Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The same situation sometimes occurs when we communicate with a computer as
well as a person.
In Boston, audio response systems often answer when we call to enter into
contracts with a telephone or a gas service. Computers ask us, “My name is Alice
(e.g.), please answer me to register.” “May I ask your name, please?” “May I ask your
address?” Those questions continue. And what is worse, the speech recognition
sometimes fail. Then the computer says, “I couldn't recognize, please repeat that
again?” Answering it three times will be the limits of our patience. One of what are
good about American frontier spirit is this big-hearted and trendy disposition.
“Do people here really patient about computer operators?” I asked my friend and
she advised me, “In that case, you should wait while human operator appears.” She
says that various things (computers or humans) meddle in phenomena, and extended
the time we decide something. This analysis also shows the difference between
Japanese who accustomed to communicate tacitly and Americans who accustomed
not to communicate tacitly.
While I stayed at Boston, I realized by my experience that we should think
communications occur only when people can't understand each other, considering the
difference of their culture. Many times I experienced satisfaction of sympathy with
someone whom I thought was not understandable, which is beyond expression. We
cannot communicate freshly without this moment. If we communicate not only with
discovering our errors, differences or sympathies but also with exchanging and
amplifing our knowledge and feelings, the communication will transchend each
cultures.
We obtained global comunication by adopting medica technologies in face-to-face
communication which had been limited to a small community. E-mails, social networks,
blogs enabled us to communicate more easily with people from around the world,
beyond barriers of distance and culture. On the other hand, many people feel
communications being more and more shallow these days. Rather, these shallow
communications brought a recent typical face-to-face conversation, “Did you read my
message?” Communications may be turning into extremely superficial communications,
with taking off the tastes of cultures.
Ignoring this tendency will cause the decline in our communication ability which
we have had as the basic instinct from ancient times. We immediately need the new
communication media which can convey one's depth of feeling crossing the border of
cultures. I knew it is realizable during my 2 years stay in Boston.
I wanted to create the communication media with which we can communicate deep
feelings transcending the culture. As the result of my stay in Boston, I had this strong
idea.
3.4 Technologies Combined with the Spirit
I visited Western China for 10 days, in the later July 2002. The aim of this trip was to
discuss with Tibetan doctors and philosophers, and to complete the fieldwork for my
research theme that looks for the problems about arts, technologies and hearts.
First, I visited Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Gelug who consider the
religious precepts highly important prosper there, and the founder, Tsongkhapa, and
14
th
Dalai Lama are also from there.
