Abstract
This paper is an attempt to further the conversation about the possibilities of dialogue with technology that Wegerif and Major (AI Soc, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6, 2018) have initiated. In their paper Wegerif and Major (AI Soc, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6, 2018) have argued that “constructive dialogue with technology is possible, even essential, and that this takes the form of opening a dialogic space” and they also “argue against Buber that dialogic spaces do not all take the same form, but that they take a multitude of forms depending, to a large extent, on the mediating technology”. Reflecting on the paper by Wegerif and Major (AI Soc, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6, 2018), the present paper attempts to highlight certain issues and possibilities for such a dialogue. In the first section of the paper, Wegerif and Major’s (AI Soc, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6, 2018) discussion of technology-mediated dialogue has been reflected upon. This is followed by a reflection on the possibility and challenges of engaging in a dialogue with technology as ‘other’ by referring to the case of a robot ‘Sophia’ getting citizenship in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The third section discusses certain concerns regarding the interpretation of Buber’s idea of dialogue by Wegerif and Major (AI Soc, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6, 2018). The conclusive section highlights some key aspects that need to be considered while reflecting on the possibility of dialogue with technology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbass H (2017) An AI professor explains: three concerns about granting citizenship to robot Sophia. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/an-ai-professor-explains-three-concerns-about-granting-citizenship-to-robot-sophia-86479. Accessed on 01 May 18
Barrett E (2017) World’s first robot citizen says she ‘deserves’ to have a family. Retrieved from http://vt.co/sci-tech/design/worlds-first-robot-citizen-says-deserves-family/. Accessed on 1 May 2018
Bergman SH (2012) Dialogical philosophy from Kierkegaard to Buber. SUNY Press, Albany
Buber M (2002) Between man and man, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith. Beacon Press, Boston
Eisenstadt SN (1992) Introduction. Intersubjectivity, dialogue, discourse, and cultural creativity in the work of Martin Buber. In: Buber M (ed) On intersubjectivity and cultural creativity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 1–22
Foster A ( 2017) World’s first robot ‘citizen’ says she wants to start a family. Retrieved from http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/worlds-first-robot-citizen-says-she-wants-to-start-a-family/news-story/4c566043cb30f49cf118b8c26084d0de. Accessed on 01 May 18
Gill KS (1996) The foundations of human-centred systems. In: Gill KS (ed) Human machine symbiosis. Springer, London, pp 1–68
Gill KS (2017) Uncommon voices of AI. AI Soc 32(4):475–482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0755-y
Heidegger M (1977) The question concerning technology, and other essays. W Lovitt trans. Garland Publishing Inc, New York
Hoover RC (2012) Buber’s way toward sustainable communitarian socialism. In: Friedman M (ed) Martin Buber and the human sciences. State University of New York Press, Albany, pp 253–266
Kajon I (2015) Religio today: the concept of religion in Martin Buber’s thought. In: Mendes-Flohr P (ed) Dialogue as a trans-disciplinary concept: Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and its contemporary reception, vol 83. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co, Berlin, pp 101–112
Kent ML, Taylor M (1998) Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relat Rev 24(3):321–334
Mercer N (1995) The guided construction of knowledge: talk amongst teachers and learners. Multilingual Matters, Bristol
Nasir S (2017) Video: Sophia the robot wants to start a family. Retrieved from https://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/dubai//video-sophia-the-robot-wants-to-start-a-family-Dubai. Accessed on 01 May 18
Nelson ES (2014) Technology and the way: Buber, Heidegger, and Lao-Zhuang “Daoism”. J Chin Philos 41(3–4):307–327
Pyra L (2012) Values within relations. In: Tymieniecka AT (ed) The origins of life: the origins of the existential sharing-in-life, vol 67. Springer, Berlin, pp 55–64
Stiegler B (1998) Technics and time: the fault of Epimetheus, vol 1. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto
Tegmark M (2017) Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence. Knopf, New York
Turkle S (2017) Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Hachette, New York
Vygotsky LS (1986) Thought and language. MIT press, Cambridge
Wegerif R (2010) Dialogue and teaching thinking with technology. In: Howe K, Littleton C (ed) Educational dialogues: understanding and promoting productive interaction. Routledge, London, pp 338–357
Wegerif R (2013) Dialogic: education for the Internet age. Routledge, London
Wegerif R, Major L (2018) Buber, educational technology, and the expansion of dialogic space. AI Soc https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0828-6
Wegerif R, Mercer N (1996) Computers and reasoning through talk in the classroom. Lang Educ 10(1):47–64
Wood RE (1969) Martin Buber’s ontology: an analysis of I and thou. Northwestern University Press, Evanston
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baniwal, V. Reconsidering Buber, educational technology, and the expansion of dialogic space. AI & Soc 34, 121–127 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0859-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0859-z