Putting human values at the forefront

Tag: Human values

We spoke with Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge about the HCI 2020 ‘Being Human’ report.

Q: What prompted the effort to redefine Human- Computer Interaction?

Harper: HCI researchers have been talking about a need to write a new agenda. Research funding for HCI has been emphasising speed and ease of use with systems, but the values the systems might be providing is often more important. And now, as we've reached the point where a lot of systems have been pretty well designed in terms of usability, our interests should naturally develop.

At the same time, technological infrastructures have undergone startling changes. When HCI began, we were struggling with the PC on the desktop. Then the Ethernet created new possibilities, the emergence of the Web even more. But now, we have satellite systems guiding our cars, we have integrated financial systems, we have elaborate office networking systems, and we have our own personal, wearable device. The world is fantastically richer than was thought possible 20 years ago.

Q: What were your top-level takeaways from the Being Human report?

Harper: What it means to interact with computers has been transformed. First, the traditional graphical user interface (GUI) on the desktop or on the mobile phone is just one of the many ways that we interact with computers. And those are changing rapidly. Even as we go about our daily lives, we might not even know it, but we are interacting with computers in new ways, creating digital traces of our behaviour in new ways.

Second, we are massively dependent upon computers and systems and networks, with what one might call ecologies of computers. Much of our lives would cease to function without computers. Computers on the desktops are simply symbols of a much greater dependency.

Beyond that, the facilities that computer systems and networks have provided have changed the ways in which we connect with each other. We now live in a world where we expect to be in touch with each other instantly and continuously; it's a change in sensibility that reflects transformations in how our society functions through technology.

Now we can not only store our personal histories; a wearable camera could let you create a rich narrative of a holiday that you might want to post on the Web and share with millions. This creates ways in which one's existence is shared and made visible that weren't imaginable ten years ago, or even five years ago.

“We are interacting with computers in new ways.”

Last, computer technologies are enabling us to express ourselves in ways that are transforming how we conduct our lives. Different ways of communicating and being in touch with the family are used in artful ways. People are using technologies not just for the prosaic and traditional ways of saying hello every so often, but to create new experiences that people - their friends, their families - might enjoy. They communicate in new ways to create new experiences, to create social bonds in new ways and to create new kinds of content. We are populating the world with different artistic artifacts.

Q: One of the main themes of the report is the importance of human values in the relationship between humankind and technology. What role do human values play?

Harper: One important consequence is that research into new technology can no longer rely on computer-science research alone. This is no longer sufficient. To do innovative research and to make the world a better place, we need to marshal expertise from across academe, as well as across corporate research environments.

For many years, technology has been developed, and then society shapes it and polishes it. Now, society's hopes and goals and people need to be involved in the process of developing technology from the outset, because it makes a big difference to what the technologies end up becoming. There's no longer a line between technology and invention and development and society, no longer a line between what the technology might do and what the user can do. What human endeavour might be and what social endeavour might be must be considered from the very bottom of the firmware in devices and in the infrastructures that link different devices right through to the GUI on the outside.

Q: What kinds of tradeoffs have to be made as our relationship with technology becomes increasingly complex?

Harper: We need to think carefully about how we judge the necessary skills we have as individual people and the relationship between those skills and the tools we have at hand. Those computer tools might be doing things for us in ways we don't know, but they're enabling us to achieve new things. We need to reflect more carefully on how things that we view as essential to us as people - our skills, our abilities, our capacities - are being affected by the ever-deeper involvement by computers in the things we do.

Q: Has technology outstripped humankind's ability to harness it?

Harper: You could say that. But that doesn't mean that it has outstripped humanity's ability to harness it permanently or absolutely, it's just that we need to hold the reins on our technology effectively. We can't let them slip. I think we have let them slip a little bit, but we've still got our hands on them.

Q: What's next?

Harper: We want to raise public attention, media attention, government awareness, and academic and educational institutions' awareness to use this report as a device to get discussions going, to provoke longer books and reports and conferences and sessions, and to direct the scientific research community in a more purposeful direction. We can raise the issues, and, hopefully, the issues will have legs of their own.

Q: Given the challenges that people will be facing as their lives get increasingly intertwined with technology, what gives you hope that we will be able to negotiate this transition effectively?

Harper: I think the research and academic communities are bracing themselves to deal with these issues. I think corporate research, for example Microsoft, is creating a space to deal with these issues. I think government is beginning to recognise the importance of these issues. I think the transformations that are visible in everyday life now are making people begin to wonder.

I'm optimistic because we are fortunate enough to be able to assemble some of the best minds from around the world, through events to help address these issues and to alert other parts of society to think about these things. We're fortunate to be able to lead these debates, because they're important and they're leading us somewhere where we want to be.