Started: 3/23/2011
Completed: 6/19/2011
Recommendation: Recommended for programmers. It is amazing how humbling it can be to "look" from the other side.
Recommended By: I saw the author speak on John Stewart
Words I looked up:
anaphora -- repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect
asterism -- a group of three asterisks shaped into a triangle that are used in typography to denote subchapters in a book.
hegemony -- gaining control through consensus, not force.
ineffable -- too great or extreme to be described in words
pilcrow -- a typographic mark typically used to denote a paragraph, "¶"
palimpsest -- a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped and which can be used again.
polysyndeton -- repetition of conjunctions in close succession
sanguine -- cheerfully optimisitc
stevedore -- a dock worker
trenchant -- vigorously effective and articulate
voided lozenge -- A symbol in heraldry (also called a "mascle") that is a diamond within a diamond.
Review:
When a journalist looks at computer interfaces, there is something to learn. Having read this book in concert with listening to Moonwalking with Einstein it is interesting to me that these two books which each try to reach into the essence of humanity from different angles share so much in common. Neither is a repeat of the other, but the overlaps are significant. There is more to human interaction then simple communication--there is a certain degree of binding that occurs when two people talk well and it cannot be approximated well by computers who are simply mimicking what has been put into them (albeit quite well). At the same time, the vast store of sheer information stored by computers can be approximated through the human mind with a little effort and that allows for a structure in which to hold not only a good discussion but even more information.
At some points, Brian Christian suggests that the novelty of a good conversation lies in its surprise and Joshua Fore suggests that one of the most engaging uses of memory is being able to create novel links between seemingly disparate sources. It seems to me (making a novel link :) ) that effective use of memory facilitates good conversation. Brian Christian talks about leaving footholds for conversation by leaving many open-ended references and Joshua Fore points out that having established memory points lets us view information within a context that takes us beyond rote knowledge or parlor tricks into a deeper understanding of the world around us. It may just be me, but it seems like these two different books (both by journalists about competitions) are particularly in tune with one-another and should be read together for maximum gain.
To the heart of being the most human human, Mr. Christian found it anti-climactic as one might expect. Being acknowledged for what one is is rarely as interesting as becoming something more then one is. The journey, however, that brought him to that point is well worth the read and is a good overview into the shortcomings of a "heartless" interaction that characterizes current AI systems that purport to interface with us. As companies have developed increasingly complicated systems to try to address anticipated customer needs, the flexibility and creativity of a real human being has never been more in evidence. These elaborate efforts are fairly good at handling simple items (phone trees work reasonably well for movie theaters until the theaters forget that the phone tree is intended to drive people to the movies and start inserting advertising that is far less effective), but if you have ever tried to call a bank and do something relatively unusual (like stop payment on a check) the phone tree feels impenetrable as it both fails to handle the need and obscures the process for getting to a real human (which is where the phone tree ends up if one happens to find the right path).
As a programmer, the intuition and research that Mr. Christian offers in his book is important and something to be considered in developing a system that interacts with people. I think that one thing programmers largely have in common is an inability to interact well themselves and so it is no surprise that the applications generated by this social inept group should themselves be socially inept. Some of the information offered by Mr. Christian may help programmers become more socially skilled and, by extension, facilitate the growth of socially skilled applications. Physician, heal thyself.
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