←back to thread

The case against conversational interfaces

(julian.digital)
279 points nnx | 3 comments | 01 Apr 25 02:14 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
techpineapple ◴[01 Apr 25 02:33 UTC] No.43542252[source]▶
There’s an interesting… paradox? Observation? That up until 20-30 years ago, humans were not computerized beings. I remember a thought leader at a company I worked at said that the future was wearable computing, a computer that disappears from your knowing and just integrates with your life. And that sounds great and human and has a very thought leadery sense of being forward thinking.

But I think it’s wrong? Ever since the invention of the television, we’ve been absolutely addicted to screens. Screens and remotes, and I think there’s something sort of anti-humanly human about it. Maybe we don’t want to be human? But people I think would generally much rather tap their thumb on the remote than talk to their tv, and a visual interface you hold in the palm of your hand is not going away any time soon.

replies(5): >>43542479 #>>43542490 #>>43542517 #>>43542785 #>>43543132 #
1. bsder ◴[01 Apr 25 03:25 UTC] No.43542517[source]▶
> Screens and remotes, and I think there’s something sort of anti-humanly human about it.

Actually, it's the reverse. The orienting response is wired in quite deeply. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienting_response

When I was teaching, I used to force students using laptops to sit near the back of the room for exactly this reason. It's almost impossible for humans to ignore a flickering screen.

replies(1): >>43542972 #
2. strogonoff ◴[01 Apr 25 04:53 UTC] No.43542972[source]▶
Sensitivity to stimuli behind orienting impulse varies by individual and I wish I was less sensitive on daily basis.

These days screen brightness goes pretty high and it is unbelievable how many people seem to never use their screen (phone or laptop) on anything less than 100% brightness in any situation and are seemingly not bothered by flickering bright light or noise sources.

I am nostalgic about old laptops’ dim LCD screens that I saw a few times as a kid, they did not flicker much and had a narrow angle of view. I suspect they would even be fine in a darkened classroom.

replies(1): >>43544107 #
3. Al-Khwarizmi ◴[01 Apr 25 08:13 UTC] No.43544107[source]▶
The last few times I've bought a new monitor, I've gone through the process of adjusting brightness based on comparing a document on screen to a paper sheet. This invariably results into going from defaults of 50-70% to very low figures like 5-15%, and it's not that I work in dark places, my offices have reasonable light from outside. I would be extremely uncomfortable using default settings, for me they are absurdly bright.