Conversational agents with personality

Conversational agents (CAs) such as voice assistants and chatbots have permeated people's everyday lives. When interacting with these CAs, people automatically attribute a personality to them regardless of whether the CA designer intended it or not. This personality attribution fundamentally influences people's interaction behaviour and attitude towards the CA. By deliberately shaping the CA personality, designers have the opportunity to steer these automatic personality attributions in a desired direction. However, little information is available on how to design such a desired personality impression for a CA. Furthermore, in inter-human interaction, there is no such thing as a perfect personality. Nonetheless, today's commercial CAs have adopted a one-size-fits-all approach to their personality design, ignoring the potential benefits of adaptation. These two insights, namely (1) that users assign a personality to CAs and (2) that there is no such thing as a perfect personality, motivate the vision of this thesis: To improve the interaction between users and CAs by deliberately imbuing CAs with personality and tailoring them to user preferences. This dissertation pursues two primary goals to realise this vision: (1) to develop methods to imbue CAs with personality systematically and (2) to examine user preferences for CA personalities. To achieve the first goal, I introduce two approaches to imbue CAs with personality based on two underlying personality descriptions. The first approach adopts the human Big Five personality model as the theoretical basis for describing CA personality. This adoption allows me to transfer behaviour cues associated with human personality traits compiled from the psycholinguistic literature and my work to synthesise three levels of Agreeableness and Extraversion implemented in fully functional text-based CAs. An empirical evaluation of users' perceptions of these CAs after interacting with them demonstrates that human behaviour cues may be used to synthesise Agreeableness. However, they are insufficient to elicit the impression of low Extraversion or paint a complete picture of CA personality. Due to this insufficiency, I develop a second approach in which I explore whether the human Big Five model can be used to describe CA personality. To this end, I apply the psycholexical approach, which yields ten personality dimensions that do not correspond with the human Big Five model. Consequently, I propose these ten dimensions as an alternative comprehensive way to describe CA personality and introduce a new method, Enactment-based Dialogue Design, to synthesise personality based on these ten dimensions. To achieve the second goal, I present two approaches to examine user preferences for CA personality. Using a deductive approach, I investigate whether users prefer low, average, or high levels of four different personality dimensions in a CA in the context of different use cases. These investigations show that users have very individual preferences for the dimensions Extraversion and Social-Entertaining, whereas the majority prefer CAs that have a medium or high level of Agreeableness and a low level of Confrontational. I find the deductive approach to be useful for capturing users' evaluation of a personality-imbued CA, but it is not effective in collecting user requirements and visions of a perfect CA. The second inductive approach, however, furnishes a novel pragmatic method to better engage users in developing CA personalities. In this context, I also examine the influence of users’ personalities on their preferences for CA personality, but the effects are minimal. In summary, this thesis makes the following contributions to imbuing CAs with personality: (1) theoretical clarity on the necessity of dedicated personality descriptions for CAs, (2) a set of verbal cues associated with human personality implemented in fully functional text-based CA artefacts, (3) an exploration of two methods for synthesising personality in CAs, and (4) a new method for eliciting users' vision of the perfect CA. I consolidate these methods into a user-centred design process for developing CAs with personality. Furthermore, I provide empirical evidence of diverging user preferences and discuss overarching patterns which CA designers may use to tailor their CA personalities to individual users. Finally, this thesis proposes a research agenda for future work, which addresses the challenges that emerged from the presented work.Conversational Agents (CAs) wie Sprachassistenten und Chatbots sind aus dem Alltag der Menschen nicht mehr wegzudenken. In der Interaktion mit CAs schreiben Benutzer:innen ihnen automatisch eine Persönlichkeit zu, unabhängig davon, ob die CA-Designer:innen dies beabsichtigten oder nicht. Diese Persönlichkeitszuschreibung beeinflusst grundlegend das Interaktionsverhalten und die Einstellung der Benutzer:innen gegenüber den CAs. Eine bewusste Gestaltung der CA-Persönlichkeit erlaubt Designer:innen, diese automatischen Persönlichkeitszuschreibungen in eine gewünschte Richtung zu lenken. Jedoch gibt es nur wenige Informationen darüber, wie eine solche gewünschte