[thelist] Re:philosophical or possibly somewhat OT

Carol Stein techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Thu Mar 20 15:50:20 CST 2003


Hi --
>As for your thoughts about the way we interact with machines, you're =
>right, they've been envisioned in the movies you quote as quite =
>simplistic. But only in those. Did you see Spielberg's more recent =
>flicks, A.I. or Minority Report? The interfaces are far from a simple =
>keyboard/screen I/O.
>Not to mention all of what Asimov and Dick wrote, to mention only a few, =
>imagined. Vocal automatic interfaces, visual, etc. What's the reason why =
>a computer shouldn't see or smell, hear or talk, as modern experiments =
>show it's possible?
One correspondent proposed this morning that a good AI interface will
simply behave like a well-behaved person, but I think the problem is far
more serious than that: Even the best-behaved companion continuously ready
(for your own good) to impart huge amounts of relevant, important, timely
information is not going to be helpful to our ultimate ability to function.
It's not the appearance or usability of the interface that bothers me, it's
how to make it sufficiently sensitive to the human need for solitude/time
to think, particularly in our information overload environment. As I said
to my earlier correspondent this morning, today we rely on maillists so
other humans help filter what we need to know within a single sphere of our
lives -- the AI for a wearable/ubiquitous computer will have to accomplish
something similar for all the aspects of our lives. Can it do this? I doubt
it.

>Mmmmh. In the long run, with the current miniaturization (and forgive me =
>if I over-simplify things, but I can't see the world other than by =
>over-simplifying things, I guess), there's no need for an online vs. =
>offline choice.
As for the dual computers, I am drawing on a discussion (from another list)
about data versus information, and security/archival concerns parallel to
that distinction. My personal data or information should accompany me
throughout my life as a thinking human, since I will continually draw on or
revisit it (and be private/protected); the data or information drawn from
collective, shared sources (i.e., online) should be updated automatically,
etc.

>> In my paper, I proposed that the ubiquitous and wearable computer will
>> actually be a dual machine -- the online (or library=20
>> computer) and offline
>> (personal computer) will be segregated, because their functions are so
>> separable. So, let's start thinking about this issue, seriously: What

>> applications will really belong online? Why?=20

Cheers --
Carol




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