Dialogue and conversation machine aspects and aspects going beyond the machine. An essay in honour of gordon pask
Alfred Locker · Systems Research · 1993
Abstract Abstract — The problem of cognition and of a system's description in general must be considered as a monologue when the observer abstains from admitting the object a rank equal to himself exerting, instead, a dominating attitude which only leads to models deliberately removed from the object. The way to a dialogue is opened up when two partners acknowledge each other and are ready to discuss a problem (or theme) by means of exchanging ideas. Conversation may be placed under the heading of dialogue when it can be shown that only the former, but not the latter, is executable by a machine, i.e. can be objectified. Dialogue exceeds, in principle, the possibilities of the machine in that (1) the subject is unrestrictedly involved and (2) language appears in such a way that it has to be accepted as gift (and cannot be handled as an instrument serving man's purpose). Thus, an inaccessible reality manifests itself, deserving to be named, properly, the word1