Robot refs

Shouting angrily at refs in sports is an age-old tradition. I remember when I was in 9th grade I was watching the men's varsity bball team play and the ref did something I disagreed with. Unpracticed and theatrically ill-equipped, I shouted out, "If you had one more eye you'd be a cyclone." I immediately felt shame for my C- level jeer. No, maybe a D+ at best. But the thing was, I wasn't the only person in the crowd yelling at the refs. 

It's part of the spectacle. We want the refs to get every call right, as long as it favors our team. 

It's 2021 and refs are under scrutiny more than ever. We have 3 billion cameras at every sporting event picking up every possible angle to ensure a call is correct. We use that tech to aid the refs, too, but we still give them the utmost power to make on-field/court/diamond/etc. decisions. They are human. Their capacities frail and limited when compared to the machines we build. 

Why not just let the robots ref? They would get everything correct. The robot overlords could blow the whistle on any letter-of-the-law issues and a robotic voice (probably Siri) can explain the call over the loudspeakers, and the competition can carry on. There would be no more controversy. No more death threats hurled at referees. No more fans believing there is a conspiracy against their team. Pure objectivity. 

It feels like we are moving that direction, but at the same time pushing so hard against it that we couldn't possibly accept a future where robots adjudicate our sporting events. 

We need the human element. We need a common enemy. We need to vent our frustrations, to experience catharsis beyond just the red vs. blue. We have the technology, but we shouldn't use it, but we can't help ourselves, but we can't get it right, but we're unwilling to change things too quickly, but we really want all the calls to be right, but we don't want all of them to be right because that takes the fun and chaos and humanness out of sports. 

Technology in sports, specifically with referees, pose an interesting crossroads for us. Where do we lean in? Can we help ourselves, or is it too late? Is it just a matter of time before Rosey the Robot is segueing around a field as a simulacrum of a bygone era? 

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