Rethinking Innovation and Human Nature

With respect to the proverb 'Necessity is the mother of invention,' I am more familiar with the revised version, 'Inconvenience is the mother of invention.' This is because I have frequently observed that people are prone to take the convenient or easy way out by human nature. In this regard, what we have to keep in mind is that when something convenient is easily gained, something else is lost insidiously. For example, the printing machine invented by Gutenberg has helped explosively disseminate information about human knowledge and expertise throughout the world. However, someone has said that it became a cause of weakening the memory function of humans. For another example, the invention of the motor vehicle brought about a dramatic change in human mobility, but riding a motor vehicle all the time has made people out of shape. There are plenty of other examples as well. Therefore, we sometimes have to be careful to consciously work out a balance between something convenient and something inconvenient, or to tactfully use both. This can also apply to Artificial Intelligence. If we rely on it too much, our brain's thinking function will decline.