Persönlichkeit für einen CA gestaltet werden kann. Darüber hinaus gibt es in der zwischenmenschlichen Interaktion nicht die eine perfekte CA-Persönlichkeit, die allen Benutzer:innen gleichermaßen gefällt. Nichtsdestotrotz sind heutige kommerzielle CAs lediglich mit einer Persönlichkeit für alle Benutzer:innen ausgestattet und lassen somit die potenziellen Vorteile einer Anpassung an individuelle Präferenzen außer Acht. Diese beiden Erkenntnisse, (1) dass Benutzer:innen CAs eine Persönlichkeit zuweisen und (2) dass es die eine perfekte Persönlichkeit nicht gibt, motivieren die Vision dieser Arbeit: Die Interaktion zwischen Benutzer:innen und CAs zu verbessern, indem CAs gezielt mit einer Persönlichkeit ausgestattet und an die Präferenzen der Benutzer:innen angepasst werden. Um diese Vision zu realisieren, verfolgt die vorliegende Dissertation zwei primäre Ziele: (1) die Entwicklung von Methoden, um CAs systematisch eine Persönlichkeit zu verleihen und (2) die Untersuchung von Präferenzen der Benutzer:innen für CA-Persönlichkeiten. Um das erste Ziel zu erreichen, stelle ich zwei Ansätze zur Ausstattung von CAs mit Persönlichkeit vor, die auf der jeweiligen zugrunde liegenden Persönlichkeitsbeschreibung basieren. In dem ersten Ansatz verwende ich das menschliche Big Five Persönlichkeitsmodell als theoretische Grundlage für die Beschreibung von CA-Persönlichkeit. Diese Annahme ermöglicht es, Verhaltenshinweise, die mit menschlichen Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen assoziiert sind, in der psycholinguistischen Literatur sowie meiner eigenen Arbeit zu identifizieren. Diese Verhaltenshinweise übertrage ich dann auf CAs, um jeweils drei Ausprägungen von Verträglichkeit und Extraversion zu synthetisieren, die in vollständig funktionsfähigen text-basierten CAs implementiert sind. Eine empirische Untersuchung der Wahrnehmung dieser text-basierten CAs deutet darauf hin, dass menschliche Verhaltenshinweise genutzt werden können, um Verträglichkeit zu synthetisieren. Sie sind jedoch unzureichend, um den Eindruck von niedriger Extraversion zu vermitteln sowie die Persönlichkeit von CAs vollständig abzubilden. Aufgrund der mangelnden Eignung der menschlichen Persönlichkeitsbeschreibung entwickle ich einen zweiten Ansatz, in dem ich untersuche, ob das menschliche Big Five Modell für die Beschreibung von CA-Persönlichkeit genutzt werden kann. Zu diesem Zweck wende ich den psycholexikalischen Ansatz an, aus dem zehn Persönlichkeitsdimensionen hervorgehen, die nicht mit dem menschlichen Big Five Modell übereinstimmen. Folglich schlage ich diese zehn Dimensionen als eine alternative und vollständige Möglichkeit zur Beschreibung von CA-Persönlichkeit vor. Außerdem führe ich eine neue Methode, genannt Inszenierung-basiertes Dialogdesign, ein, die es ermöglicht, Persönlichkeit auf Grundlage dieser zehn Dimensionen zu synthetisieren. Um das zweite Ziel zu erreichen, stelle ich zwei Ansätze zur Untersuchung der Präferenzen von Benutzer:innen für CA-Persönlichkeit vor. In einem deduktiven Ansatz untersuche ich zunächst, ob Benutzer:innen eine niedrige, durchschnittliche oder hohe Ausprägung von vier verschiedenen Persönlichkeitsdimensionen in einem CA im Kontext unterschiedlicher Anwendungsfälle bevorzugen. Diese Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Benutzer:innen sehr individuelle Präferenzen für die Dimensionen Extraversion und Sozial-Unterhaltend haben, während die Mehrheit CAs bevorzugt, die eine mittlere oder hohe Ausprägung in Verträglichkeit sowie eine niedrige Ausprägung in Konfrontativ aufweisen. Obgleich der deduktive Ansatz nützlich für die Evaluierung von CA-Prototypen ist, ermöglicht dieser es nicht, Bedürfnisse und Vorstellungen der Benutzer:innen einzufangen. Im zweiten, induktiven Ansatz präsentiere ich daher eine neue pragmatische Methode, um die Benutzer:innen besser in die Entwicklung von CA-Persönlichkeiten einzubinden. In diesem Zusammenhang untersuche ich darüber hinaus den Einfluss der Persönlichkeit der Benutzer:innen auf ihre Präferenzen für die CA-Persönlichkeit, finde jedoch nur einen begrenzten Effekt. Zusammenfassend leistet die vorliegende Arbeit die folgenden wissenschaftlichen Beiträge zur Ausstattung von CAs mit Persönlichkeit: (1) Theoretische Klarheit über die Notwendigkeit dedizierter Persönlichkeitsbeschreibungen für CAs, (2) eine Sammlung verbaler Verhaltenshinweise, die mit menschlicher Persönlichkeit assoziiert sind und in voll funktionsfähigen CA-Artefakten implementiert sind, (3) eine Exploration von zwei Methoden zur Synthese von Persönlichkeit in CAs und (4) eine neue Methode, um die Vision eines perfekten CAs von Benutzer:innen zu eruieren. Ich führe diese Methoden in einem benutzungszentrierten Designprozess für die Entwicklung von CA-Persönlichkeiten zusammen. Darüber hinaus liefere ich empirische Belege für divergierende Präferenzen der Benutzer:innen für CA-Persönlichkeit und erörtere übergreife Muster, die CA-Designer:innen anwenden können, um ihre CA-Persönlichkeiten auf individuelle Benutzer:innen zuzuschneiden. Abschließend wird eine Forschungsagenda für zukünftige Arbeiten präsentiert, welche die Herausforderungen diskutiert, die sich aus den vorgestellten Arbeiten ergeben

