Machine versus Human

When a machine attempts to replace the teacher, there is much to debate about. What machine am I talking about exactly? It is a software designed to mark essays to save teachers the time of marking an essay, especially if the writer is not very used to writing English. Can the machine replace the teacher?

In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY NOT.

A human cannot be replaced by a machine until the Singularity occurs (that is, if it will even happen). For those who do not know, the Singularity is the point where the machine rivals and supersedes the brain, after which that machine would continue creating a smarter machine, and that machine would create an even smarter machine. It would continue in a never-ending cycle, posing threats to the human race should the machines deem the human race unsuitable for the Earth. In any case, writing cannot be marked by an emotionless software. A software that can never detect any emotion in any words whatsoever, or feel what the writer says. A software can never take the spirit of writing into numbers, and calculate it.

It's a little like AI versus humans. What differentiates them? That single defining quality is what will define us as human, and upon losing that trait, we are beasts, we are no longer human. Compassion. THAT is the defining quality. While machines may think with a utilitarian perspective, humans on the other hand weight the pros and cons less and may depend on their feelings more often. Thus, writing cannot be easily weighed by a compassion-less robot, one that cannot feel for the characters.

However, where teachers fail, software can help. Some teachers fail to point out obscure grammar errors that may occur in conversational Singlish (thus becoming "correct"). A software can fix this problem, and as long as it is glitch-proof, the software would be perfect for marking out structural and phrasal errors.

Machines can NEVER take over humans in marking essays. What I would suggest is that they work together, such that no problem is posed in marking essays.