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What my washing machine taught me about human-machine collaboration
Automation has made our lives easier, but it should complement human skills and not seek to displace them.
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In recent years, working adults have begun to legitimately fear displacement by automation.
ST ILLUSTRATION: MIEL
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The year 2025 began in a banal, yet deeply reflective way for me. My washing machine mysteriously broke down mid-cycle and – unable to schedule any repairs until after the New Year holiday – I had no choice but to wash my laundry by hand. As I rinsed and wrung each piece of clothing in a large basin of water, I found myself literally elbow-deep in thoughts about automation, questioning the future of human-machine collaboration. Such is the blessing of automation that you take it for granted. That is, until it fails.
There is in fact much that a malfunctioning washing machine can teach us about the capabilities of humans and technology, and their implications for automation. These distinctions between the relative strengths of me and the machine bring to mind Moravec’s paradox. This principle postulates that tasks which machines can do easily, humans struggle with and vice versa. Correspondingly, actions that even toddlers do unthinkingly, machines are still incapable of approximating. The latter require fine motor and cognitive skills coupled with sophisticated hand-eye coordination that roboticists are working hard to integrate but have yet to reach mass market applications.
