New Hope: Time to make robots PAP ministers?

Goh Chok Tong’s comment that those in the private sector earning less than $1m are “very mediocre people” reminded me that he’s a very robotic person. While by the standards of the 3G and 4G PAP leaders, this roboticness doesn’t stand out, by the standards of the Old Guard and other 2G leaders (Think Dhanabalan or even Tony Tan), his robot-like attributes stood out like a sore thumb.

This reminded me of an article suggesting that we should have robot politicians

A poll of British consumers conducted by software firm OpenText found that one in four Brits think robots would do a better job than humans as politicians. Years ago, The Muppet Show ran a segment mocking politicians for their stereotypical robotic behaviour. Last April a robot was nominated to run to be Tokyo’s mayor, promising fair and balanced representation.

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/31/is-it-time-to-automate-politicians

(Another extract of the end of this piece.)

Think of the money we can save, having a robot replace Kee Chiu

PAP: Chinese defecate in public, Indians clean up

Kidding me? Kee Chui potential PM? He from RI?

Or VivianB:  VivianB who sneered at the elderly poor

Or Tharman and other wannabe stand-up comics:Tharman joking again? Or trying to BS us?

And robots don’t have sisters and brothers with grudges, or ambitious sister-in-laws or nephews.

As promised another extract from Economist article

[R]obot-politicians can do at exponential speed and scale, from shaking hands and kissing babies to handling the fundraising “robocalls” that frustrate American voters. A robot could take over every politician’s favourite task of cutting ribbons to inaugurate new buildings. We already cede decision-making responsibility on health and finances to algorithms, why not with voting? An automated democracy could replace both politicians and ballot boxes.

That may be extreme. Yet comical though it sounds, parts of our politics has already been technified. Consider reach. Both Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, and the French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, beamed holograms of themselves to speak to several groups of thousands of people simultaneously. Next, there’s the message. In America’s 2016 election, candidates used social-media advertising to target different voters with different messages.

The growing automation of our government is no longer sci-fi. Instead, it’s a reality we are only beginning to grasp. So to the question, can we replace politicians with robots? The answer is a soft yes.

Big data and artificial intelligence allow us to understand public issues better and faster. They may be able to identify the most effective approaches to solving problems, just as algorithms became world champions of chess and Go. Predictive analytics is used to identify potential criminals or romantic partners. It can predict voting habits from Facebook likes (country music lovers in America are more likely to be Republican, while Bob Marley fans are more likely to lean Democrat, and so on).