Early affective computing aimed to serve the subject, not others.

Evidence

Picard imagined her affective insights being put to use in ways that were often good-hearted or, at the very least, benign. Most of the applications she describes conform to the logic of the Aware Home: any knowledge produced would belong to the subject to enhance his or her reflexive learning. For example, she envisioned a “computer-interviewing agent” that could function as an “affective mirror” coaching a student in preparation for a job interview or a date and an automatic agent that could alert you to hostile tones in your own prose before you press “send.” Picard anticipated other tools combining software and sensors that she believed could enhance daily life in a range of situations, such as helping autistic children develop emotional skills, providing software designers with feedback on users’ frustration levels, assigning points to video game players to reward courage or stress reduction, producing learning modules that stimulate curiosity and minimize anxiety, and analyzing emotional dynamics in a classroom. She imagined software agents that learn your preferences and find you the kinds of news stories, clothing, art, or music that make you smile. Whatever one’s reaction to these ideas might be, they share one key pattern: unlike SEWA’s model, Picard’s data were intended to be for you, not merely about you. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 890

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the Aware Home’s subject-serving logic established earlier in the book; the for-you-vs-about-you distinction drives the chapter’s argument. — connects to: Market forces redirected affective computing from empowerment into commercial surveillance — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 909; Emotion sensing is expanding from observation to mood modification — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 902; A science can rest on psychological data yet serve non-psychological aims — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 207 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Where exactly did the shift from data-for-the-subject to data-about-the-subject occur along the timeline?

Broader Connections

• Market forces redirected affective computing from empowerment into commercial surveillance #qualifies (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 909
• Emotion recognition research originated for autism therapy before commercial appropriation #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 896
• A science can rest on psychological data yet serve non-psychological aims #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 207
• Emotion sensing is expanding from observation to mood modification #complicates (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 902