Emergence of behavior through software

[btanksley@hifn.com]

From: Alik Widge [mailto:aswst16+@pitt.edu]
>btanksley@hifn.com wrote:

>> not saying that the software should do voice recognition and 
>> parse for
>> future-tense subjunctives; I would expect that the user would have to
>> explicitly phrase commands.  The point is that the way 
>> humans are built, seeing "buy-in" is a rewarding experience.

>I know what a vision is. I happen to consider most "vision 
>statements" to be vague and bogus, but that is personal opinion.

It's hard to come up with a vision at the drop of a hat.  Plus, most people
writing those statements actually have the vision "make some money and then
retire."  A nice vision, but hardly one which can inspire buy-in.  It also
doesn't help that most of those vision statements were probably from
companies doing something you could never be interested in.

>I still don't see how a
>computer can show a human that it buys in to the human's 
>vision, though. Is
>it just going to say "That's a great command!" or "It looks like you're
>writing a great letter here!"?

I would be irritated if the software interrupted me with things like that.
I don't know what it'll take; it's likely that for many people, the only
solution will be an avatar (a humanoid form).  I don't know exactly how
buy-in should be expressed; that's not even close to my field.  I do know
that many people are very good at detecting it, and some people are very
good at generating it.

As for an example of when it might be appropriate...  Um...  You know, I'm
drawing a blank here.  It's times like this that I wish I could remember
that URL at which I read about this.

One more thing to add.  We're techies; we don't need to see buy-in, and in
fact that tends to hinder our social life.  So the fact that I can't think
of examples simply proves that I'm a techie.

-Billy