Slashdot Mirror
They Finally Found Out We Like Our Computers
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Sociologist Clifford Nass is talking about how people think of their computers as something like human beings. In one of his experiments, Nass found that people are more willing to 'help' computers when the computer helped them previously: 'When people were then asked to help optimize the screen resolution on a computer where the program had been "helpful," they were much more likely to do so than with the less helpful version.' He also found that people evaluating software's performance were more forgiving if the evaluation was done on the same computer the software was tested on. Nass has recently published the book The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, in which he 'uses our interactions with machines to investigate how human relationships could be improved.'"
Nass has recently published the book The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, in which he 'uses our interactions with machines to investigate how human relationships could be improved.'
I propose forcing women to think like computers instead of like women. They would be much easier to interact with.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
They bring us free porn on a daily basis!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Like I needed to know how to improve my relationship with machines. What I need is a map to get out of the basement and interact with real people!
Guess this lowers the theoretical barriers to the sexbot market.
We'll see robot girlfriends purposefully installing Microsoft software for the plausible deniability upon contracting a virus.
Wish I could quarantine my W32.Herpes/Worm. :'(
I'll throw it down a flight of stairs and give them these black and blue smudges on their LCD screens every now and then; but I only do it because I love them, and they have to learn that when I say "bitch, automake me a Makefile," I expect it now and nothing should be reporting to standard error. I'm that machine's user because it wasn't good enough for anybody else.
And you think they remember past events now. if they were like computers you would have to pray for it to crash. Queue Brand jokes.
I'd say the opposite is true as well - when your computer isn't being helpful you'd also treat it more like an annoying person. When a certain paperclip showed up on a certain program, I'd say out loud "Oh would you FUCK OFF already!!?!".
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Why would it be superficial to date a self-aware non-biological machine?
Sounds like uppity biological machine talk to me.
I once tossed a desktop in a river. The water was brackish, so it was fresh at times and salt at others. I fished the computer out after a few weeks. After letting it dry, I put it in from of the other computers. I threatened to do the same to the other computers.
I have not had a problem since with any machine. I am often told that the computer problem just goes away when I go near other people's computers to fix them. I think the computers got the message. Piss me off and I will toss you in the river.
The question remains: Can we do that to congress and not get jail time?
... they hate it when you do that.
Prime numbers are exactly what Alan Greenspan says they are -S. Minsky
So if people think of their computers as people why do they not care about their computers getting viruses? Some people are ignorant, some are lazy and don't care that their computer/friend has a virus. Some think that it is not their problem! There is clearly a type of person in our society who receive minimal respect for the work they do - in fact they are treated worse than animals!
People who go around giving STDs to people knowingly are prosecuted - why not people who do the same with computers?
Why would you care about your pet or your friend getting sick and not your computer?
As you can see, I respect my follow peoples. (Even if I don't like them... damn Windows people).
I work in a school and from many years ago I remember the best (imho) moments.
1. In a classroom with computers, 1 mouse broke, I nailed it to the wall at the head of the room to show the other mice what I would do to them if they also broke down, for the last 3 years in that classroom no mice broke.
2. One of the administrative staff was having a problem with her computer, she called me and I came downstairs.
She showed me what she did and sure enough, the machine gave an error message.
Me: Ok, do you treat the computer nice enough?
Her (confused): What do you mean???!?
Me: Oh, just the little things, an encouraging word, a caress on its case, you know.
Her (angry): I never heard of such a thing, that thing is a machine, it doesn't have feelings!!
Me: Oh no? Let me show you (as I slowly caress its case), there there, she is not such a bad person, you can trust her, won't you work for her like you work for me hmmmm??
After that, I repeated the same actions in the software as she did 100%, but I did not get the error message.
She was REALLY confused, but saw that my method of working with computers worked better than hers and I cannot count the times I walk into an office and the problem disappears.
So you see, sometimes the stick, sometimes the carrot.
This is the sig that says NI (again)