By DAVID G. ROBINSON, Wall Street Journal
We treat our computers like trusted confidants— they keep track of everything from our most mundane online wanderings to irreplaceable documents and photos. Then, when the hard drive melts down and the machine fails us, we take umbrage. Outrage, a sense of betrayal, even tears—who hasn’t experienced these reactions to the bloodless traitors on our desks? Afterwards, we feel foolish. It’s just a machine, after all. But do we really think it’s just a machine? A new field of research says no. The CASA paradigm—short for computers as social actors—takes as its starting point the observation that, although we deny that we interact with a computer as we would with a human being, many of us actually do.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703453804575480662661839080.html
Share on Facebook