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Marek asked:

I'd like to ask one significant question that is deeply dwelling my mind for some time:

What lessons do you think can be learned from the development of computers over the last twenty
years?

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A lot has been learnt about the workings of the human mind within the field of artificial intelligence,
and the most recent development is the creation of learning robotic intelligences, such as the Abo
dog. Intelligence is not simply created by programming but also by environmental interaction. Whilst
we knew that this is the way human intelligence develops, the importance of man as organic is giving
way to a view of man as robotic.

Also the more recent development of the internet has shown us something about human nature.
People desire the ease of being pandered to, of hiding behind a screen and playing unreal games to
an extent that even the existentialists didn't dream of. It is not simply that there are people who are
engaging in internet relationships which need not be genuine because there is no face to face
contact, and that there are bizarre phenomena like cyber-parties in which participants pretend to be
socializing, but there is a real movement towards a strangely onanistic form of communication. I
gather that current technological advances have enabled computer scientists in America to develop
computers which respond to the sort of person you are. For instance, a male computer-user will
receive spoken instructions from a soft-voiced woman because he will find this most pleasurable, but
an elderly lady will be spoken to by a middle-aged man which she will find comforting as this is the
sort of person she take to know best about computer operation.

Hopefully, what we will learn from this is that this not what people really want. In the words of Karl
Jaspers it is likely to lead to "an emptiness ... a loneliness that hides itself" and which seeks relief in
the irrational until "it leads eventually to a deep comprehension of the importance of establishing
communication between man and man". Genuine communication involves compromise, transference
and an understanding of what others are really like.

If we look at human nature rather than the human mind, man doesn't seem to be robotic and so
perhaps we should be a bit sceptical about what we can learn from computers.

Rachel Browne