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Indicator lights vs facial expressions

14 October 2006, 9:54 AM

Imagine an alternate world in which scientific and technical prowess doesn't often go hand-in-hand with difficulty in understanding the subtleties and nuances of social interaction.

In such a world, would car dashboards have facial expressions instead of indicator lights?

For bonus points, discuss the real-world implications of this question, if any, for strong AI.

Also, if God were a geek, would we have indicator lights instead of facial expressions?

(Questions prompted by noticing once again that it can be awfully hard to recognize when one is in a bad mood from within the mood. Wouldn't it be easier if we came with a "Low Mood" light that would start blinking when necessary? He asked, geekily.)

Comments

I don't know. Complexity can be a different type of geek from simplicity. There's a beauty in indicator lights, in simple states that are easily defined, but there's a geeky beauty in the infinite, too, in states so complex and changing that our fuzzy logic ability to read expressions is the only way to understand.

Posted by: joey [LiveJournal user info] | October 14, 2006 10:57 AM

Yeah, okay, I'll buy that. Certainly geeks have created or figured out abstract and complex stuff--look at chaos theory. But I think most of the geeks I know (including me) would put social interaction in a different sphere from abstract math and arcane physics. Direct and immediate perception of someone (or something) else's complex internal state by means of a glance at a face--that's the kind of thing a lot of geeks have trouble with, even when they're not daunted by complexity in general.

Posted by: Jed (web) [TypeKey Profile Page] | October 16, 2006 9:32 AM

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