Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers

Haoqi Zhang

doi:10.1145/3613904.3641945

Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers

Haoqi Zhang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines the pervasiveness of consequentialist thinking in human-computer interaction (HCI), and forefronts the value of non-consequential, dialectical activities in human life. Dialectical activities are human endeavors in which the value of the activity is intrinsic to itself, including being a good friend or parent, engaging in art-making or music-making, conducting research, and so on. I argue that computers-the ultimate consequentialist machinery for reliably transforming inputs into outputs-cannot be the be-all and end-all for promoting human values rooted in dialectical activities. I examine how HCI as a field of study might reconcile the consequentialist machines we have with the dialectical activities we value, and propose computational ecosystems as a vision for HCI that makes proper space for dialectical activities.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400703300
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641945
State	Published - May 11 2024
Event	2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024 - Hybrid, Honolulu, United States Duration: May 11 2024 → May 16 2024

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024
Country/Territory	United States
City	Hybrid, Honolulu
Period	5/11/24 → 5/16/24

Funding

I thank Darren Gergle, Alex Allain, Elizabeth Lenaghan, Maalvika Bhat, Linh Ly, Arya Bulusu, Laura Tom, and anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on drafts, and Desiree Foerster, Pedro Lopes, Aravindan Vijayaraghavan, and Talbot Brewer for helpful conversations. Attending a faculty summer writing retreat organized by Northwestern's Office of the Provost helped me to prepare an initial draft. Funding for this research was provided in part by UL Research Institutes through the Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence.

Keywords

Dialectical activities
consequentialism
human values in HCI
philosophy in HCI

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Access to Document

10.1145/3613904.3641945

Cite this

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title = "Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers",

abstract = "This paper examines the pervasiveness of consequentialist thinking in human-computer interaction (HCI), and forefronts the value of non-consequential, dialectical activities in human life. Dialectical activities are human endeavors in which the value of the activity is intrinsic to itself, including being a good friend or parent, engaging in art-making or music-making, conducting research, and so on. I argue that computers-the ultimate consequentialist machinery for reliably transforming inputs into outputs-cannot be the be-all and end-all for promoting human values rooted in dialectical activities. I examine how HCI as a field of study might reconcile the consequentialist machines we have with the dialectical activities we value, and propose computational ecosystems as a vision for HCI that makes proper space for dialectical activities.",

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author = "Haoqi Zhang",

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month = may,

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doi = "10.1145/3613904.3641945",

language = "English (US)",

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Zhang, H 2024, Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers. in CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems., 297, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024, Hybrid, Honolulu, United States, 5/11/24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641945

Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers. / Zhang, Haoqi.
CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. 297 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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Searching for the Non-Consequential: Dialectical Activities in HCI and the Limits of Computers

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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