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From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review

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From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research. / Harper, R.
BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology. New York: ACM, 2009. p. 73-82.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review

Harvard

Harper, R 2009, From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research. in BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology. ACM, New York, pp. 73-82. <https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1671020>

APA

Harper, R. (2009). From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research. In BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology (pp. 73-82). ACM. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1671020

Vancouver

Harper R. From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research. In BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology. New York: ACM. 2009. p. 73-82

Author

Harper, R. / From tele presence to human absence : the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research. BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology. New York : ACM, 2009. pp. 73-82

Bibtex

@inproceedings{04814e2d16574930935732e813695140,
title = "From tele presence to human absence: the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research",
abstract = "This paper reflects on the views of the human that were oriented to in two distinct research labs and which have been used to populate an inventive landscape over the past twenty years. It suggests that there are commonalities to the views in question, making them essentially the same. Both emphasise body movement at the expense of expression and both, one could reasonably claim, derive from a conceptual dualism as regards human nature associated with Descartes and then adopted by the computer scientist, Alan Turing. The paper will argue that, whatever conceptual dualists in philosophy or computer science might want to claim or emphasise, the use of this view by the researchers in question was not because it offered an adequate ontology but because it was a pragmatically useful way of looking at the world that enabled and helped drive inventiveness. The paper will report on how this was applied in the domain of communication technologies, particularly telepresence type systems. It will remark on the benefits and limitations of this view for the inventiveness in question and how this view led to many technological innovations that have not been widely adopted and to an indifference to innovation in textually mediated communication, amongst other things. The paper will remark on the value this view might have for future research. {\textcopyright} 2009 The Author.",
keywords = "Communications systems, media spaces, shared whiteboards, instant messaging, telepresence, Computer science, Philosophy, metaphysics, Sociology, ethnography, model(s) of the user, Body movements, Communication technologies, Communications systems, Computer scientists, Descartes, Human nature, Media spaces, Mediated Communication, Research labs, Technological innovation, Telepresence, Type systems, Computer supported cooperative work, Ontology, Visual communication, Research",
author = "R. Harper",
year = "2009",
language = "English",
pages = "73--82",
booktitle = "BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology",
publisher = "ACM",

}

RIS

TY - GEN

T1 - From tele presence to human absence

T2 - the pragmatic construction of the human in communications systems research

AU - Harper, R.

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - This paper reflects on the views of the human that were oriented to in two distinct research labs and which have been used to populate an inventive landscape over the past twenty years. It suggests that there are commonalities to the views in question, making them essentially the same. Both emphasise body movement at the expense of expression and both, one could reasonably claim, derive from a conceptual dualism as regards human nature associated with Descartes and then adopted by the computer scientist, Alan Turing. The paper will argue that, whatever conceptual dualists in philosophy or computer science might want to claim or emphasise, the use of this view by the researchers in question was not because it offered an adequate ontology but because it was a pragmatically useful way of looking at the world that enabled and helped drive inventiveness. The paper will report on how this was applied in the domain of communication technologies, particularly telepresence type systems. It will remark on the benefits and limitations of this view for the inventiveness in question and how this view led to many technological innovations that have not been widely adopted and to an indifference to innovation in textually mediated communication, amongst other things. The paper will remark on the value this view might have for future research. © 2009 The Author.

AB - This paper reflects on the views of the human that were oriented to in two distinct research labs and which have been used to populate an inventive landscape over the past twenty years. It suggests that there are commonalities to the views in question, making them essentially the same. Both emphasise body movement at the expense of expression and both, one could reasonably claim, derive from a conceptual dualism as regards human nature associated with Descartes and then adopted by the computer scientist, Alan Turing. The paper will argue that, whatever conceptual dualists in philosophy or computer science might want to claim or emphasise, the use of this view by the researchers in question was not because it offered an adequate ontology but because it was a pragmatically useful way of looking at the world that enabled and helped drive inventiveness. The paper will report on how this was applied in the domain of communication technologies, particularly telepresence type systems. It will remark on the benefits and limitations of this view for the inventiveness in question and how this view led to many technological innovations that have not been widely adopted and to an indifference to innovation in textually mediated communication, amongst other things. The paper will remark on the value this view might have for future research. © 2009 The Author.

KW - Communications systems, media spaces, shared whiteboards, instant messaging, telepresence

KW - Computer science

KW - Philosophy, metaphysics

KW - Sociology, ethnography, model(s) of the user

KW - Body movements

KW - Communication technologies

KW - Communications systems

KW - Computer scientists

KW - Descartes

KW - Human nature

KW - Media spaces

KW - Mediated Communication

KW - Research labs

KW - Technological innovation

KW - Telepresence

KW - Type systems

KW - Computer supported cooperative work

KW - Ontology

KW - Visual communication

KW - Research

M3 - Conference contribution/Paper

SP - 73

EP - 82

BT - BCS-HCI '09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology

PB - ACM

CY - New York

ER -