Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In regard to pervasive media, such experimental research supports my analysis of the
different forms of networked presence we manifest—particularly for the real-time and
visualized human signal. If we already animate with our imagination the mechanical or
the simulated, we now have the experience of making actual our human presence via
computational and synthetic transmission.
Of course, not all animated forms are created equal in our perception or our treat-
ment. As I have previously discussed, we tend to get fed up very quickly with machines
that impersonate people (see chapter 1). On the one hand, we are good readers of the
difference between human and nonhuman signals (semantic communication), i.e., the
conversation with a person versus one with a chatbot; the limits of the machinic conver-
sation are, for the most part, easy to discern. On the other hand, simulation, when de-
rived from human gesture, works very powerfully. For example, the recording of a baby
crying can elicit the same feelings of anxiety in the listener as hearing an actual baby
cry. As Reeves and Nass describe with the media equation, the distinction between a
real and simulated signal proves very difficult to discern. Their findings in experiment-
al research correspond with my analysis of networked media engagement: whether it is
live or mediated, a human signal provokes a human response. (See figure 1.)