Proceedings of the Post-Graduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition, 10-12 September 2012, Lausanne, Switzerland

The aim of the Postgraduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition (RobotDoC-PhD) is to bring together young scientists working on developmental cognitive robotics and its core disciplines. The conference aims to provide both feedback and greater visibility to their research as lively and stimulating discussion can be held amongst participating PhD students and senior researchers. The conference is open to all PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the field. RobotDoC-PhD conference is an initiative as a part of Marie-Curie Actions ITN RobotDoC and will be organized as a satellite event of the 22nd International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks ICANN 2012

Proceedings of the Post-Graduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition, 10-12 September 2012, Lausanne, Switzerland

The aim of the Postgraduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition (RobotDoC-PhD) is to bring together young scientists working on developmental cognitive robotics and its core disciplines. The conference aims to provide both feedback and greater visibility to their research as lively and stimulating discussion can be held amongst participating PhD students and senior researchers. The conference is open to all PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the field. RobotDoC-PhD conference is an initiative as a part of Marie-Curie Actions ITN RobotDoC and will be organized as a satellite event of the 22nd International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks ICANN 2012

Designing Sound for Social Robots: Advancing Professional Practice through Design Principles

Sound is one of the core modalities social robots can use to communicate with the humans around them in rich, engaging, and effective ways. While a robot's auditory communication happens predominantly through speech, a growing body of work demonstrates the various ways non-verbal robot sound can affect humans, and researchers have begun to formulate design recommendations that encourage using the medium to its full potential. However, formal strategies for successful robot sound design have so far not emerged, current frameworks and principles are largely untested and no effort has been made to survey creative robot sound design practice. In this dissertation, I combine creative practice, expert interviews, and human-robot interaction studies to advance our understanding of how designers can best ideate, create, and implement robot sound. In a first step, I map out a design space that combines established sound design frameworks with insights from interviews with robot sound design experts. I then systematically traverse this space across three robot sound design explorations, investigating (i) the effect of artificial movement sound on how robots are perceived, (ii) the benefits of applying compositional theory to robot sound design, and (iii) the role and potential of spatially distributed robot sound. Finally, I implement the designs from prior chapters into humanoid robot Diamandini, and deploy it as a case study. Based on a synthesis of the data collection and design practice conducted across the thesis, I argue that the creation of robot sound is best guided by four design perspectives: fiction (sound as a means to convey a narrative), composition (sound as its own separate listening experience), plasticity (sound as something that can vary and adapt over time), and space (spatial distribution of sound as a separate communication channel). The conclusion of the thesis presents these four perspectives and proposes eleven design principles across them which are supported by detailed examples. This work contributes an extensive body of design principles, process models, and techniques providing researchers and designers with new tools to enrich the way robots communicate with humans

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 1

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 1

The Psychosocial Reality of Digital Travel

This open access book takes a fresh look at the nature of the digital travel experience, at a time when more and more people are engaged in online social interaction, games, and other virtual experiences essentially involving online visits to other places. It examines whether these experiences can seem real to the virtual traveller and, if so, under what conditions and on what grounds. The book unpacks philosophical theories relevant to the feeling of being somewhere, emphasising the importance of perception and being-in-the-world. Notions of place are outlined, based on work in tourism studies, human geography, and other applied social fields, with an aim to investigate how and when different experiences of place arise for the traveller and how these relate to telepresence – the sense of being there in another place through digital media. Findings from recent empirical studies of digital travel are presented, including a survey from which the characteristics of “digital travellers” are identified. A review of selected interactive design trends and possibilities leads to the conclusion, which draws these strands together and looks to the future of this topical and expanding field

