Haoqi Zhang
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States
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.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641945
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