This question is based on QCR #1 on page 94. Use the work that we did in class on Turkle and Gardner/Davis and your reading of the first part of Christian in your answer
For Nov 4, write about what makes a human interaction/conversation human.
November 2, 2015 | 18 Comments
November 3, 2015 at 1:30 pm
The idea of what makes human conversation human is extremely interesting. Christian writes in his first paragraph about the idea of Phonagnosics. Which suggests that we need to be able to hear first hand someone’s voice in order to know who they are. Yet it is obvious that in today’s society we are challenging this idea by relying heavily on the internet. We are constantly plugged into technology and use it not only get our thoughts and opinions across, but even to meet people from all around the world. Turkle writes that the “studies of conversation…show that when two people are talking, the mere presence of a phone a table between them or in the periphery of their vision changes both what they talk about and the degree of connection they feel.” These are two noteworthy points. I feel that the aspect of human interaction remaining human could only be truly possible in the absence of technology. In order to actually know and understand someone on a human-to-human level, you have to be yourself, and technology is taking that aspect of life away. Christian describes this problem with his friend speed dating. The problem was that “all of a sudden I have to be me, to act like myself instead of describing myself”(97). This highlights the main issue in human interactions remaining human, it is the idea that technology is doing so much for us that it is impossible to be yourself in reality.
November 3, 2015 at 10:01 pm
To be classified as human I believe one must have a voice (verbal style), be able to identify the verbal styles of others, have the ability to be intimate with someone else, and have their own uniform personality. Although Byran Christian mention Steve Roysters and his “voice blindness”(Christian 95) condition where he cannot identify who is speaking to him by voice or their tone, Roysters is still considered human to be because he meets the criteria of being able to be intimate with another human and by default of being human has a personality. For instance, Roysters still has a relationship with his mother and she has a sense of the type of person he is because she can see how he acts and even compare him to other humans. On the other hand robots are incapable of having their own distinct voice or personality and lack the capacity to understand humans and their behavior on its own. A robot will slip up in a conversation even though they seem human, because they lack consistency and reveal “disjointed identity…[because bots] can’t keep track of the coherence of [their] own identity” nor the identity of who they are speaking with. Most of Cristians paragraphs support my claim in distinguishing how robots lack many qualities to be human because even though humans early and often imitate robots, it is very difficult for a robot to imitate a human.
November 3, 2015 at 10:02 pm
Disjointed identity quote from page 102
November 4, 2015 at 1:26 pm
What makes a human human? There are many factors to consider when assessing the idea of what makes a human human. Anything can imitate the traits of the average human, but not to its fullest standard. Whilst reading Brian Christian’s essay, “Authenticating”, I was given the opportunity to realize what really makes us human. For example, a human is initially more fluid, more relaxed/laid back. They have their own accents and ways of saying things. Plus, unlike a computer generated response, a human is more capable of explanation. “Requests for elaboration.. turns out to be crushingly difficult for many bots to handle” (Christian 108) because what they (the bot) has come to learn all came from other sources, so a lengthy explanation of any kind is the ultimate downfall for it. To be human you must have a voice. You must be able to fully immerse yourself into a normal conversation. You must have your own way of presenting yourself; be unique and fluid.
November 8, 2015 at 1:58 pm
I really like the idea that “unlike a computer generated response, a human is more capable of explanation” I think it’s a good point that I didn’t necessarily think of after reading the passage. I also think the quote from Christian you used was helpful in explaining your previous statement. However I disagree that to be human you have to have a voice because some people with the inability to speak are still human, they just communicate their thoughts in different ways.
November 4, 2015 at 4:30 pm
Christian says, “In the world of machines, we authenticate on content: password, PIN, last four digits of your social security number, your mother’s maiden name. But in the human world we authenticate on form: face, vocal timbre, handwriting, signature. And, crucially, verbal style.” (Christian 95). To me this means that in the computer world everything is facts, or a set of numbers, whereas in the human world things are more personal. Humans also have a history, they can remember previous conversations had with a person, and can bring them up in future conversations. Each person in said conversation has their own identity, and remembers the others identity as well. Human interaction is about getting to know a person and relating to that person. To see a person and remember that they went through a big life change, then to see how they act in certain situations, and being able to understand. This is how you know what a Human interaction is; to remember and understand. I believe in Christian’s words this would be, “having a sense of a person” (Christian 96).
