Weakness exploitation: Predicting socially communicative devices as a successor to internet-based graphical user interfaces. Issue 1 (21st March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Jamy; Chignell, Mark
• Is Part Of: Explorations in media ecology. Volume 22:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 49
• Page End: 74
• Publication Date: 2023-03-21
• Subjects: media ecology -- media progression -- robots -- internet of things -- conversational agents -- philosophy of technology -- technology adoption -- innovation; Communication and culture -- Periodicals; Communication and the arts -- Periodicals; Communication and technology -- Periodicals; Media literacy -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1386/eme_00150_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1539-7785

Abstract

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.