Getting your paper selected at an internationally acclaimed conference is exhilarating to the authors. For many, it is a key achievement and one that presents an opportunity to meet the celebrities in the known field, hobnob with peers, develop a broader understanding of the said field, network with enthusiasts and further one’s exploration in a chosen area of expertise. This besides the experience of visiting a country other than your own and building an appreciation of diverse cultures and it’s people.
A few years ago, in pre-Covid19 times when travel was still possible, the same did happen. The selection further resulted in sponsorship for up to three authors of the paper to attend the conference, taking care of travel and accommodation expenses for the duration of the conference. The stars were indeed smiling!
Though there were four authors for the paper, the team chose the three who would avail the sponsorship and intimated the conference program coordinator accordingly within the deadline for the same. International travel requires a Visa and so the authors set about to get the same. Unfortunately, Visa was denied to one of the three authors who was supposed to travel. Therefore the team asked that a change be made in the authors who will be visiting the conference i.e. remove Name C and add Name D as Name C’s Visa had been rejected and Name D had a valid Visa.
By the time this change request was made to the program coordinator, the deadline to confirm the travel attendees list had passed even though there were almost two months left to the conference itself. The program coordinator denied the request citing the rule that the deadline for the same had passed. The authors made a plea citing the extraordinary circumstances and the fact that the budget for the same was already available. The conference program coordinator replied that exceptions could not be made as that would set the wrong precedent. Note that neither air tickets nor accommodation at the conference venue had been booked at this time. A further impassioned plea from the authors was just met with silence.
With the rise in Automation, there are typically several tools at our disposal for managing events to simplify our life and ease our experience. A task such as managing a travel attendee list and even more complicated ones like booking air tickets, appointments and assigning accommodation at an event venue would perhaps be done by Automatons as we progress forward in this age. To do so, Automatons would likely follow a Rule Engine and get the task done satisfactorily and without errors, almost all the time.
What then is to be human?
Are rules established so that humans follow the same blindly and ensure compliance?
Alternatively, are rules established so that humans have the know-how and are empowered to make an exception when circumstances present themselves?
In this age of Artificial Intelligence, machines and software programs are being designed and developed to show human emotions and become more and more human.
At such a time, does it not behoove us humans to be the right examples for the machines – to show empathy, to understand a fellow human’s perspective, to exercise choice, to recognize bias, to have the courage to make an exception…to simply be human.