Synopsis of Alone Together:
Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other
Self-ordering kiosks in restaurants. Self-checkout machines at stores. Self-driving vehicles on the road. Year by year, an unstoppable trend appears to be gaining traction across multiple industries: automation. It’s clear what the economic consequences of automation will be: robots will take over numerous jobs previously done by people.
Nevertheless, it’s not as clear what the psychological consequences of automation will be. For example, how will replacing human-human interaction with human-robot interaction affect people’s social and emotional well-being? There are a number of illuminating books that tackle this question. But if you forced me to recommend just one, it would be Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.
Turkle, a psychologist at MIT, has spent decades studying artificial intelligence (AI) and human-computer interaction (HCI), fields that typically interest computer scientists and engineers. However, instead of looking at the mechanics of robots, Turkle focuses on the minds of people who interact with robots. As she states in the Introduction of Alone Together,
this is not a book about robots. Rather, it is about how we are changed as technology offers us substitutes for connecting with each other face-to-face (Turkle, 2011, p 11).
What follows are some of the highlights from Alone Together, including Turkle’s research on social robots, or AI machines designed to play, communicate, and interact with kids or adults.
Kids, social robots, and the need to express emotion
One of the fascinating findings from Turkle’s book is that both kids and adults tend to be talkative and emotionally expressive while interacting with social robots. An illustrative case is the way children interact with robotic pets like AIBO (Artificial Intelligence Robot—basically, a robotic dog).
It probably won’t surprise parents that kids who played with AIBO let out all sorts of emotions, both positive and negative. Some were tender with AIBO, reacting to its ostensible cuteness, as if it were a real animal. Others became overly excited and even aggressive with what they perceived as a generic machine.
What do these mixed emotional reactions to social robots tell us about kids? On one hand, social robots seem to encourage kids to talk and express their feelings, both about the robot and about other things the robot may remind them of. On the other hand, these robots don’t appear to help kids process those feelings. As a psychologist, Turkle observes,
The strong feelings that robots elicit may help children to a better understanding of what is on their minds, but a robot cannot help children find the meaning behind the anger it provokes. In the best case, behavior with an AIBO could be discussed in a relationship with a therapist (p 62).
Adults, social robots, and the need to be heard
Turkle makes a similar observation for adults who played with robots such as PARO (a robotic pet designed for seniors).
On one hand, adults were more skeptical than kids as to whether the robotic pet was alive or conscious. On the other hand, not unlike kids, adults became surprisingly emotional and quite talkative with AI machines like PARO. As Turkle reveals,
When talking to sociable robots, adults, like children, move beyond a psychology of projection to that of engagement. … The robots’ special affordance is that they simulate listening, which meets a human vulnerability: people want to be heard. From there it seems a small step to confide in them (p 116).
Turkle also analyzed how kids and adults reacted to other social robots, such as COG (a humanoid), Kismet (a robot head), and ELIZA (a psychotherapeutic computer program that gives generic responses to questions from patients). Interestingly, people often had little problem talking to these AI machines. In fact, many individuals ended up divulging a lot of personal information, including intimate details they typically wouldn’t reveal to others.
In the end, social robots appear to exploit a profound human need in both kids and adults: the need to express one’s emotions and be heard. Of course, that need likely reflects a deeper psychological need: the need to feel socially and emotionally connected with one another. The question is, can robots help fulfill those needs?
Robot-human interaction vs. human-human interaction
Now obviously, there’s nothing inherently wrong with interacting with robots. It almost goes without saying that AI machines will bring several social and economic benefits in the coming years. (For instance, they’ll make more goods and services available at lower prices, thanks to technological innovations like automation, smart devices, and online shopping.)
Nevertheless, Turkle believes there’s a problem when people use social robots to substitute for human relationships. After all, as Alan Turing pointed out, robots can put on a convincing performance when it comes to imitating people and simulating social interactions. And yet, Turkle argues, robots don’t really understand people and social interactions the way human beings do:
Computers ‘understand’ as little as ever about human experience—for example, what it means to envy a sibling or miss a deceased parent. They do, however, perform understanding better than ever, and we are content to play out part. After all, our online lives are all about performance. We perform on social networks and direct the performances of our avatars in virtual worlds (p 26).
In sum, social robots can mimic human emotions, but they’re ersatz expressions, not real feelings. Although people may know better, they still might enjoy the simulated satisfaction these robots can give, even if only for a short while. So, we might ask, what’s the harm if someone feels satisfied enough when talking to a social robot in place of a real person?
Social robots: a symptom of our failure to connect with people?
According to Turkle, replacing human beings with social robots can actually have adverse psychological effects over time. As instant gratification from social robots replaces intimate bonding with real people, short-term conveniences replace long-term human needs. Clearly, those needs include expressing ourselves and being heard by our fellow human beings, who, unlike robots, are capable of truly understanding what we’re thinking and feeling.
Consequently, robots don’t necessarily provide a lasting solution for our need to feel socially and emotionally connected with each other. In fact, Turkle remarks, our desire to connect with so-called social robots may be a symptom of our failure to connect with people.
When technology is a symptom, it disconnects us from our real struggles (p 283).
New technology and the feeling of being ‘Alone Together’
As Turkle writes, the unfortunate result of replacing people with new technology is that everyone ends up feeling
alone together, each in their own rooms, each on a networked computer or mobile device. We go online because we are busy but end up spending more time with technology and less with each other. We define connectivity as a way to be close, even as we effectively hide from each other (p 280-281).
To be sure, Turkle’s concern resonates with what Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman warned about not too long ago. New technologies create new possibilities; and yet, they also can destroy existing opportunities. Therefore, we ought to pay attention to what we might lose, in addition to what we may gain, with each wave of technological innovation. Otherwise, if we’re not careful, we could lose a vital part of our humanity.
References
Turkle, Sherry. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books.
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