I’ve been pondering this question for some time: Why do we enjoy, get excited about, and even obsess over the utopian futures sketched in science fiction, but when those fantasies approach reality we often develop an almost visceral rejection of them?
I explored this idea here but I want to go deeper today (and be more specific). Here’s an example from Isaac Asimov’s 1976 essay The New Teachers:
Each person (child, adult, or elderly) can have his own private outlet to which could be attached, at certain desirable periods of time, his or her personal teaching machine. It would be a far more versatile and interactive teaching machine than anything we could put together now, for computer technology will also have advanced in the interval.
We can reasonably hope that the teaching machine will be sufficiently intricate and flexible to be capable of modifying its own program (that is, “learning”) as a result of the student’s input.
In other words, the student will ask questions, answer questions, make statements, offer opinions, and from all of this, the machine will be able to gauge the student well enough to adjust the speed and intensity of its course of instruction and, what’s more, shift it in the direction of the student interest displayed.
It’s possible to see some flaws in Asimov’s reasoning but overall this sounds like an amazing solution to the limitations of the education system, especially for kids and the elderly, which Asimov is focusing on here. Great education—especially one-on-one tutoring—is a superpower like no other.
Does Asimov’s idea sound familiar? Here’s what Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy and creator of Khanmigopromises about the future of education and teaching machines in a TED talk appropriately entitled How AI could save (not destroy) education:
I think we’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen. And the way we’re going to do that is by giving every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor. And we’re going to give every teacher on the planet an amazing, artificially intelligent teaching assistant.
It’s pretty much what Asimov envisioned half a century ago. But I don’t feel the same, even now, when I read his prophecy versus when I listen to Khan’s realization of it. The optimism and hope I get from the former turn into a gut feeling that we’re doing something wrong with the latter. I will try to understand why in this essay.
