Notes from #WebSummit: The past, present, and future of conversation

Etiquette, emojis, Socrates, and the singularity.

Details
Date: November 7, 2017
Time: 14:10
Conference stream: Creatiff

Speakers
Mark Curtis, Founder & CCO, Fjord, @fjordmark

Web Summit Summary
Our understanding of conversation is currently undergoing a seismic shift. Mark Curtis walks us through the history of conversation, including etiquette, emojis, Socrates, and the singularity.

Main Theme

Mark Curtis asks: what does it mean to be human in the digital age? The popularity of artificial intelligence and the rise of voice interfaces show that we are heading towards a conversational singularity. This means we’ll soon be able to have conversations everywhere, with anyone, at any time. What are the implications? We’re going to need a new conversational etiquette. The Founder of the global design and Innovation consultancy, Fjord opened his talk with a powerful quote:

Socrates said,

“An unexamined life is not worth living.”

…which underpins the notion that conversation is a core part of our existence as human beings. Mark began his talk with a Socratic quote, and wrapped it up with a hat tip to voice-based interfaces like Amazon Alexa. Read on to travel from point A to point B.

The Key Quote

“Only humans are truly capable of one of the most powerful forms of conversation: empathy.”
- Mark Curtis

Key Points

1. With every step forward in technology, there is a step back in conversation.
2. Social conversations formalize as constructs to move society forward. For example, the prevalence of salons in the 18th century.
3. When we add technology into the conversation, what gets lost? What do we gain?
4. Types of conversation: synchronous (telephone) vs. asynchronous (letters) vs. interactive conversations (the Internet). Suddenly, with the Internet, conversation became highly interactive.
5. With each of these new technologies, a new etiquette emerged. There is a known start and end to an email, for example. With instant messaging, this isn’t the case. You can pause the synchronicity. Smartphones brought about spontaneity and distraction. The etiquette of how we use technology changes with each new technology introduced.
6. We often focus on the charm of the distant than the charm of the present. The phone is the window to this distraction.
7. The first place we saw body language re-enter digital communication is emojis✌️. The next step was selfies. Now, it’s the rise of video as the ultimate communicator of body language in a digital medium. We’ve also seen the rise of conversation as interface (and marketplaces, but these are found mostly in China).
8. Phone calls are in decline, yet voice is on the rise (largely thanks to Amazon Alexa) The next thing we will see is proactive communication. Alexa will start speaking to you, unprompted.
9. Bots (like our bot, Web Summelier)! Bots don’t have to act human to be human-centered. They are literally tireless, unable to disagree, and captive. However, they are unable to improvise.
10. AI will soon be able to mirror human body language. It’s very subtle, but it’s one of the reasons humans have been able to adapt. How can we use technology to enhance human conversations? Brand conversations?

Show Notes

Crystal

• Scrapes social medial profiles and mirrors your audience’s social presences and communication style.

Amazon Alexa

• Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other real time information, such as news.[2]

Reflections

The future will bring about a new current of conversation- one that is not always prompted by human need. It will be highly anticipatory by nature.

As a designer, I worry about the user experience of interrupting the flow of human life with technology, but I’m simultaneously excited about the notion of designing true value for people, and delivering that value through voice.

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