Show notes
S02E04 (#314). Sci-fi and AI. Over a decade on from our first chat with Chris and Nathan, after the publishing of their book Make It So – Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction, Per and James found themselves with the opportunity at UXLx to talk to Chris and Nathan again. Our conversation starts with AI in the context of Sci-fi interfaces, then progresses into a discussion of AI more generally.
Inteligent machines, is AI sentient, designing for animals – are just some of the topics covered in our conversation. We also discuss the impact of AI on designers; will AI replace us all?
“[AI is] moving faster than anyone can keep up with, let alone sort of conceive of the boundaries. But the first answer I have to my designers, is experiment.. use these things. The worst thing I think a designer can do is what a lot of designers did, at the dawn of desktop publishing, which is: No, I will not, like that’s not typography. I can’t control typography, I can’t control colour. I will stick with print.”
– Nathan Shedroff
Chris would also like to add that his loose working definition of AI that is technology with four parts (not three as said in the podcast)
- Fancy algorithms
- Working with complex models
- Built from vast data
- Very often (but not always) in the context of machine learning
(Listening time: 53 minutes, transcript)
References:
- Full transcript for this episode
- Nathan Shedroff:
- Chris Noessel:
- Website: https://about.me/christophernoessel
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisnoessel
- Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@chrisnoessel
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisnoessel.bsky.social
- Sci-fi interfaces
- Make It So (Chris and Nathan’s 2012 book)
- Burning bush. Meet the Golem
- Ted Chiang The Story of Your Life
- Ted Chiang Seventy-Two Letters (YouTube)
- Nathan’s presentation slides from CUIs Throughout History
- Ed Yong An Immense World
- Under the Skin
- Annihilation
- UntoldAI
- Chris’ outline of a book about design for animals (author’s request: comment if you are so inspired, or want to share examples)
- Efference copy as a source of sentience
- Designing Agentive Technologies: AI That Works for People (Chris’s book)
- A Primer of 29 Interactions for AI
- Phototypsetting: An unmourned, outmoded technology (Wikipedia)
- Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job
- Design after Capitalism: Transforming Design Today for an Equitable Tomorrow
- Recommended listening
- Episode 25: Make it so with Chris and Nathan (Repeated as Episode 216)
- Episode 121: Agentive tech with Chris Noessel
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This conversation was recorded at UXLx 2023.
