Indiana high school essay tests are graded by computers. At least one student prefers the computer to a human grader:

Craig has already decided he prefers computer grading. "Teachers, you know, they're human, so they have to stumble around telling you what you need to do," he said at a practice session. "A computer can put it in fine print what you did wrong and how to fix it."

Chances are that young Craig has grown up digital and is as comfortable with technology as he is with people. Not surprisingly teachers in Indiana aren't convinced that a computer can accurately grade essays. Could it be that they are feeling threatened? Craig is probably of the generation that will fly on robotic jetliners without human pilots.

This points to a generational divide not just with the how to of technology but the comfort and confidence level with technology. Even now powerful robots and computers can be programed to preform narrow tasks far better than humans can. As robots, computers and programming grow in power the complexity of tasks they can outperform also grows. It's not difficult to imagine computers and robots driving cars flying airplanes or performing many jobs better, faster and cheaper than humans.

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