Transtsendentsus kui üks teema teoloogias ja tehnoloogias

Selles töös uuritakse transtsendentsi tähendust religioonis/teoloogias ja teaduses/tehnoloogias. Seejuures analüüsitakse "posthumanistlikke" diskursusi valitud religioonides, transhumanismis ja posthumanismis. Uuring pakub välja kaks võimalust horisontaalse ja vertikaalse transtsendentsuse tajumiseks. Horisontaalne transtsendentsus osutab nii ette- kui ka tahapoole, fokusseerides suhetele meid ümbritsevate mitteinimestega. See hõlmab teaduse ja tehnoloogia kaudu toimuvat täiustamist seoses universumi mitteinimlike mõjuritega. Horisontaalne transtsendentsus osutab inimese kehastusele looduses, väärtustades sugulust nii elusate kui ka elutute olenditega looduses. See hõlmab piiride ületamist teadusuuringute ja tehnoloogia rakendamise kaudu, tunnistades, et tehnoloogia kui vahend on osa inimloomusest ja Jumala kingitus. Seetõttu tuleks tehnoloogiat kasutada tervislikel eesmärkidel, mis ei kahjusta keskkonnas leiduvaid organisme. Horisontaalne transtsendentsus hõlbustab meeskonna ülesehitamist, kogukonda, austust ja hoolitsust teise kui iseenda eest. Vertikaalne transtsendents osutab ülespoole ja see fokusseerib teispoolsusele. See esindab soovi ja nägemust loodusest eralduda tehnoloogia või jumalike vahendite abil. Vertikaalne hõlmab dualistlikku arusaama inimesest, mida saab täiustada mõistuse/hingede/immateriaalse kehast/materjalist eraldamise kaudu. Mõisted ja doktriinid, mis omistavad indiviididele, rühmadele või liikidele eelisseisundi, on vertikaalsed, sealhulgas eitavad inimeste kehastumist looduses. Uurimus koosneb seitsmest peatükist, millest igaüks edastab ainulaadset, kuid ühist diskursust. Esimeses peatükis kaardistatakse ja tutvustatakse uuringut ja kasutatud metoodikat. Lisaks töö sissejuhatusele arutlen teoloogia tähenduse ja teoloogide kohustuse üle tõlgendada teoloogiat domineeriva kaasaegse arusaama kontekstis. See on võimalik alternatiivse lähenemise kaudu teoloogia formuleerimisel, mis juurutab teaduslikku ja tehnoloogilist arusaama. Religioonist räägitakse arusaama all, et hoolimata õpetuslikust mitmekesisusest on olemas mõisted, mis iseloomustavad kõiki religioone. Seetõttu on võimalik laiendada arutelusid transtsendentsuse üle kristlikust teoloogiast kaugemale. Teises peatükis fokusseeritakse Hefneri loodud kaaslooja teooriale, milles presenteeritakse, kuidas teoloogia võiks olla formuleeritud teaduses. Käsitletakse müütide ja rituaalide rolli inimkonna arenguloos, osutades faktile, et inimkonna arenguks on vaja teaduslikke ja religioosseid andmeid. Seega toob see kontseptsioon esile teaduse ja teoloogia teineteist täiendavad rollid ning selle, kuidas nad vajavad teineteist mõtestatud sotsiaalkultuurilise ülesehituse jaoks. Teoloogiliselt, kui tahetakse mõista inimest ja tema rolli, on vaja ümber tõlgendada erinevaid mõisteid, mis aitavad kaasa tähenduse loomise protsessidele. Näiteks imago Dei kontseptsioon teoloogias väljendub võimes langetada otsuseid ja konstrueerida õigustavaid lugusid tagasisideprotsessi kaudu. Seega väljendub inimeste ainulaadsus kaasloojatena nende ainulaadsetes omadustes, nagu anatoomilised omadused ja arenenud kognitiivsed võimed, mis kulmineeruvad vabadusega. Inimese eesmärki mõistetakse loovuses kui Jumala loovuse peegeldust. Tehnoloogia on seega inimloomuse loomulik osa, täites evolutsioonilises keskkonnas inimlikku eesmärki. Kolmandas peatükis käsitletakse teoloogia, tehnoloogia ja transtsendentsi vahelisi seoseid. Transtsendentsuse analoogiaid kasutatakse idee rõhutamisel, kus inimtehnoloogia ja religioossete arusaamade vahel on keerukas suhe. Peatükis hinnatakse täiustamise mõisteid ja seda, kuidas teoloogid neid väljendavad, rõhutades, et täiustamist tuleks vaadelda kui igapäevast protsessi, mis on täiesti erinev transhumanismist. Täiustamine on ressurss, mis annab Homo sapiens’ile eksistentsiaalse eelise evolutsiooniprotsessis, kuna nad puutuvad kokku erinevate keskkonnatingimustega. Täiendusprotsessil on nii teaduslik kui ka teoloogiline ajalugu. Lisaks on tehnoloogia ja teadus suurepärased täiustamisressursid ja inimkonna evolutsiooniprotsessides üliolulised. Peatükis järeldatakse, et inimteoloogiline ajalugu viitab sellele, et on olnud jumalikke, tagant õhutatud täiustusi, mis toetasid inimese eksistentsi pärast langemist, seega tõhustamine on teoloogiliselt kooskõlas religioossete loomisdoktriinidega. Kristlus on jätkanud mineviku imede tegemist. Kuid praegu täiustamistehnoloogiate kaudu. Neljandas peatükis tutvustatakse "posthumanistlikku" diskursust transhumanismis, posthumanismis ja kristluses. Peatükk aga keskendub posthumanismile ja Haraway jutustusele küborgist. Posthumanistlikud ideed on kontrastsed transhumanistlikele arusaamadele transtsendentsist. Kuigi transhumanism eeldab täiuslikkuse uut julget koitu, siis posthumanistid püüdlevad erinevate konstrueeritud tõkete kaotamise poole, tunnustades universaalset sugulust. Järelikult viitab posthumanismi transtsendentsus samastumisele teiste inimestega, keskkonnaga, tehnoloogiaga jne. Seega on posthumanismi idee transtsendentsusest horisontaalne, kuid transhumanistid keskenduvad vertikaalsele transtsendentsusele. Küborg on posthumanismi võimas sümbol ja on olnud "posthumanistliku" tulevikuga seotud peamiste diskursuste tugipunktiks. Küborg esindab ühtsust, sulandumist, universaalset sugulust ja egalitarismi. „Inimese” idee küborgi raames on samastatav transhumanismi kui informatsiooniga, kuid erinevalt transhumanismist on informatsioon kehastatud sarnaselt inimese kristliku mõistega. Viiendas peatükis käsitletakse transhumanismi ja transhumanistlikke meetodeid vananemise ja surma kõrvaldamiseks. Uurimuses väljendatakse seisukohta, et transhumanistlik soov ületada inimese lõplikkust on inimese kui kaaslooja loomulik kalduvus, kuid see eirab teaduslikke reaalsusi ja inimese kui miljonite aastate evolutsiooni produkti keerulist olemust. Soov võtta inimestelt nende loomulik konstitutsioon on sünonüümne inimliigi hävitamisega ja nende automaatide surematuks muutmisega. Seetõttu samastatakse transhumanism pigem pseudoteadusega kui nende väidetega läbimurdelise teaduse kohta, sest nad kasutavad oma püüdlustes arvukalt ebateaduslikke meetodeid. Lisaks sellele on transhumanistide visioonides, hoolimata postreligioossetest hoiakutest, palju radikaalseid religioosseid elemente, sealhulgas gnostitsismi. Transhumanismi ambitsioonid