November 7, 2015 at 6:10 pm
Your clear definition of what a human interaction is makes a lot of sense! I completely agree the point you and Christian make about robots not being able to remember as well as humans (not regarding not facts) but experiences and are unable to value them like another human being can because robots have not experienced real human life.
November 8, 2015 at 2:00 pm
I really like the way that you differentiate humans and computers by saying “the computer world everything is facts, or a set of numbers, whereas in the human world things are more personal”. I think this grasps the main message that Christian is trying to get across in his writing.
November 5, 2015 at 11:55 am
It’s unclear to me as to what Brian Christian is trying to convey about technology and humans. What I gathered from the reading is that for a human conversation to be “human”, it requires knowing your communicating with an actual person. Brian Christian states, ” in the human world, we authenticate on form: face, vocal timbre, handwriting, signature. And crucially, verbal style” (p.95). Human conversations are about authenticity and distinguishing the way in which makes a real person standout. A human conversation is something that isn’t polished. There has to be some indication of human like traits and the content exudes realistic human interaction.
November 7, 2015 at 6:06 pm
Lyric, your comment really helped me understand the reading more because I did not completely understand Brian Christian’s point. I think your observation accurately answers the question about what makes human conversations human and how a robot can simply never completely grasp human authenticity.
November 8, 2015 at 6:09 pm
I really appreciated Christian’s article because eit really gives necessary attention to the needs of human interaction and conversation. Conversations and responses from humans are honest and authentic. Whereas a computer, as in the case of cleverbot, relies solely on previous responses to generate its “memory.” Even though electronic conversations can seem realistic, they are no comparison for human interactions.
November 9, 2015 at 1:23 pm
In Brian Christian excerpts from his novel “The Most Human Human” he displays how we have become detached from reality and how computers are easily made to mimic our everyday conversations. The question of what makes a human human is very hard to answer since it is different for everyone. Brian Christian says that ” Having a sense of a person-their disposition, character, way of being in the world-and knowing about them-where they grew up, how many siblings they have,what they majored in, where they work- are rather two different things.Just like security, so does intimacy have both form and content”(96). What i took from this quote was that by having background/experiences on a person differs them from a computer. Having information about their life defines what a human really is since computers cant generate background information on themselves since they haven’t experienced anything life-like.
November 9, 2015 at 2:27 pm
What I think makes a human human is the fact of being choosing what is right and wrong based on moral choices and not the facts. Also, I think a human is human because they are able to express emotion while having a simple conversation face to face. This can’t be done over text messages. A few words can tell a story, but it’s all about how the story is told that matter. In the first paragraph of Authenticating, Brian Christian says mentions something called phonagnosia. Phonagnosia basically not being able to match a person’s face to the voice you hear. In Christians words, you have “voice blindness”. This relates to what i said about a human is a human because they are able to express emotions. So when a person “texts” someone, they only know what the person says by the words they wrote. You can’t tell if the person is happy, sad, male, female, being sarcastic and many more things. Yeah you can add an exclamation point, but what can you really get out of that? Nothing.
November 15, 2015 at 2:40 pm
What makes human human? Christian says, “in the human world, we authenticate on form: face vocal timbre, handwriting, signature. And crucially, verbal style.” (95) When having a conversation with human we are able to express our emotions and we able to start conversations. As human we able able to share our background and experiences. The difference between human and computer is technology is unable express emotions nor is it able to share a background history as to the way human are. When we are having a face to face conversation we able to see the persons expression. For example, through conversation we able to express our emotion by being happy, sad, anger, funny or being sarcastic. in many different levels. We can not having a similar conversation with computers as we have with human.
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For Nov 4, write about what makes a human interaction/conversation human.
November 2, 2015 by carolecenter | 17 Comments
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