19.259 personified software

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 259.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 07:27:38 +0100
         From: Mary Dee Harris <mdharris_at_acm.org>
         Subject: Re: 19.255 personified software?

Willard,

You might look up some of Sherry Turkle's work. She's at MIT and
has written about psychology and sociology of computer since the
early 1980s. Her book, The Second Self, was the one that I remember
-- vaguely after all these years.

I'm not sure that her work is going in the same direction you are
thinking, but it would be a start.
Mary Dee

Mary Dee Harris
Catalis, Inc.
Austin, Texas

Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty
<willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>) wrote:

> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 255.
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
> www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
>
>
>
> Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 07:49:22 +0100
> From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
> >
>Recently, while preparing material on my current research for a group
>of classicists, I somehow thought to google for its keyword,
>"personification". An old, fusty, academic word, I thought -- but who
>knows? Well, the click of my wireless mouse then brought me a big,
>lengthy surprise. The word is not only popular, it is distributed
>across many common domains of life, including primary-school
>education. (To underscore the implicit moral, google whenever you
>can, esp when musing about a topic of interest. You never know when
>suddenly your world will expand in all directions -- and give you
>material with which to appear incredibly cool to your students.
>("Man, this guy knows what's HAPPENING!") Yes, I know, or think --
>saying "Man..." isn't cool -- or is it?)
>
>But to the point and question. Among the things personified is
>software. Personification's a hot topic, for example among those who
>talk about computers as "social agents", e.g. Reeves and Nass, The
>Media Equation. Where else should I look? What I'm looking *for* are
>essays, articles, books in which the authors reflect on the
>personification of software, the consequences of thinking in this way
>&c rather than simply fling the word about. Any suggestions?
>
>Many thanks.
>
>Yours,
>WM
>
>
>Dr Willard McCarty | Reader in Humanities Computing | Centre for
>Computing in the Humanities | King's College London | Kay House, 7
>Arundel Street | London WC2R 3DX | U.K. | +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax:
>-2980 || willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
Received on Tue Sep 06 2005 - 02:40:36 EDT