Can performing calculations cause a change in the compassionate nature of a person?
I was shocked to find the answer through a research cited in the book, Made to Stick.
A group of people were given $5 each and were divided into two groups. Both the groups were given envelopes that contained letters requesting for donations that would go towards educating a girl named Rokia in Africa. Before proceeding with the donations, one group was asked an emotional question like 'Please write down one word to describe how you feel when you hear the word 'baby'.' The other group was asked an analytical question like 'If an object travels at five feet per minute, how many feet will it travel in 360 seconds?' After the donations, it was found that the emotionally primed people had donated $2.34 on an average while the analytically primed people had donated only $1.26 on an average.
In the words of the authors of the book, Made to Stick, "These results are shocking. The mere act of calculation reduced people's charity. Once we put on our analytical hat, we react to emotional appeals differently. We hinder our ability to feel."
I took a deep breath after reading this.
What did this mean to a data analyst/humanist/writer like me?
Would I be ignoring the endless efforts of a busser in my office cafeteria because I had worked upon a forecasting algorithm earlier? Would I be ignoring a homeless dog outside my IT park because I had had a long day with a regression model? Would my poems run out of tears and turn into a barren desert of words?
But then, I took a step back.
Two and a half years have passed since I was assigned a employee number in my data analytics organization. Have all these days devoted to analyzing data dictated a decline in my compassion?
The answer is a loud no. Because, I seem to have become the ideal 'artist' according to the Tamil filmmaker Mysskin's definition - a person who is capable of breaking down even at the sight of a blossoming flower or a smiling beggar.
Which, in turn, means only one thing. I am a bad analyst.
I set aside my internal conflict for sometime and broadened my thought process.
What did such a fact mean in today's world where data analytics is the fastest growing profession? What did such a fact mean in today's Indian society where engineering is the most pursued undergraduate course, while courses of arts and humanities have become things of the past like transistors?
Are we on the path to creating a mathematically strong generation that would lack in compassion?
As I pondered upon this question, I realized that we have already become a generation that prefers being knowledgeable over being nice. What else could be the reason for the successes of TV shows like House M.D. and Sherlock and Breaking Bad and many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that project protagonists who get away with all their imperfections because they are intelligent?
Are we on the right path? Do we want to become highly intelligent beings that lack kindness? How would we be different from the machines, then?
I am terrified that in our current pursuit, where we strive to make ourselves more intelligent and make our machines more understanding, we might end up living in a world with kind phones and smart humans.
Alan Turing once said, "..but I believe that the attempt to make a thinking machine will help us greatly in finding how we think ourselves."
Maybe, it is time that we start learning from our creations.
I take a deep breath as I realize the extent to which I have analyzed the effect of calculations affecting compassion. I request my brain to relax but it seems to be in its own happy world. For, in the midst of all these worldly concerns, my brain seems to have found the reason for my high school Math teacher always being grim.
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Asimov's fifth law - A robot may not let a human fall in love with it - A piece on the possibilities of falling in love with a machine
Wolf-whistling for the villains - A piece about how we have become a culture that adores its antagonists
