This is the information age, wherein all types of media inputs like audio, video, 3-D animation, text have to be brought together in an interactive and collaborative manner.
The presence of the programmed digital computer changes the nature and value of communication.
Today we have progressed to expert systems which are not only smart systems, but also specialized with a very specific area of expertise. These expert systems are developed by collecting the expert knowledge of humans which is then coded according to a set of rules. “This computerized expertise can be very helpful, especially when human experts are not available. This form of Artificial Intelligence can free up human experts to focus on tasks more complex than making straight forward diagnoses”(Tiene, Ingram, 2001). Can such AI reason like a human being, can it communicate the correct meaningful response to a query? Such questions arise because many words have multiple meanings and they can only be accurately understood in a given context. How then does the programmed digital computer change the nature and value of communication? How effectively will a computer be able to communicate with humans?
Computers are a tool to further our end of useful and meaningful communication. For instance it is imperative to observe the etiquette of the culture and the society where your intended destination of communication via the computer is going to be. Ethnographic research is necessary when creating a user interface for marketing a new mobile media product. If we are to use the computer as an effective communication medium then certain criterion are required for the interface design. According to Dr. Ben Schneiderman who researched in the field of human–computer interaction there are eight Golden rules for interface design.[1] According to him in his book, Leonardo’s Laptop, “The old computing was about what computers could do; the new computing is about what users can do” (Shneiderman, 2002, p.2).
With the explosive growth of media technologies and phenomenal storage capacities, already computer interfaces are becoming more sophisticated. “The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships”(Bush, 1945). In the Western world society has moved from being industrialized “to what many have called ‘information societies,’ wherein the information processing involved in financing and managing businesses is the main activity, not the actual production of goods and materials” (Tiene, Ingram, 2001).
Vannevar Bush[2] was trained in physics and mechanics and assisted in the World War 2. He could extrapolate the direction science could and eventually would take. His ideas of compiling/retrieval systems about high resolution images, microfilming, sound storage, image storage, data storage and linking of trails between various types of media were far ahead of the technology of his time, close to currently used multimedia technologies. Bush was not only technically bent but also a person who understood human nature. He looked at the whole exercise as what could the scientific community, which was busy developing destructive science be doing after the World War 2. He went to extent of projecting online communication; transmission of data, for collaborative work. “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it”(Bush, 1945).
Something new on the horizon promises to be very exciting. “Tele-immersion is the technology that will allow people in different parts of the world to feel as if they are sharing the same physical space. It is about connecting real places in real time. In a tele-immersive environment a computer could recognize the presence and movements of individuals and objects and it helps in tracking those individuals or images. They are then projected in realistic environments.” [3]
Such will be the models of communication for a changing society. In the future, the near and the distant, the evolution of interactive communication will be smarter where the computers will respond to users in a more human way by observing their environment, analyzing it and then reacting to it. Licklidder talks of a model (Licklidder, 1968) of communication that is if people have to communicate collaboratively across geographical locations using computers, their communication will make sense only if there is some commonality in the structure of their Idea / Concept. Here all collaborative partners will input parameters to communicate effectively and reach the objective faster they even concluded that such digital collaboration without face to face contact resulted in faster completion of projects as interpersonal problems did not arise on account of remoteness of participants.
According to (Hughes, 2004), since the 1950’s, there have been in place systems for managing information. “Technological and organizational systems are often so complex, so large, and so heterogeneous that interdisciplinary interactive groups sharing perspectives and information are needed to create and control them”. Else growth becomes unmanageable and ends in disasters. The need of technology to collect, compile, and communicate such feedback signals to exercise controls on systems. Communication is vital in the military especially in a war situation. Computers collect data even in the night, called night vision goggles, or by heat imaging techniques. “The Gulf war was the combat of surveillance against camouflage, visibility against invisibility, human eye against computer eye. The use of these technologies extends today into all spheres of industry and science” (Levine, Frohne, and Weibel, 2002).
With all the advancement in communications technology, is it private enough, safe enough. We need to cherish and safeguard our right to privacy, technological advancements not withstanding. More and more are we getting wired. It is therefore our responsibility to maintain the humanity that is the core of our society despite the presence of the programmed digital computer.
Citations:
Tiene, Ingram, Drew, Albert (2001). Exploring current issues in educational technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Licklidder, J.C.R. (1968).The computer as a communication device. Science & Technology.
edited by Levin, Frohne, and Weibel, Thomas Y.,Ursula, and Peter (2002). Ctrl + Space Rhetorics of surveillance from Bentham to Big brother. Karlsruhe, Germany and MIT: ZKM Center for Art and Media and MIT.
Hughes, T.P. (2004). Technology as systems, controls, and information (pp. 77-109). Human-built world: How to think about technology and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. Atlantic Monthly, July.
[1] http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/almstrum/cs370/elvisino/rules.html
[2] Bush, Vannevar (1945, July). As we may think. The Atlantic Online,