lähevad kaugemale küborgi kontseptsioonist, sest kui küborg võib esindada täiustamist, siis orgaaniline osa võib olla vastuvõtlik haigustele, vananemisele ja surmale, kuid transhumanismi "posthumanist" on surematu, vananematu ja haigustele immuunne. Kuuendas peatükis arutletakse "posthumanistlike" narratiivide ja religiooni vaheliste suhete üle, sõnastades seisukoha, et religioosset eshatoloogiat tuleks käsitleda kui "posthumanistlikku" narratiivi. Selle põhjuseks on tuvastatud sarnasused ilmalike "posthumanistlike" narratiivide ja religioonide eshatoloogiliste visioonide vahel. Selles peatükis tuvastatakse transhumanismis ja religioossetes õpetustes erinevaid kehastatusmõtete varjundeid, millel puudub pühakirjanduslik ja teaduslik alus, näiteks õpetused, mis stigmatiseerivad seksuaalseid väljendusi, soolist diskrimineerimist ja soovi loobuda kehast. Seksismi, günofoobiat ja genofoobiat arutatakse kristluses seoses transsendentaalsuse ideega. Uuringus väidetakse, et selliseid eelarvamusi soodustavad arusaamad on kultuurilised, neil puuduvad pühakirjalikud alused ja teaduslikud valgustused, seega on tegemist vertikaalsete transtsendentsuse ideedega. Seitsmes peatükk on uurimuse kokkuvõte ja järeldused, milles sõnastatakse, et religioon/teoloogia ja teadus/tehnoloogia peaksid olema üksteist täiendavad, mitte vastanduvad valdkonnad. Seda seetõttu, et nad erinevad ja lähenevad paljudes valdkondades, et pakkuda mitmekesiseid andmeid inimese tervikliku heaolu jaoks. Näiteks esitavad teadus ja teoloogia erinevaid arusaamu inimese identiteedist ja eripärast. Siiski lähenevad nad teineteisele selles, et inimene on ainulaadne ja et ta on suguluses kõigi teiste looduses elavate olenditega. Tehnoloogia on Jumala kingitus ja osa inimloomusest, eelduseks ellujäämisele ja tervislikkusele, samas võivad mõned tehnoloogiad kujutada ohtu elule, sealhulgas inimese väljasuremisele. Seetõttu peab usukogukond aktiivselt tegelema tehnoloogiaga, et tagada kaasloojate tehnoloogiate levik. Lõpuks, naistevastane vägivald on paljudes kultuurides endeemiline, mis on inimkonna dehumaniseerimise vahend, mille vastu võitlemisel peaks usukogukond olema esirinnas. Siiski on paljudes religioonides üldiselt ja eriti kristluses kehtestatud naissoost vägivalla näilisus, mis muudab võimatuks selliste sotsiaalsete hädade vastu võitlemise. Õpetused, mis toidavad segregatsiooni, genofoobiat ja seksismi, tuleks kirikus välja juurida. See muudab kiriku usaldusväärseks, et täita oma propageerivat rolli võrdsete põhimõtete ja võrdsete võimaluste tagamisel kõigile. Kui kirik ei eemalda piiranguid ise, võib tulla periood, mil seda võrreldakse ning see omakorda põhjustaks skandaale, kus kohtud võrdleksid kirikut kiriklikes rollides naise kehale seatud piirangute kaotamisega.This study explores the meaning of transcendence in religion/theology and science/technology. The effort involves analysing the “posthuman” discourses in selected religions, transhumanism and posthumanism. The study proposes two ways to perceive transcendence horizontal and vertical. Horizontal transcendence points both forward and backwards, focusing on interhuman relationships and one that exists between humans and nonhumans, referred to in the study as “nonhuman other.” Horizontal transcendence involves enhancements that recognise humans’ embodiment in nature. It, therefore, emphasises kinship with both living and non-living entities in nature. It involves moving beyond limits through research and the application of technology in recognition that technology as a tool is part of human nature and a gift from God. Therefore, technology should be employed for wholesome ends rather than harming the other for parochial anthropocentric ends. Horizontal transcendence facilitates team building, community, respect and cares for the other as one would do for him/her self by applying the otherself principle. The principle requires the individual to identify the self in the other, the human and the nonhuman other. Vertical transcendence points upwards, and it is an otherworldly focus. It represents the desire and vision to separate from nature through technology or divine means. Vertical involves a dualistic understanding of the human. The human is perceived as a being that can be enhanced through separation into mind/souls/immaterial from the body/material. Vertical transcendence includes notions and doctrines that ascribe privileged positions to individuals, groups or species and deny humans’ embodiment in nature. It includes transcendence ideas that treat the body with gnostic contempt and facilitate sexism, gynophobia, genophobia, racism and other social exclusive concepts. The research is in seven chapters, each conveying a unique yet collaborative discourse. Chapter one maps and introduces the study and the methodology employed. Besides the introduction of the work, the meaning of theology and the obligation of theologians to interpret theology within the context of the dominant contemporary understanding is discussed. It is suggested that it is possible through an alternative approach to formulating theology that is sensitive to contemporary scientific and technological understandings. Finally, religion is discussed under the notion that despite the doctrinal diversity, there are concepts that characterise all religions. Therefore it is possible to broaden the discussions of transcendence beyond Christian theology. Chapter two focuses on Hefner’s created co-creator theory, a theological concept formulated with the scientific method. Hefner discusses the roles of myths and rituals in human evolutionary history, pointing to the fact that scientific and religious data are needed to develop human society. Thus, the concept brings out the complementary roles of science and theology and how they need each other for meaningful socio-cultural building. Theologically, if humans and their roles are to be understood, there is the need to reinterpret various concepts that help in the meaning-making processes. For example, the imago Dei concept in theology is expressed in terms of the ability to make decisions and construct justifying stories through the process of feedback. Thus, humans’ uniqueness as co-creators is expressed through their unique features, such as anatomical qualities and advanced cognitive abilities, culminating in freedom for technological activities. Furthermore, human’s