Human-Machine Interaction in the Light of Turing and Wittgenstein

TL;DR

This paper explores how human-machine interaction co-constitutes meaning through action, emphasizing the social and interpretative aspects rooted in philosophical insights from Turing and Wittgenstein.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of Turing and Wittgenstein's ideas to understand how shared understanding emerges in human-computer dialogue.

Findings

Human-machine interaction involves co-constitution of sense through action.

Shared signs in dialogue underpin the social fabric of computerized society.

Interpretative modes differ between humans and machines based on rule-following.

Abstract

We propose a study of the constitution of meaning in human-computer interaction based on Turing and Wittgenstein's definitions of thought, understanding, and decision. We show by the comparative analysis of the conceptual similarities and differences between the two authors that the common sense between humans and machines is co-constituted in and from action and that it is precisely in this co-constitution that lies the social value of their interaction. This involves problematizing human-machine interaction around the question of what it means to "follow a rule" to define and distinguish the interpretative modes and decision-making behaviors of each. We conclude that the mutualization of signs that takes place through the human-machine dialogue is at the foundation of the constitution of a computerized society.