Rule #1: Make ‘Em Laugh
Can humor bridge the gap between humans and technology?
By Brian David Johnson
One great thing about being the futurist for a company like Intel is that I get to see demos of new hardware, software and apps as they are coming out. A recent demo by Mel, a colleague of mine, got me thinking about a whole new way for humans and machines to interact.
“Dragon, what’s the weather like?” Mel said into her ASUS Transformer Book. She was using the 2 in 1 like a tablet and swung the screen around to show me the current temperature.
“Cool,” I replied.
“It does more than that,” she said, as she spoke to the tablet. “Dragon, send Brian David Johnson an email.”
“What should the subject be?” a woman’s voice asked from the device.
“Dragon is a woman?” I asked.
Mel held her finger up to silence me — (she does this often) — and replied to Dragon, “What do you think of the demo?”
“What do you want your email to say?” the calm voice asked.
“BDJ. What do you think of this personal assistant? You just talk to your device. And yes this version is a woman.” Mel told Dragon.
“Here’s your email,” the voice replied, not getting the joke. “Do you want to send it?”
Mel swung the ASUS around again to show me the email on the screen.
“Cool,” I said again. “Can it tell jokes?” I asked.
“What?”
“Does it know any good jokes?” I asked.
Humor: The Next Killer App
Now don’t get me wrong. Using the Dragon assistant on a 2 in 1 or All-in-One computer was really cool. Asking the device to play music, email or text friends or even update one’s Facebook status was great. I have a thing for alternative ways of interacting with computers. (See Open the Pod Bay Doors).
But Mel’s demo got me thinking about the possibilities that lie before us. How could we interact with our devices in the future? And might humor be the key to unlocking a whole new way for us to relate to machines? I’ve always wondered why we haven’t designed more humor into our technology. Humans are funny. We like to laugh. We like to make jokes. It’s an important part of who we are. Why not use humor as a primary design principle for human-computer interactions?
There seems to be something so human about humor. For good reason, too. A joke to be effective it has to be told to someone. A standup comedian needs an audience. More broadly, comedy itself needs an audience. Humor is at its core about communication. Unlike sadness or happiness or anger, humor is interactive. It only really works when someone is present to laugh at your jokes.
This is what fascinates me. It has interesting implications if we want Dragon and all our devices to tell us jokes or even give them a sense of humor. If technology can get humor then it can get humans. For Dragon to have a sense of humor, she has to understand the nuances being human.
Humor is cultural and contextual. What’s funny at the office doesn’t translate as easily to the local pub. Just like people are complex, so is humor.
When you start researching humor you quickly learn that scientific consensus is almost impossible to come by. Humor is a pretty elusive thing. In Mitch Earleywin’s book, Humor 101, he says, “Psychologists and other cynics often suggest that humor can’t be studied at all. They lump a funny thing in with strange bedfellows like love and pornography. They know what’s funny when they see it, but it can’t be pinned down.”
But if we are going help Dragon make us laugh, then we have to start somewhere.
When Is a Joke Like a Land-mine?
“Humor is hard,” cultural historian James Carrott told me. “Humor might be one of the hardest things for a computer to pull off. To be funny, to tell a joke you have to understand your audience. Humor is a cultural minefield.”
As a cultural historian working with technology, Carrott weaves together pop culture and history to help companies make products and services that will appeal to a vast global audience. James and I did a lot of research about humor and technology for a book we wrote called Vintage Tomorrows.
“What about a knock knock joke,” I asked. “Isn’t that pretty much a preprogrammed function that you just ask? You could program the computer to ask it. Knock Knock. And when you answer ‘Who’s there?,’ the computer finishes the joke.”
“Sure,” James grinned at me and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “But the computer would have to know if it was an appropriate time to even ask you the joke.”
“So what should we do?”
“Like all good comedians and all good product designers you have to know your audience,” James answered. “Know your audience and you’ll make a device that your audience will love. You just need to make it a priority.”
A Better Future Through Humor?
If humor is so hard then why should we bother? As I posited earlier, it’s because humor is possibly the best way for people to feel more comfortable with technology.
If Dragon makes us laugh or, even better, if we can laugh at Dragon, then we’ll feel that she’s not so complex. And even if we do accept her complexity, it’ll seem more human, and we’ll feel more comfortable with her. Making fun of Dragon humanizes her.
Laughter brings us closer not only to people but also to the devices and technology that bring us joy.
We get humor. We understand jokes. Which makes humor a powerful tool to accept the unknown. It allows us to feel more human with the thing that isn’t human but is nonetheless becoming a rapidly integrated part of our lives.
Perhaps the foremost requirement for all technology in the future should come from the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain.
Rule #1: Make ‘em Laugh.
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