Computers fail at the rich texture of ordinary lived experience

Evidence

Perhaps fortunately, so far, our computer technology just as frequently reminds us of what it cannot do, or at least cannot do yet. Computer systems perform poorly at navigating the rich texture of lived reality: that complex web of perceptions, movements, interactions and expectations that make up the most ordinary human experience, such as entering a café and looking around for your friend Pierre. They are not even good at distinguishing foreground shapes in a visual image. In other words, as Dreyfus and others have long recognised, computers are bad phenomenologists. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1023

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Merleau-Ponty’s embodied perception argument — that lived experience is irreducibly bodily and contextual — and relates to the reader’s Deep Listening interests in embodied attention. — connects to: Contemporary sci-fi films fuse existential angst with technological anxiety — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1001; Mass information systems destroy the aesthetic experience they claim to promote — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 128; All systems of representation spatialize and thereby distort lived experience — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1293 (+10 more)
• SHARE: A specific person working on embodied AI or phenomenology of technology would treasure this ‘computers are bad phenomenologists’ line.

Broader Connections

• All systems of representation spatialize and thereby distort lived experience #expands (0.78) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1293
• Mass information systems destroy the aesthetic experience they claim to promote #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 128
• AI-generated music lacks emotional depth and variation over time. #exemplifies (0.75) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 696
• AI-generated videos may alter our perception of real experiences. #complicates (0.72) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 1286
• Media’s pseudo-realism infuses everyday life with meanings that block direct experience #expands (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 234
• Conversations with AI can feel personal but distract from real interactions. #exemplifies (0.72) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 851
• Phenomenology restores the unnoticed richness of everyday experience #qualifies (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 147