To Err is Human

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Lewis Thomas

To Err is Human.

Q. No. 1:         What is the importance of errors in life?

            Lewis Thomas is basically a man of science.  He presents deep scientific truths in a simple, straightforward and lucid style.  The essay “To Err is Human” is a study of human brain and its working.  The author establishes his thesis in a very light manner.  He asserts the importance of errors in life and says that almost every new thing has been created or discovered through errors.  The whole history of scientific developments is based on coincidences, chances and errors. Everything that deviates from the normal course leads us to new regions of knowledge and possibilities.

            Error is exclusively a human trait.  In the whole universe, only the man is capable of making mistakes.  When a man thinks freely and makes some choices the probability of mistakes is increased.   One out of many courses can be right but the choice of a wrong course can sometimes lead to more beneficial avenues. We learn by trial and error and finally reach at the correct path.  Human body and mind are in a constant process of evolution.  Similarly the environment and circumstances go on changing every day.  So, man has to devise newer ways to cope with the new conditions.  In this process, he sometimes makes mistakes and these mistakes become the herald of new discoveries and inventions.

Animals do not commit error that’s why they seldom learn anything new. They have been spending the same life for million of years. But man has revolutionized his life and living standard.  The cave man could not even dream of the life of today.  After a thousand years, our life too may seem to be as undeveloped as that of the cavemen because the tempo and magnitude of our progress is tremendous.  And most of our progress is based on the moves made by error.  Errors give us new ways to pave and new mysteries to unveil.

            Similarly if we let our machines like computer to work freely and commit mistakes, they can also create new horizons for us.  Mistakes should not be regarded as something negative rather they should be properly death with to get the maximum profit out of them.

Q. No. 2:         How do the computers work?

       Computers are thought to be an excellent machine that cannot commit errors.  But our common observation refutes it and we see that often we have to suffer due to computer errors. Computer by error increases a tiny bank account to a massive one; the utility companies give notice of disconnection due to non-payment.  When you report about these errors, the same computer gives you a guilty letter and settles yours account.

            The writer says that computers have their brains and the sounds coming out of them indicate the working of their brains.  The computer can think as quickly as to beat a man at chess.  The sums done by computer can consume too much of a man's time.  The accuracy of computer is unmatched.  Even then the computers make mistakes because they are an extension of human brain and have the quality of error.  The error is the base of human activity and it generates too many benefits for man.

            He thinks that computer should also be given the right to err so that it can also find new vistas for itself and mankind.  A computer should be given a list of courses, mostly wrong and it should be asked to choose at random.  This can lead to too many possibilities and may prove to be the threshold of new discoveries.  So computer as well as human beings should take the errors as a guide because "trial and error" is the foundation of all our learning.