Lecture 7 Remote Communications What is the nature

Lecture 7: Remote Communications What is the nature of media interactivity? Professor Victoria Meng 1

Disclaimer: Interactivity is HUGE and always changing! 2

Learning Tasks • Alan Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence. ” • David Rokeby, “Transforming Mirrors: Subjectivity and Control in Interactive Media. ” • Ken Hillis, “A Critical History of Virtual Reality. ” • Tron, Animotion, Neave Games 3

Lev Manovich: Automation • “Low-level: ” performs specific tasks. • “High-level: ” aka “artificial intelligence. ” • “Media access: ” search and retrieval from databases. 4

Alan Turing • British mathematician, cryptographer (19121954) • Pioneered computer science with the “Turing machine” • Tragic death 5

Alan Turing Diagram of a Turing Machine, which can be adapted into a “Universal Machine. ” 6

Post-War Context Atomic bomb Enigma Machine 7

Can Machines Think? Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster 8

How Can We Know If Machines Think? • How do we ascertain that people think? - We “just know. ” - Brain imaging technology. - IQ tests and other tests that evaluate performance. • How can we find the right test(s) to measure “machine thought? ” 9

How Can We Know If Machines Think? • Some “skill” operations are not comparable (computer: PWN!). Left: Gary Kasparov Right: Deep Blue Match date: May 11, 1997 10

How Can We Know If Machines Think? • We equate “thinking” with “consciousness” – processes and sensations that are not yet quantifiable. 11

How Can We Know If Machines Think? • We equate “thinking” with “consciousness” – processes and sensations that are not yet quantifiable. • The stakes are high: thinking makes us “special. ” 12

The Turing Test “The Thinker, ” Auguste Rodin, 1902 13

The Turing Test A provocative and influential way to “measure” artificial intelligence. 14

The Turing Test 1. Makes users bear the “burden of proof” – it’s true if you believe it. 2. Sets human-computer transcoding as the programming problem. 15

The Turing Test Tangent: What are the strengths and limitations of tests, papers, and other assessment tools? How well do they predict behavior? 16

The Turing Test 1. Makes users bear the “burden of proof” – it’s true if you believe it. 2. Sets human-computer transcoding as the programming problem. 3. Posits that “humanity” is a performance and can be “decoded. ” 17

The Turing Test Memory v. Memory? 18

The Turing Test “Hello, Hal: will we ever get a computer we can really talk to? ” John Seabrook, The New Yorker, June 23 2008 19

Media Interactivity “Hello, Hal: will we ever get a computer we can really talk to? ” John Seabrook, The New Yorker, June 23 2008 20

The Turing Test 1. Makes users bear the “burden of proof” – it’s true if you believe it. 2. Sets human-computer transcoding as the programming problem. 3. Posits that “humanity” is a performance. 4. Underestimates complexities of human cognition. 21

Interactivity/Immersion Lecture Title: Remote Communications: What is the nature of media interactivity? 22

Interactivity/Immersion What do authors like Hillis and Rokeby assert about digital media? Do they agree? 23

Interactivity/Immersion What is interactivity? 24

Interactivity/Immersion What is interactivity? - mutual v. uni-directional effects? 25

Interactivity/Immersion What is interactivity? - mutual v. uni-directional effects? - communication v. command and/or control? 26

Interactivity/Immersion What is interactivity? - mutual v. uni-directional effects? - communication v. command and/or control? - What/Who is interacting with what/whom? How does this change the way we think about interactivity? 27

Interactivity/Immersion 28

Interactivity/Immersion Me Alexey Pajitnov 29

Interactivity/Immersion Me Alexey Pajitnov Paul Neave 30

Interactivity/Immersion Me Alexey Pajitnov Tetris Paul Neave 31

Interactivity/Immersion Me, again! Alexey Pajitnov Tetris Paul Neave 32

David Rokeby: “Transforming Mirrors” Left: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759 -69) Right: “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even” (Marcel Duchamp, 1915 -23) 33

David Rokeby: “Transforming Mirrors” “A technology is interactive to the degree that it reflects the consequences of our actions or decisions back to us. ” (133) 34

David Rokeby: “Transforming Mirrors” • Read last paragraphs of 154, 155. • Navigable structure/space. • Medium specificity. • Transforming mirror. • Automaton. 35

Ken Hillis: “A Critical History of Virtual Reality” • Historical account – antidote for technological determinism. Link Trainer (hydraulic flight simulator, 1930 s-50 s) 36

Ken Hillis: “A Critical History of Virtual Reality” • Role of stories in history: why science fiction is important. Tron (Lisberger, 1982) 37

Ken Hillis: “A Critical History of Virtual Reality” Tron (Lisberger, 1982) 38

Ken Hillis: “A Critical History of Virtual Reality” • Minds, bodies, transcendence and connection… Animotion, Manuel Fallmann, 2004. Tip: Don’t change the library before you’re done – you’ll lose all your work. 39

Interactivity/Immersion 40

End of Lecture 7 Next Lecture: Everything is Exchangeable: How do the whole and its parts relate in digital media? 41