles and work them out. But there are lot less tools and services which for instance help you improve your musical talents. It takes more than your innate drive to learn something new. Either it is already present in you or developed in young age or you just dither away. Or the end result is average and mediocre or another commodity or just another blog or another thing. And it is not the shock value that rises above. It is the real above average content which bubbles up. How do you produce this stuff ? A search in academic world shows not much studies and research are done in this direction, let alone any suites or set of tools doing this work.

There is also a growing epidemic of young kids and young adults being unable to focus and being diagnosed with various mental disorders. And one central factor at the core of it all is how the good computer is used in a negative way instead of the positive way where it can enrich our lives. Many professionals, especially software engineers, tend to have an aging out problem, where after 30s or even lower age, they either go to management in some cases and hang around for some time, or go to tech and continue to do the same thing or just go to other careers. It is hard for them to focus onto new things or it becomes a case of old dog not learning new tricks. But things change and change is the only constant. Which means one has to learn which means one has to focus. There are going to be new ways, new ideas, new abstractions, new distractions too, new stressed mechanism that demands one's limited attention span and further demands it sustainability. Hence the case where you tap into a computer or any tool that will keep you steered in that direction. Something that lifts you into higher plane quickly, transports you up there where you are one with your task and all other noise subsides.