Before Doug Englebart introduced his keyboard and mouse prototype, users cannot interact with computers, since computers cannot provide any intermediate results and show running processes to users, and, in contrast, users cannot control and interact with computers. What the users and computers can do is that users can submit computation tasks and computers will show the final results. Therefore, it is hard and impossible for users to implement interactions with these original computers.
Doug Englebart created the model computer prototype and IBM introduced the current PC prototype, which provide opportunities for users to interact with computers through controlling mouses and keyboards. From this time, users can interact with computers passively, like inputting words though keyboards, changing the mouse’s position though moving mouses in their hands, and implementing copy, indexing operations. In detail, if users want to implement a specific operation, they will input the command of this operation to computers through keyboards and mouses; after computers complete this job, users will be presented with results. During this process, users can check the intermediate results, control the processes that computers implement operations, and even interrupt this process. All these ways for users to interact with computers is a great improvement compared with original computers which allow zero interactions. However, I still call these interactions are passive interactions. The reason that I call these interactions the passive interactions is that, although users can control computers, see intermediate results, and implement different and various operations, these interactions are uni-directional. Users can provide operations to computers based on users’ thoughts, and computers will implement users’ desired operations, show their results, and wait for the next operation. In this interaction process, decisions will only flow from users to computers, while computers can only present and describe users’ own thoughts and ideas. In summary, decisions will be made by users, while computers will present their thoughts and implement what users wish to do. There are some disadvantages about these prototypes. For example, users cannot retreat and recall their decisions after they have push computers to implement these decisions.
The computers and the ways to interact with users passively have been improved after several decades, and computers become increasingly user-friendly and interactive. More interactive ways have been introduced into computers, such as sounds, touch bars, and cameras. Therefore, compared with the pervious interactive ways that computers will only describe texts, current interactive ways can show live videos, images, sounds and gestures. Computers can implement more decisions from users, and users will feel immersed. However, these interactions are still passive interactions for computers since they cannot make decisions for users and themselves actively.
After that, IBM and many other cooperation have introduced active interactions into computes. Computers can make medical decisions for doctors. After computers gather sufficient information and data from outside, no matter users or other computers, they can make decisions based on this information. These decisions will be presented to users, and help users make further decisions. The ways and processes that computers make decisions are totally self-motivated, and users can interrupt and stop these processes before computers make final decisions. Users can also supplement more information and data to help computers make better and optimal decisions.
Active interactions also mean that computers can interact with users continuously. In other words, computers can not only make decisions actively by themselves, but also make decisions continuously and keep interacting with users based on users’ operation in the last step. A more superior example is the supercomputer, DeepBlue, that is created by the IBM. Super computers can provide more active interactions with others. Super computers can play chess with users and people, so these super computers can act like a person. Therefore, super computers can make decisions and interact with users, and super computers can further make more decisions and interact more actively with people based on users’ decisions. In detail, when super computers play chess with users, they will make strategies and decisions to find out the optimal solution in every step, and modify their following strategies based on users’ strategies. Therefore, computers can keep interactions with user during the whole game.
In conclusion, passive interactions have been improved to active interactions, while there are zero interactions at that start of creation of computers. Moreover, the number and types of methods to interact with users has increased from only texts to images, videos, and others.
Your title is very illuminating, almost a highly-concentrated version of your article. Very thoughtful analysis with a great thinking structure.
An interesting read on how you define zero, passive, and active interactions as it evolved through out the past century. With artificial intelligence becoming more relevant, it seems we have made huge progression in a short amount of time.