Fionnáin reviewed Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
Disappointingly Robotic
1 star
Sherry Turkle is one of the major voices in social response to machines. Her previous books are required reading in this area, and were both interesting studies that looked at how humans form connections with devices. Alone Together is presented as the third in this trilogy, and deals ostensibly with AI (although a lot of what it covers is emotional connection to robotics).
Turkle begins the book with a horrible gaffe, stating that she is unlike other anthropologists who study "simple" people – her topics are western computer-users. It's a bad setup for a book that continues in this vein. Soon after, she writes about her shock at her daughter and some other children who believe a turtle in a museum could just as easily be a robot, as it is near motionless. The adults are shocked. They claim that would be inauthentic. But she never explains why this authenticity …
Sherry Turkle is one of the major voices in social response to machines. Her previous books are required reading in this area, and were both interesting studies that looked at how humans form connections with devices. Alone Together is presented as the third in this trilogy, and deals ostensibly with AI (although a lot of what it covers is emotional connection to robotics).
Turkle begins the book with a horrible gaffe, stating that she is unlike other anthropologists who study "simple" people – her topics are western computer-users. It's a bad setup for a book that continues in this vein. Soon after, she writes about her shock at her daughter and some other children who believe a turtle in a museum could just as easily be a robot, as it is near motionless. The adults are shocked. They claim that would be inauthentic. But she never explains why this authenticity might matter. The children, on the other hand, competently justify their choice: the turtle didn't need to be flown so far from its home. Perhaps this is a generational gap that can't be filled.
The book moves from Tamogotchis and Furbies through to relationship robots and battery-powered pets, all the while using long and often repetitive quotes from field research. While in principle Turkle has a point, that emotional attachment to non-living organisms might not be a good thing, she takes a long time repeating this but never really justifies it. I tend to agree with this argument, but found it hard to agree with the author. The reasons given are always steeped in her own desire for a particular type of connection, constantly presenting assumptions about what humans need without presenting any real evidence. In the end, she rediscovers her own connections with her mother and her daughter, and she seems resolved, but the book isn't.