purpose is understood in creativity as a reflection of God’s creative grace. Technology is thus a natural part of human nature, serving the human purpose in the evolutionary milieu. Chapter three discusses the relationships between theology, technology and transcendence. Analogies of transcendence are drawn to emphasise the idea that there is an intricate relationship between human technology and religious notions. The chapter evaluates the concepts of enhancement and how theologians express them, stressing that enhancement should be seen as an everyday process entirely different from transhumanism. Enhancement is a resource that provides Homo sapiens with an existential advantage in the evolutionary process as they encounter different environmental conditions. The enhancement process has both scientific and theological histories. Furthermore, technology and science are great enhancement resources and vital in human evolutionary processes. The chapter concludes that human theological history indicates that there have been divine-instigated enhancements that supported human existence after the fall. Thus, enhancement is theologically consistent with religious doctrines of creation. Furthermore, Christians promote enhancement, albeit subconsciously, through the demonstration of love via charity activities. The ancient records of miracles continue to manifest in Christianity today through enhancement technologies. Thus the divine-oriented miracles are giving way to technology-mediated miracles. Chapter four introduces the “posthuman” discourse in transhumanism, posthumanism and Christianity. The chapter, however, focuses on posthumanism and Haraway’s narrative of a cyborg. Posthumanist ideas are contrasted with transhumanist notions of transcendence. While transhumanism anticipates bold new dawn of perfection, posthumanists aspire to eradicate various constructed barriers in recognition of universal kinship. Transcendence in posthumanism, therefore, indicates identification with the other; humans, environment, technology etc. Thus posthumanism’s idea of transcendence is horizontal, but transhumanists focus on vertical transcendence. The cyborg is a potent symbol of posthumanism and has been the fulcrum of major discourses associated with the “posthuman” future. The cyborg represents unity, fusion, hybridity, universal kinship and egalitarianism. The idea of the “human” within the cyborg framework is similar to that of transhumanism as "information." However, unlike transhumanism, the "information" is embodied similar to the Christian notion of the human. Chapter five discusses transhumanism and transhumanist proposals for eliminating ageing and deaths. The research expresses the view that the transhumanist desire to overcome human finitude is a natural inclination of the human co-creator. However, it ignores scientific realities and the complex nature of the human being as millions of years product of evolution. The desire to strip humans of their natural constitution is synonymous with annihilating the human species and immortalising their automata. Therefore, transhumanism is identified with pseudoscience rather than their claims of breakthrough science because they employ numerous unscientific methods in their aspirations. Furthermore, despite exhibiting post-religious postures, transhumanist visions have many radical religious elements, including Gnosticism. The transhumanist harbours the ambitions to go beyond the cyborg concept. Because while the cyborg may represent enhancement, the organic part may be susceptible to sickness, senescence and death, but the “posthuman” in transhumanism is immortal, ageless and immune to diseases. Chapter six discusses the relationship between “posthuman” narratives and religion, articulating the position that religious eschatology should be considered a “posthuman” narrative. This is because of identified similarities between secular “posthuman” narratives and eschatological visions of religions. This chapter identifies various shades of disembodied elements in transhumanism and religious doctrine, which lack scriptural and scientific bases. Such elements include doctrines that stigmatise sexual expressions, foster gender-based discrimination, and the desire to abandon the body. Sexism, gynophobia, and genophobia in Christianity are discussed in relation to the idea of transcendence. The study avers that notions that facilitate such biases are cultural, lacking scriptural bases and scientific illuminations. Thus, they correspond to vertical transcendence. Chapter seven constitutes the summary and conclusion of the research, which articulates that religion/theology and science/technology should be seen as complementary disciplines, not opposing fields. This is because they diverge and converge in many areas to provide diverse data for holistic human wellbeing. For example, science and theology present different notions of the identity and distinctiveness of the human person. However, they converge on the uniqueness and their kinship with all other creatures in nature. That technology is a gift of God and part of human nature, a premise for survival and wholesomeness, but “crude” technologies constitute a significant threat of extinction and suffering. Therefore, the faith community must get actively involved in technology to ensure the proliferation of co-creator technologies. Finally, violence against women is endemic in many cultures serving as an avenue for dehumanising society. The faith community should therefore concentrate its advocacy in this area. However, a semblance of violence against the female is instituted in many religions in general and Christianity in particular, making it impossible to challenge such social ills. Therefore, there is the need to eradicate doctrines that nurture segregation, genophobia and sexism from the Church. The eradication of such conduct will make the faith community credible to play its advocacy role to ensure egalitarian principles and equal opportunity for all. If the Church does not remove limits, there could be a period when it will be compared to do so. However, since the Church is the arbiter of freedom and morality, it will be scandalous for the courts to compare the Church to eradicate limits placed on the female body and ensure equity in the Church.https://www.ester.ee/record=b551385

