Since I can
remember I have seen Artificial Intelligence (AI) be depicted in television and
films. AI has been the villain, HAL, and
the hero, Johnny 5. Anytime I hear AI, the first image that comes to mind is
the Kubrick/Spielberg drama starring Haley Joel Osment, the kid from the Sixth
Sense. Though technology is far from any
type of AI, one can dream. Two things
that AI embodies, in its depiction and in theory, is a mimic of human behavior
and the ability to communicate in normal language.
The future
of communication is how close we can get to this theory of AI. I think we just really want to be able to
talk to our technology have it respond and behave accordingly. Cutting out the need to type or manipulate a keyboard to communicate one language then convert to
machine language, to have our technology be able to understand our spoken language
that has been developed over the centuries. Communication is always created
convenience, as we see in the Kittler’s history of communication. Writing/Speech
made it easier to index goods and the deceased, as well as keep records. As communication continued to increase with
the development of communication technology, so did democracy and many of the
services we enjoy today such as the postal service and books. In the same way
we want to increase communication with technology in hopes to create an easier
more accommodating life style, an extension of human interaction.
We have
already integrated so much communication technology into our lives, that it isn’t
hard to imagine having our very own C3PO. But I think before any of this should
occur a more burning issue to deal with is the digital divide we have here in
our very own country.
We will be returning to these ideas in the week on AI, and in our discussion of 2001, so be sure to add your two cents since you're clearly versed in AI on the screen! Convenience is certainly one facet to emphasize with communication, but note that our definitions of convenience can and do change... after all, the postal service is facing dissolution, and even e-mail is starting to seem outdated for generations accustomed to SMS/text messaging. One question to ask might be, does convenience correlate with effectiveness? Or are there times when increased convenience actually results in poorer communication?
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