Research Output
Weakness exploitation: Predicting socially communicative devices as a successor to internet-based graphical user interfaces
  Existing theories of technology transitions cannot predict what new technological paradigm will supplant the currently leading, internet-enabled graphical user interface paradigm. This article introduces a preliminary approach (‘weakness exploitation’) to explain the rise and fall of four technology ‘empires’: print, television, the internet and socially interactive devices (such as robots, chatbots and internet of things devices). The approach is related to technology diffusion and disruptive innovation, but with a predictive element induced from Marshall McLuhan’s descriptions of print and television as ‘extensions’ of the senses. It is applied to the internet as an historical example of a technology transition outside of McLuhan’s original analysis and to explain why excessive exposure to screen-rendered digital media as the internet’s exclusive access point may be replaced by a new ‘age’ of computationally intelligent, socially communicative devices. This new approach can help researchers and technologists conceptualize transitions between usage of incumbent and emerging technologies.

  • Date:

    21 March 2023

  • Publication Status:

    Published

  • Publisher

    Intellect

  • DOI:

    10.1386/eme_00150_1

  • ISSN:

    1539-7785

  • Funders:

    Government of Canada

Citation

Li, J., & Chignell, M. (2023). Weakness exploitation: Predicting socially communicative devices as a successor to internet-based graphical user interfaces. Explorations in Media Ecology, 22(1), 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1386/eme_00150_1

Authors

Keywords

conversational agents; innovation; internet of things; media ecology; media progression; philosophy of technology; robots; technology adoption

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