Music as complex emergent behaviour : an approach to interactive music systems

Access to the full-text thesis is no longer available at the author's request, due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Access removed on 28.11.2016 by CS (TIS).Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/770) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis suggests a new model of human-machine interaction in the domain of non-idiomatic musical improvisation. Musical results are viewed as emergent phenomena issuing from complex internal systems behaviour in relation to input from a single human performer. We investigate the prospect of rewarding interaction whereby a system modifies itself in coherent though non-trivial ways as a result of exposure to a human interactor. In addition, we explore whether such interactions can be sustained over extended time spans. These objectives translate into four criteria for evaluation; maximisation of human influence, blending of human and machine influence in the creation of machine responses, the maintenance of independent machine motivations in order to support machine autonomy and finally, a combination of global emergent behaviour and variable behaviour in the long run. Our implementation is heavily inspired by ideas and engineering approaches from the discipline of Artificial Life. However, we also address a collection of representative existing systems from the field of interactive composing, some of which are implemented using techniques of conventional Artificial Intelligence. All systems serve as a contextual background and comparative framework helping the assessment of the work reported here. This thesis advocates a networked model incorporating functionality for listening, playing and the synthesis of machine motivations. The latter incorporate dynamic relationships instructing the machine to either integrate with a musical context suggested by the human performer or, in contrast, perform as an individual musical character irrespective of context. Techniques of evolutionary computing are used to optimise system components over time. Evolution proceeds based on an implicit fitness measure; the melodic distance between consecutive musical statements made by human and machine in relation to the currently prevailing machine motivation. A substantial number of systematic experiments reveal complex emergent behaviour inside and between the various systems modules. Music scores document how global systems behaviour is rendered into actual musical output. The concluding chapter offers evidence of how the research criteria were accomplished and proposes recommendations for future research

