(This article references Nishida, T. Toward mutual dependency between empathy and technology. AI & Soc 28, 277–287 (2013). https://rdcu.be/ccQjt)
The imminent information-induced technology explosion will have a profound effect on the way humans interact with each other and technology. In “Toward Mutual Dependency Between Empathy and Technology” by Toyoaki Nishida, the issues of technological society are laid out as ethical and responsibility dilemmas, while cultivating genuine empathy is presented as the solution to these problems. By removing certain blocking factors that prevent people from practicing empathy, immersive and autonomous technologies can be used to cultivate a “better symbiosis between humans and artifacts” (Nishida, 2013).
As society becomes increasingly reliant and interwoven with artificial intelligence and autonomous artifacts, essential problems arise such as technology abuse, responsibility flaw, moral in crisis, and overdependence on artifacts. These issues could lead civilization to cease to function as an independent infrastructure. If humans continue depending heavily on technology without cultivating empathy, it could be possible that humankind would fall to an unprecedented breakdown caused by the incompleteness of technology” (Nishida, 2013). Due to an overdependence on artifacts, humans lose opportunities to critically think about morals, values, and ethical issues; machines are willing to do everything for the user. Nishida suggests creating technology as empathetic agents, defined as “autonomous agents that can create and maintain empathy with people” (Nishida, 2013).
Empathy is identified as the central concept to design a community. As well, empathy can be defined as “the ability to understand others’ emotions and/or perspectives and, often to resonate with others’ emotional states” and “a response stemming from an understanding of another’s emotional state or condition” (Nishida, 2013). While human beings do have a native mechanism for empathy, seen in mirror neurons that allow people to understand the mental states of others by inner imitation, there are still blocking factors that can be removed by technology. Blocking factors include a differing universe of discourse, failure to share the first-person point of view, differences in communication styles, and discrepancies in values. Communication technology is highly effective in increasing the amount of information that is shared between people, therefore gaining more empathy; this validates the sharing hypothesis.
An example of an empathetic agent is the ICIE (Immersive Collaborative Interaction Environment), an immersive virtual space that projects panoramic images onto surrounding displays to map a first-person view of another user’s perspective. The ICIE study showed that participants were able to better formulate an embodied image of others’ experiences, share spatial cognition, and improve empathetic communication. Through extending the way people share the first-person view, ICIE provides opportunities for sharing through being immersed in others’ first-person perspectives.
In essence, “Toward Mutual Dependency Between Empathy and Technology” argues that living in symbiosis with artifacts will depend on cultivating empathy in humankind through the conscious use of autonomous technology.
By Anova H.