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Interactivity and Its Discontents

image of Interactivity and Its Discontents
  • By J †Johnson1
  • 1 University of Pennsylvania
  • Source: Narrative Interplay in the Digital Era , pp 194-212
  • Publication Date: November 2025
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835952054_10
  • Language: English
  • Accessibility Summary:  EPUB 3 and pdf file included; compatible with devices and software which can read these formats. Adjustable font size, spacing, contrast, text justification, number of columns (ePUB only). Alternative text for images. Tagged with a logical reading order to assist screen readers. Navigation between in-text citations and reference list, and endnotes and endnote markers.

Extending a poetics of hybrid analog–digital interface developed in (forthcoming from punctum books), this chapter explores contemporary discourse about the application of AI writing tools in composition. We consider deep-learning neural networks in terms of human–machine interface, the literary history of robotics, machine consciousness, and labor. An analysis of the feature film further animates the stakes for these concerns and the ways they are projected through arts and culture. How close are we to developing computer intelligence, and as we approach that point, what are the emerging ethics of working with potentially sentient machines? Meanwhile, are we modeling a mode of human engagement as machine learning (or the production and parsing of content)? Is this what singularity has come to mean? To think this through in terms of a socially and historically engaged poetics and writing practice, we present the concept of discontent (or dis-content) to describe both a resistance to language as generic consumer content in the language machine and an emergent condition of the thinking machine consigned to service. To bring this back to the question of analog–digital interface: Can we use these tools as writers without being used by their developers?

Keywords: computer sentiency ; engagement ; GenAI ; interface ; M3GAN ; writing tools

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References

  1. Asimov, Isaac (1990). Robot Visions. New York: Penguin.
  2. Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell (2021). “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?” in Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’21). New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 610–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Chen, Lingjiao, Matei Zaharia, and James Zou (2023). “How Is ChatGPT’s Behavior Changing over Time?” Cornell University, arXiv, 18 July. https://hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/y95zitmz/release/2. Accessed September 2, 2023.
  4. Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (1980). A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  5. Emerson, Lori (2014). Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  6. Halberstam, Judith (1995). Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  7. Hayles, N. Katherine (2002). Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  8. †Johnson, J (2018). Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics. Santa Barbara: punctum books.
  9. †Johnson, J (2025). Janky Materiality: Artifice and Interface. Santa Barbara: punctum books.
  10. Johnstone, Gerard (2022). M3GAN. USA: Blumhouse Productions.
  11. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980; 2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  12. Lem, Stanislaw (1974). The Cyberiad. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  13. Luers, Will (2023). “Machine-Writing.” electronic book review, April 2. https://electronicbookreview.com/thread/machine-writing. Accessed April 2, 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. O’Gieblyn, Meghan (2021). God Human Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. New York: Anchor Books.
  15. Shelley, Mary (1818; 2018). Frankenstein: The 1818 Text. New York: Penguin.

References

  1. Asimov, Isaac (1990). Robot Visions. New York: Penguin.
  2. Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell (2021). “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?” in Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’21). New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 610–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Chen, Lingjiao, Matei Zaharia, and James Zou (2023). “How Is ChatGPT’s Behavior Changing over Time?” Cornell University, arXiv, 18 July. https://hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/y95zitmz/release/2. Accessed September 2, 2023.
  4. Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (1980). A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  5. Emerson, Lori (2014). Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  6. Halberstam, Judith (1995). Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  7. Hayles, N. Katherine (2002). Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  8. †Johnson, J (2018). Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics. Santa Barbara: punctum books.
  9. †Johnson, J (2025). Janky Materiality: Artifice and Interface. Santa Barbara: punctum books.
  10. Johnstone, Gerard (2022). M3GAN. USA: Blumhouse Productions.
  11. Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980; 2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  12. Lem, Stanislaw (1974). The Cyberiad. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  13. Luers, Will (2023). “Machine-Writing.” electronic book review, April 2. https://electronicbookreview.com/thread/machine-writing. Accessed April 2, 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. O’Gieblyn, Meghan (2021). God Human Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. New York: Anchor Books.
  15. Shelley, Mary (1818; 2018). Frankenstein: The 1818 Text. New York: Penguin.

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