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From: iic@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Ian Clarke)
Subject: Should we be polite to computers?
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Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 18:29:53 GMT
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On considering the eventual reality of computers which will be capable
of understanding complex spoken sentences I began to think about how
people would talk to such a machine.  Might we say "Computer, could
you please close the window" or would it be more like "Computer:Close
Window".  Obviously any voice-interaction program should be able to
understand both, but if people are going to begin to use abbreviations
- "comp: close win" - what is the point of having complex sentence
parsing anyway, and might people start to talk to other people as they
do their computers.  I think it is important to think ahead about 
whether we should talk to our machines as our dogs, or as our friends.

-- 
|IAN CLARKE        |"Then on the shore / of the wide world I stand|
|                  |alone, and think till love and fame to        |
|I.Clarke@ed.ac.uk |nothingness do sink" - John Keats             |
