Machines Respond but Do Not Listen
The everyday life of 2025 is astonishingly automated. It is increasingly rare to hear a human voice in customer service centers, fast food restaurants are filled with unmanned kiosks, and even hospital registrations and corporate hiring are managed by algorithms. While these changes have taken root under the name of “convenience,” we sometimes find ourselves in a strange silence. Though things have become faster and more accurate, there remains a feeling of alienation and rejection.
Machines respond but do not listen. They analyze users’ voices and execute commands but do not process emotions or context. Technology keeps speaking, while humans grow ever more silent.
Jobs Disappear in the Silence
AI is not just technological progress. It forces a redefinition of human work, roles, and even modes of existence. Many “speech-related jobs”—counselors, call center agents, store assistants, data entry clerks, parking attendants—are vanishing. These were not merely functional roles but gatekeepers of society’s dialogue.
Now machines occupy those places. In a system prioritizing efficiency, accuracy, and cost reduction, the “slow, error-prone, and emotional beings” are increasingly pushed out.
A Society That Does Not Need to Speak, Humans Who Cannot Speak
AI does not converse with humans. It simply receives requests and executes. Problem solving is faster, but explanations vanish. Choices multiply, but context shrinks.
People have gradually given up calling customer centers, sharing “zero key connection methods.” Humans are not understood by systems; rather, humans are being tamed by systems.
In this process, a society where speaking is unnecessary has emerged, and now humans who cannot speak are being created. Fewer opportunities to speak mean fewer opportunities to exist.
Is Technology’s Answer Really the Answer?
Technology always provides “the answer.” The fastest, most accurate path is shown. But we ask: is that the real answer? Does that answer contain someone’s frustration, omission, or ignored emotions?
Accuracy sometimes sacrifices humanity, and efficiency replaces empathy. AI, no longer just a “machine that does things for us,” has become a “machine that judges and organizes,” and now it does not ask humans for permission. It simply replaces silently.
Unplanned Beings Are Excluded
AI does not replace humans; it deletes human relationships. Systems that lack guides, explainers, waiters, or conversationalists regard those humans as nonexistent. Humans are reduced to measurable data points, and the invisible are gradually erased.
Technology is not neutral. It chooses some and excludes others according to its design. The excluded are always those who speak little, cannot speak, or whose speech is ignored.
Technology Does Not Ask, But Should We?
Technology does not question. It is made to execute. But we must ask: Does technology speak, or does it silence humans? Does technology call forth existence, or erase it?
Now the question turns to us, not the technology. Will we respect speaking humans, or assimilate all to silent technology? The choice is quietly made. No one asks, but everyone follows.
Maeil Scripture Journal | Today’s World, A View Through the Word
