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Volume 22, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1539-7785
  • E-ISSN: 2048-0717

Abstract

Existing theories of technology transitions cannot predict what new technological paradigm will supplant the currently leading, internet-enabled graphical user interface paradigm. This article introduces a preliminary approach (‘weakness exploitation’) to explain the rise and fall of four technology ‘empires’: print, television, the internet and socially interactive devices (such as robots, chatbots and internet of things devices). The approach is related to technology diffusion and disruptive innovation, but with a predictive element induced from Marshall McLuhan’s descriptions of print and television as ‘extensions’ of the senses. It is applied to the internet as an historical example of a technology transition outside of McLuhan’s original analysis and to explain why excessive exposure to screen-rendered digital media as the internet’s exclusive access point may be replaced by a new ‘age’ of computationally intelligent, socially communicative devices. This new approach can help researchers and technologists conceptualize transitions between usage of incumbent and emerging technologies.

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2023-03-21
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Weakness exploitation: Predicting socially communicative devices as a successor to internet-based graphical user interfaces
Explorations in Media Ecology 22, 49 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1386/eme_00150_1
/content/journals/10.1386/eme_00150_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): conversational agents; innovation; internet of things; media ecology; media progression; philosophy of technology; robots; technology adoption

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