RahulAttraya_DigitalEraEssay

One of the highly deliberated topics in today’s age of the digital is ‘Machine Learning.' We are continuously discussing ways for our computers to solve issues on their own, not with the goal of replacing humans from the workforce, but perhaps to augment a direct human-computer interaction rather than a linear mode of information transfer that we have been used to since the first introduction of computers. While our computers can generate simulations that remotely would not be possible for a human to do on his or her own, but a computer struggles to differentiate between a Maple tree and a Sycamore (or at least it used to till the recent advancements in computer recognition and learning systems).

These issues arise not due to the tendency of computers to only process information it knows or is fed, but because of the nature of the interaction between the computer and the natural environment. The ‘real’ world is at times if not always is unpredictable therefore it becomes a cumbersome process for us to teach the computers to recognize minute details in varying circumstances. However, with the advent of machine learning, we can now let the machines learn on their own based on past experiences or examples and build their library to generate solutions to specific or different problems. These advancements raise questions of how machine learning could be used in the field design or architecture: Will our computers be generating designs of our houses for us? How does it know what we might or might not like in our house? How does it predict the color/style we want our home to be? While it might seem that machine learning has become ubiquitous at sorting our pictures on our phone based on their type, we might still be quite the ways away from the day a computer can predict human emotions or individual sense of aesthetic appreciation to design our houses for us.

Perhaps one of the most relevant applications of Machine Learning in the recent times has been associated with Virtual Reality (VR) as well as Augmented Reality (AR) and its ability to generate realistic adaptions of fictitious possibilities. Game designers have been using this technology to immerse the user in a virtually realistic environment while introducing them to newer experiences. Similarly, software companies such as Snapchat or Instagram has allowed us to transform the cameras on our phones to augment “virtual” dinosaurs on our screen. Could this open up room for architects to use similar technologies to display a project to the client before the actual construction? While we already see these changes happening, it might be interesting to consider the application beta versions of our designs through VR/AR being negotiated with clients before delivering the final constructed project like we have been used to for centuries. Does this put additional pressure on the architect to be attentive towards every detail from the very early stages of the project to avoid denunciations from the client?