“The Brain Center at Whipple’s” is an episode of The Twilight Zone that raises awareness around the ethics of technology:
The episode opens with Mr. Whipple previewing a film with his Chief Engineer: an update that Whipple is making to the board of directors.
He says, “At Whipple’s, we only take forward steps,” and proceeds to introduce the X109B14 Automatic Assembly Machine, proudly announcing that it will replace 61,000 jobs, 73 machines, and save the company $4 million in employee insurance, welfare, hospitalization, and profit-sharing.
He says all of this without emotion or regret, much to the chagrin of Hanley, the Chief Engineer, who does not approve of “a lot of men out of work.” He cautions Whipple about taking men’s livelihood and reason for being away from them, and about Whipple’s lack of goodwill and compassion through his “heartless manipulation of man and metals.”
Whipple’s response is one rooted in numbers: “I am here to provide efficiency. That is my only concern.” And in Whipple’s mind, efficiency only comes from machines.
The episode ends with the board removing Whipple from his job, due to overexertion and the inability to make sound judgments. Cut to his office, where a robot is now handling all of his duties.
Fast forward to the present day. With artificial intelligence, mounds of data, the Internet of Things, and autonomous everything, we ostensibly have more technology at our disposal than ever before. As a result, we’re experiencing a crisis of ethics that seems to take on a daily drumbeat:
– Elizabeth Holmes ran a massive fraud scheme at Theranos, keeping people in the dark about the true nature of the blood test she supposedly invented.
– The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the former CEO of Volkswagen for the “massive fraud” behind the diesel emissions scandal. By using a simple bit of software, Volkswagen was able to make emissions cleaner during testing, but left drivers’ vehicles as dirty as ever, when they thought they were buying cleaner vehicles.
Technology isn’t to blame. Humans are.
In each of those cases, a human made the decision to say, “I have a choice between right and wrong. And I’m choosing wrong.”
The technology just made it easier for them to accept what they thought: that they weren’t causing direct harm. (Monty, 2019, paras. 3-7, 17-19, 21-24)
While researching emerging technologies and business models being promoted as the latest innovations, I came across an article that served as a reminder that the solution should ultimately answer to people and not innovation. Efficiency can not be the only concern at hand, especially when that hand is of a robot. It’s very relative to the problem today of AI taking over jobs, but it can equally influence my design solution. How do we put people’s finances and futures back in their hands and create personal connections, even if that is through digital banking? Does human-centered design have a place in financial innovation?
Pertaining to this project, I want to amplify customers’ choices, and when that could be done through new technology, I’ll implement it. There’s a balance of how much innovation I should use, and that balance is overtaken when it starts to exceed purpose. How can I design digital banking solutions that not only provide efficiency but also create deeper connections between people?
References
Monty, S. (2019, March 21). Lessons from The Brain Center at Whipple’s. Timeless Leadership. https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/lessons-from-the-brain-center-at
