RE: Anthropomorphism is bad because...

Subject: RE: Anthropomorphism is bad because...
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: Milan Davidović <milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:36:02 -0400



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milan Davidović [mailto:milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com]
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 12:20 PM
> To: McLauchlan, Kevin
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Anthropomorphism is bad because...
>
> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 11:52 AM, McLauchlan, Kevin
> <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> wrote:
> > But what actually is
> wrong/bad/evil/hurtful/crushingly-destructive-of-communication
> > to say that a complex computerized system "expects" a
> certain input or range of
> > inputs in a given situation?   (... and gets miffed if you
> try to feed it
> > anything else....... ok, that's a bit extreme).
>
> Can you point us to a particular example of someone making
> such a claim?

Not off hand.

I just caught myself, yet again, writing something in
a way that suggests the system cares or notices an event
or an attribute, and the little voice in my head spoke
up sharply. :-)

I gather a little anthropomorphic fun/laxity is permissible
in your techwriting milieu?



On second thought:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=styleguide&part=A201

or close to home...
http://www.techwr-l.com/archives/9708/techwhirl-9708-00288.html
though I never had the urge to go so far as suggesting that
anything computerized was anybody's "friend"...

or

http://www.kennesaw.edu/.../Getting%20Started%20in%20APA%20Style.ppt

on slide 27


- Kevin




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References:
Anthropomorphism is bad because...: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: Anthropomorphism is bad because...: From: Milan Davidović

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