Humans And Their Ability To Make Mistakes

Humans And Their Ability To Make Mistakes

In today's pop culture, there is one very popular view of the future.

All humans will be free to do as they wish, because robots and computers will work for us. Computers are viewed as the ideal slaves. They work non-stop, never complain, and above all, never make mistakes. It is often said that computers don't make mistakes, that it is the person using the computer who commits errors.

What is it that makes humans err, but not computers? I will prove that it is simply the way humans are built that makes us commit errors. Unlike computers, built of mechanical or electronic parts, humans are made of organic matter and nerve pathways. These same pathways, with the help of the brain are responsible for all the decision making. I shall demonstrate why humans err, despite the fact that we have eyes and ears to sense with.

Before I can establish causes for error, I shall define the terms

"error" and "mistake". In the context of this essay, they will simply mean that a human obtained a result different from the expected, correct one. Whether it in be adding two numbers, or calling someone by the wrong name, these are all errors that a computer would not make. An error can also be interpreted as being a wrong physical move. If a person is walking in the woods and trips on a branch, it is because the person erred in the sense of watching the path followed.

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that humans make mistakes all the time. Let us simply analyze any process in which there is a chance for someone to commit an error. Take for example a cashier in a grocery store. The cashier obtains the total on the cash register, and receives a twenty dollar bill from the customer. She must now give the patron back his/her change. The cash register tells the cashier that the client is owed 4.60$. The cashier then reaches into her change drawer to retrieve the proper set of coins. This is where the opportunity for error increases. What if the cashier only gives the customer back $4.55, because she mistakenly returned a nickel instead of a dime?

What caused this blunder? Would this blunder have happened if the cashier had had 15 minutes to decide on how much change to return instead of 15 seconds?

Logically speaking, we can establish that if the cashier had 1...

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...rly clear. No matter how little attention she pays to the job she is doing, that is not where the error lies. If she is distracted while picking up the coins in question, then her senses are not receiving and analyzing the sense datum properly, or thoroughly. This is simply a more complex case of what

I described earlier, with the man mistaking a 7 for a 1. The individual is not drawing the right conclusion from the sense data received.

In light of the examples and discussions presented, I think is safe to say that human error is due to the fact that the brain can only function perfectly up to a certain speed. Also, the five human senses do not always properly interpret the sense data received, causing the brain to make mistakes.

Not paying attention to what one is doing is not a reason for making a mistake.

It is the repercussions of this behavior that cause the error, because the person is not using his/her senses properly. In conclusion, it is understandable that humans make mistakes despite the fact that our senses receive sense data from objects surrounding us. After all, if this weren't true, you would have just finished reading a perfect essay!