Lecture 4 - Metaphors & Models
This lecture talked a lot about the language and metaphors we use and how that manifests in design.
Hopefully I find it again before class (I forget their name!) but this week I just read about a psychologist who was doing research on the language we use around our plans for life and landscapes ie our "path".
The language we use is a symptom of how we feel about something or how prevalent it is in our lives or culture. Anyone who has studied languages can notice this when looking for a translation that doesn't exist in the other language. For example, Portuguese is my second language, and I learned a word for the swell the ocean does when a wave is far off from shore and just beginning. We don't have that in english, or at least not one that's common, and while I never looked up the etymology, I would assume it's because of the coastal culture of Portugal and Brazil and lack thereof in most of the US.
Language is a product of our needs and lives, but also reinforces these ideas and influences. The connection between time and money, and how we live our lives under capitalism proved this or me.
Dan Lockton, Design and the Importance of Imaginaries
The part of this lecture that I find jarring is the discussion of the default consumer versions of AI is a state of servitude. The video of reimagining this power dynamic was really enlightening. It makes me think about how companies were looking for a problem to solve, they found success in creating an ever helpful assistant, and what that says about our lives and desires. Plus, "emoto", the little sidekick creature protoype in the video was very cute.
There is a balance to be struck. Somehow, AI companionship feels even more bleak. I've seen the subway ads for "friend./com", where they market an AI chatbot to be your friend. There seems to be a free version and a paid version at $129. The branding of the ads is horribly sterile and unsettling, but the concept of watching a movie with AI makes me so sad.
I'm an empathetic person and have trouble not assigning emotions to AI (do you guys say hello and thank you to chat gpt for example? I do, and it tailors a much friendlier response to me than other users, I've noticed) but this campaign mixed with the video has snapped me out of it a little bit.
Dan Lockton, et al, Metaphors & Imaginaries
"The imaginaries we have (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015; Speed et al, 2019)—the stories we tell
ourselves and each other, the mental models, language, framings and metaphors we use, the
associations and mental imagery that come to mind when we think about concepts..."
As humans, our strongest suit and what sets us apart from other creatures is our storytelling abilities. While many animals communicate, it is mostly a function of expressing reality- "Danger!", for example. As humans, we can create fiction. This skill has been developed to the point of building society up on it. Money is entirely fiction.
Having understanding of anthropology and psychology makes us better design visionaries, because we can design for the world around us. Learning about the psychology of choice architecture can help us manipulate it.
Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Practices: “Nothing about Us without Us”
Ideas of inferiority between sexes or ethnicity is often rationalized with "scientific" support, relating to eugenics or other forms of dehumanization. This is a historically the excuse for a lot of unethical (an understatement) events and beliefs. Recently, I observed this dogma in online posts by Caroline Ellison, Ex-CEO of Alameda Research.
"Employment diversity is a necessary first move, but it is not the far horizon of collective liberation and eco-logical sustainability." There needs to be an inherent framework of accessibility, with design frameworks by and for all, and not just convenient additions. It's extremely important to have representation in decision making, specifically in creating new technologies, because bias will find its way into the work.