Norman, Chapter 2: ePortfolio Chunk #5

The Psychology of People & Machines


Norman discusses the 'psychology of people and machines' in this chapter, describing the unique capabilities of both humans and machines.  One quote that resonates with me is:

"Are these systems really intelligent? No, they are responsive.  The intelligence is all in the heads of the design team, people who carefully try to anticipate all possible conditions and program into the system the appropriate responses" (Norman, p. 49).

Norman identifies the "fundamental restriction on people's successful interactions with machines" as the "lack of common ground" (p. 55).  However, I wonder if a person's ongoing relationship with a machine could lead to the development of that 'common ground'.  Take Zeno, roboticist David Hanson's 17-inch robot boy - referred to below in the video.  Hanson suggests that Zeno's 'intelligence' will expand - on what basis it isn't clear, yet it is intriguing.

Norman goes on to suggest that machines that suggest and allow choice, rather than demand and "confront with unintelligible actions" would be perfectly sensible.  And I think that is what most people would ask of their machines - let me decide what is best - at some levels.  At other levels, I'm just as happy to have the machine decide and free me from dealing with inconsequential details.  It's a bit like my relationship with my computer - for some things, I don't want to have to make a choice or a decision - with others, I want to be able to say 'this, not that' and exert a great deal of control.

I think that the short clip above, featuring David Hanson and "Robots that 'Show Emotion" fits in nicely with Norman's chapter.  It is quite amazing to see how realistic the robot heads are and the lifelike qualities that they possess.  On the Hanson Robotics website, it states, "our belief is that understanding human expressions can help to model human empathy and enable machine empathy" - it certainly will be interesting to see how Hanson's robots develop and what 'enabled machine empathy' really looks like.

More on Zeno, the "toy robot intended to save humans from evil, future bots". 

To quote Hanson, "we want to be damn sure that by the time [robots] become as smart as we are, they have a conscience and compassion and that we are friends.  There's no guarantee.  They could be psychotic." 

One more video with a very realistic adult robot and a bit more of little Zeno.