SHARED PATH Service Design and Artificial Intelligence in Designing Human-Centred Digital Services

Digitalization and the growing service economy place challenges on organizations for transforming their service offerings to match the high user expectations. Services increasingly exploit digital technologies which play an important role in the creation of service experiences. One of the examples is artificial intelligence (AI), which may actively perform in customer service, but also provide solutions in the back end of services. While AI actively takes part in the creation of service value, the line between human and machine in the service encounters blurs. This creates new type of service components which need to be designed as part of digital service journeys. This dissertation is constructed around seven scientific publications that explore the merging of AI and service design in creating human-centred digital service solutions. The focus in the publications is on applying service design principles to AI-enabled services, from which an AI assistant is an example. AI assistants interact with users through text and voice interfaces and can be perceived as a gateway to complex digital service ecosystems. AI assistants are rather new as services, and they touch upon areas that, besides the design challenges, are ethically, philosophically and legally demanding. Here, service designers face changes both in the design process and in their role as designers. This study was conducted as a qualitative research with roots in the practice of design research. The main research data consist of five case studies and seven expert interviews analysed through coding, content analysis and visual mapping to answer the following research question: How is AI affecting the practice of service design and the design of digital services? The findings from the publications are concluded under the following four topics: (1) AI changes the design of digital service interactions, (2) AI assistants perform as actors in digital services, (3) AI needs to be human-centred rather than human-like and (4) AI assists and augments the practice of service design. Under these topics, the discussion highlights the ethical considerations and humanization aspect of AI as a part of designing and the design outcomes as AI-enabled services.Digitalisaatio ja kasvava palvelukeskeinen markkinatalous asettavat organisaatioille muutoshaasteitta, jotta palvelutarjonnalla pystyttäisiin vastaamaan käyttäjien korkeisiin odotuksiin. Palvelut hyödyntävät yhä enenevissä määrin digitaalista teknologiaa osana palvelukokemusten tuottamista. Yhtenä esimerkkinä teknologioista on tekoäly, jolla voi jo olla aktiivinen osa asiakaspalvelussa sekä ratkaisujen tuottajana palveluiden taustajärjestelmissä. Kun tekoälyn rooli palveluarvon tuottamisessa kasvaa, raja ihmisen ja koneen välillä voi hämärtyä. Tekoäly luo näin uudenlaisia palveluelementtejä, jotka tulee muotoilla osaksi digitaalisia palvelupolkuja. Väitöstyö pohjautuu seitsemään tieteelliseen julkaisuun, joiden kautta tutkimus tarkastelee tekoälyn ja palvelumuotoilun yhteyttä ihmislähtöisten digipalveluiden muotoilemisessa. Julkaisut keskittyvät palvelumuotoilun näkökulmaan tekoälyavusteisten palveluiden kehittämisessä ja käyttävät esimerkkikontekstina tekoälyassistentteja. Tekoälyassistentti on digitaalisen palvelun muoto, joka on vuorovaikutuksessa asiakkaan kanssa joko tekstin tai puheen kautta. Tekoälyassistentti voi myös toimia keulakuvana laajemmalle palvelutarjonnalle ja palveluekosysteemeille. Tekoälyassistentit ovat palvelumuotona melko uusia ja niiden aihepiirit ovat muotoiluhaasteen lisäksi eettisesti, filosofisesti ja juridisesti haastavia. Tämä luo palvelumuotoilijalle haastavan asetelman niin muotoiluprosessiin kuin omaan työhön muotoilijana. Väitöstutkimus on toteutettu laadullisena tutkimuksena muotoilun tutkimuksen kentällä. Tutkimuksen ensisijainen aineisto koostuu viidestä tapaustutkimuksesta ja seitsemästä asiantuntijahaastattelusta. Aineistoa on analysoitu koodaamisen, sisällönanalyysin sekä visuaalisen analyysin keinoin. Analyysin kautta vastataan tutkimuskysymykseen: Mikä on tekoäly vaikutus palvelumuotoilutoimintaan ja digitaalisten palveluiden muotoilemiseen? Tutkimustulokset esitellään neljän aihepiirin kautta: (1) Tekoäly muuttaa digitaalisten palveluiden vuorovaikutusten muotoilua, (2) tekoälyassistentit ovat aktiivisia toimijoita digitaalisissa palveluissa, (3) tekoälyn on oltava ihmiskeskeistä, ei ihmismäistä, ja (4) tekoäly tukee ja laajentaa palvelumuotoilutoimintaa. Näiden aihepiirien kautta tutkimustulokset nostavat esiin tekoälyn eettiset ja inhimilliset näkökulmat osana tekoälyavusteisia palveluita sekä niitä tuottavaa palvelumuotoilutoimintaa