TMI

Advances in technology have surpassed the human capacity to process data. Under more benign conditions, that's a good thing; computers can process in seconds or minutes what might take us hours. But in war, where we insert a human in the loop of an otherwise automated killing system, humans are sometimes overwhelmed.

Across the military, the data flow has surged; since the attacks of 9/11, the amount of intelligence gathered by remotely piloted drones and other surveillance technologies has risen 1,600 percent. On the ground, troops increasingly use hand-held devices to communicate, get directions and set bombing coordinates. And the screens in jets can be so packed with data that some pilots call them “drool buckets” because, they say, they can get lost staring into them.

“There is information overload at every level of the military — from the general to the soldier on the ground,” said Art Kramer, a neuroscientist and director of the Beckman Institute, a research lab at the University of Illinois.

The military has engaged researchers like Mr. Kramer to help it understand the brain’s limits and potential. Just as the military has long pushed technology forward, it is now at the forefront in figuring out how humans can cope with technology without being overwhelmed by it.

If you're inundated with data and you misprocess an important piece, should you be held accountable?  Read the NYT article here.