It’s neat that this popped up for me! I was just waxing poetic (or not so much) about something kind of similar the other day.
The words we use to describe things matter. How much, is of course up for debate, and it takes different messages to make different people “understand” what is being conveyed, as “you are unique; just like everyone else”, so multiple angles help cover the bases :)
I think using the word “reward” is misleading[1], since it seems have sent a lot of people reasoning down paths that aren’t exactly in the direction of the meaning in context, if you will.
If you can’t tell, it’s because I think it’s anthropomorphic. A car does not get hungry for gas, nor electronics hungry for electricity. Sure, we can use language like that, and people will understand what we mean, but as cars and electronics have a common established context, these people we’re saying this to don’t usually then go on to worry about cars doing stuff to get more gas to “feed” themselves, as it were.
I think if we’re being serious about safety, and how to manage unintended consequences (a real concern with any system[2]), we should aim for clarity and transparency.
In sum, I’m a huge fan of “new” words, versus overloading existing words, as reuse introduces a high potential for causing confusion. I know there’s a paradox here, because Communication and Language, but we don’t have to intentionally make it hard — on not only ourselves — but people getting into it coming from a different context.
All that said, maybe people should already be thinking of inanimate objects being “alive”, and really, for all we know, they are! I do quite often talk to my objects. (I’m petting my computer right now and saying “that’s a good ’puter!”… maybe I should give it some cold air, as a reward for living, since thinking gets it hot.) #grateful
deceptive? for a certain definition of “deceptive” as in “fooled yourself”, sure— maybe I should note that I also think “deceptive” and “lie” are words we probably should avoid— at least for now— when discussing this stuff (not that I’m the meaning police… just say’n)
It’s neat that this popped up for me! I was just waxing poetic (or not so much) about something kind of similar the other day.
The words we use to describe things matter. How much, is of course up for debate, and it takes different messages to make different people “understand” what is being conveyed, as “you are unique; just like everyone else”, so multiple angles help cover the bases :)
I think using the word “reward” is misleading[1], since it seems have sent a lot of people reasoning down paths that aren’t exactly in the direction of the meaning in context, if you will.
If you can’t tell, it’s because I think it’s anthropomorphic. A car does not get hungry for gas, nor electronics hungry for electricity. Sure, we can use language like that, and people will understand what we mean, but as cars and electronics have a common established context, these people we’re saying this to don’t usually then go on to worry about cars doing stuff to get more gas to “feed” themselves, as it were.
I think if we’re being serious about safety, and how to manage unintended consequences (a real concern with any system[2]), we should aim for clarity and transparency.
In sum, I’m a huge fan of “new” words, versus overloading existing words, as reuse introduces a high potential for causing confusion. I know there’s a paradox here, because Communication and Language, but we don’t have to intentionally make it hard — on not only ourselves — but people getting into it coming from a different context.
All that said, maybe people should already be thinking of inanimate objects being “alive”, and really, for all we know, they are! I do quite often talk to my objects. (I’m petting my computer right now and saying “that’s a good ’puter!”… maybe I should give it some cold air, as a reward for living, since thinking gets it hot.) #grateful
deceptive? for a certain definition of “deceptive” as in “fooled yourself”, sure— maybe I should note that I also think “deceptive” and “lie” are words we probably should avoid— at least for now— when discussing this stuff (not that I’m the meaning police… just say’n)
I don’t mean to downplay how badly things can go wrong, even when we’re actively trying to avoid having things go wrong[3]
“the road to hell is paved with good intentions”