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Those of you who have read this column for a while may have concluded that I am an unreserved advocate of computers and electronic communication, an uncritical hi-techie whose faith in ecomm knows no bounds. So it's time to face the other direction and give voice to the parts of me which have reservations about ecomm, and to those of you who distrust or dislike ecomm's apparently relentless intrusion into our lives. Ignoring ecomm's current faults is exactly the wrong thing to do. It's time to admit that ecomm, like any tool or technology, has a dark side.
Ecomm's flaws concern people, particularly with those of us who are unable or unwilling to use computers or ecomm, but also with respect to human issues of relationships and rich interpersonal communication. Just as some people aren't capable of running an eight minute mile or repairing a refrigerator, some of us aren't able to comprehend and manipulate computers. This isn't bad, it just is. Some people similarly choose to simply not deal with computers because computers don't clearly enhance their natural interests of gardening, for instance, or community service, or raising a family. The bottom line is that technology should enhance natural abilities and interests, not re-direct them. So ecomm's flaws do not illustrate a people problem, or a people education problem; they are a fundamental problem of computer program design.
Ecomm has no resident capabilities to encourage rich interpersonal relationships. When personal relationships are strengthened via ecomm, it is only because individuals have brought relational tools to the medium, and not because ecomm offered any help. The problems of ecomm are not abstract intellectual issues; they are as plain as "How does ecomm help me communicate as if I were sitting across the table from you?" and "How do computers help deepen and strengthen my relationships with my family and friends." They are also as evident as presidential campaign rhetoric and any public opinion poll that attempts to reveal our current societal concerns. In the current global rush for increased connectivity, it is easy to forget that if computers and ecomm aren't clearly helpful at the level of the family and community, they are not going to be helpful at any greater distance.
So what's being done to address ecomm's flaws? The general trend has been to pump up the technology, to make hardware and software more powerful, while at the same time simpler and more intuitive. Offer more capability at lower cost and make computers as easy to use as a telephone and then, so the thought goes, everyone will buy one. That's part of the drive behind the convergence of TV and computers: eliminating the cost of the monitor and redefining the computer as a channel changer is a great way to sell more computers and TV's.
The quest for simplicity is the motivation behind the development of voice recognition systems and artificial intelligence (AI). Voice recognition will, thank goodness, help eliminate the glacial pace and error prone nature of entering information through a keyboard. And that day may be at hand. Voice recognition systems that include voice inflections in the determination of meaning, and which can correctly interpret homophones--words that sound the same, but have different spelling--are just about to hit the market. The question that remains unanswered is how printed word ecomm can move closer to the emotional communication abilities of its elderly, but more emotionally adept cousin, the telephone.
Artificial Intelligence seems to be stuck, blinded by predictive algorithms and computer controlled machinery and processes. While it's true that predicting the choices individuals will make in the future offers the potential of more efficient and relevant personal information processing, much of the money driving AI research comes from marketing and advertising interests, not human communication. Voice recognition systems and artificial intelligence are also heavily indenture to and influenced by Science, which has a hard time admitting to the importance of emotional reality. AI's parallel track--computer aided manufacturing--offers the possibility of more dispersed and need-responsive manufacturing which is a very good thing. But so far there is little in AI that offers assistance to family or community relationships which are, after all, the underlying foundations of culture.
So why have I dredged up this issue when there is little that you or I can do about it? One answer is that if consumers don't ask these questions, manufacturers are not likely to perceive a need. How it is that we have come to divorce communication from relationship and emotion is an important, perhaps even critical question. Technology should enhance human communication and strengthen meaningful relationships, not ignore them. Communication products and strategies that promote the substitution of volume for meaning should be seen as the socially destructive forces they are. Technology should be tailored to human emotional needs rather than pretending those needs don't exist.
A better answer would be that it's time for emotionally rich communication methods to be recognized as an unmet, and untapped market. If business could perceive this opportunity, ecomm could gain some much needed richness and depth. And while artificial intelligence and voice recognition certainly have roles to play in the improved communication of emotion, they are by no means the only avenues available.
In writing this column, I searched the Web using the keywords "computer", "programming", and "emotion", and turned up only a solitary hit, which was better than the negative response I got a month ago, but less of a response than I received when looking for pickled egg recipes last week. To be sure, ecomm has the potential to empower and enrich us all, but until that potential is more fully realized, we should keep our heads up and engaged.
Today's CyberQuotes:
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history--with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila." --Mitch Ratcliffe, Technology Review, April l992
"Technology: the act of so arranging the world that we do not have to experience it." -- Max Frisch
"Men have become the tools of their tools." --Henry David Thoreau
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Column Number Four, unpublished.