24 - Sunday, November 10, 1985 ~ North Shore News The computer - first psychological machine COMPUTERS don’t just do something for people. They do something to people, says Dr. Sherry Turkle. “The computer is a new mirror, the first psychological machine. Already the idiom of the computer —- ‘programming,* ‘thardwired,’ ‘loops,’.and so on -- is supplanting such psychoanalytic notions as the id, and unconscious,’’ says Turkle. Turkie, on faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolocy (MIT), author of the best-seller, The Se- cond Self: Computers and the :Human | Spirit,. and 2 feature speaker at the World Congress cn’ Education and. Technology to be held in Vancouver May 22-25, 1986, believes people should start becoming more aware of the psychological effects com- puters are having on our lives. ' The basis for her belief stems from a six-year research project during which time she interviewed hundreds of personal com- puter owners, computer scientists, professional “thackers,’? and children raised in the computer culture. Central to her research was the discovery that con- tact with the computer is almost a-philosphy seminar in and of itself. Indeed, one MIT ‘graduate - student declared computer: scientists as ‘‘the new philosophers.”’ ‘Turkle says that because the computer appears to think and: to interact with the person who is using it, the computer is, by its nature, an evocative machine’ — evoking in the user both a new kind of intimate rela- - tionship and new questions . ching the about cansciousness, in- telligence, free will and human nature. ““If the computer is ‘thinking,’ one inevitably asks oneself, ‘What is it that I do — and what makes me different from a machine?’ As more and more of us are exposed to computers, such pondering resonates through the culture at large. The question of mind in relation to machine is becom- ing...what sex was to the Victorians — threat and obsession, taboo and fasci- nation,’’ she said. Turkle, who has spent considerable time resear- interaction be- tween computers and children, says the machines have a variety of effects on people, young or old. “Some people are intimi- dated by computers and keep. their distance. Others see them merely as a tool and assimilate them into their nine-to-five life. But within the. world of com- puter owners, with the world of virtuoso programmers and artificial intelligence ex- perts, a community dedicated to the enterprise of building ‘thinking machines’ _and computational theories - of mind, people have taken up the computer in ways that signal the development. of something new...It can be the basis for new aesthetic values, new rituals, new philosophies, and new cul- tural forms.’’ Turkle hopes her research will -help encourage the educational community to ’ rethink what it is to build a computer..culture for children. “I’ want educators to ac- cept and exploit the fact that children, can master the ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION - and ANAF VETERANS ~ OF CANADA Remembrance Day Services MONDAY, NOV. 11, 1985 _ WEST VANCOUVER MEMORIAL CENOTAPH Veterans Fall in 10:15 a.m. Safeway Parking Lot NORTH VANCOUVER CENOTAPH Victoria Park , Keith Rd. and Lonsdale Fallin 10:15 a.m. Under the auspices of the North Van Veterans Council an ORTH -- vem pe \ computer in many different ways. We have to get the widest variety of children to use this personal learning in- 5 t 1 t i I I i t i i 4 J r i i f i i I i t { i I I I i i I i ! ] i l i i i I I i A i ! ! ° Edge Sharpen ¢ Hot Wax 980-5781 1329 Marine Dr., . Vancouver - allow strument in a positive, developmental way.’’ She has already begun ing the SPORTS EXPERTS: PRE-SEASON SKI TUNE UP COUPON 99 : Reg. $19. 99 Nov. 10-17-24 new research focussed on us- : “‘intimacy of the connection between children poses. ° Binding Check * Minor Base Repair Expiry Date: Nov. 16/85 11 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Come this Sunday for a free Teddy Bear. MOTOR COMPANY LTD 1695 Marine Dr., N.V. 986-4291 ; Hyundai... and you re eine 2 a winner ————— TaTLow MOTOR COMPANY TATLOW ST. SALES & SEAVICE and computers’’ for thera- peutic and educational pur- a ie