Social Machines: Social Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction


Have you ever experienced the frustration of your computer not behaving as it should? Maybe it started to reboot during your most important meeting, or it simply froze and despite your best efforts, you couldn’t restart it. Take a moment to recall your reactions: how did you feel and behave? Did you mutter angry half-sentences? Did you shout at the machine in frustration? Did you threaten it that you will buy a new, better one if it doesn’t start to work properly? These behaviors seem completely normal to us, as if our computer had the intention to make us angry, even though most of us…