Artificial Ingenuity - Research - Characteristics Of Human Conversation

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Characteristics Of Human Conversation

A proposal

Functionedness

The characteristic ability level for a human to perform cognitive or computational functions. For example, a typical human can perform word problems, riddles, math problems. The challenge for a bot is to perform at but not above human level. A math prodigy would possibly be deemed a computer in a Turing variant. Likewise someone that refuses to perform simple word problems.

Engagedness

The degree of perceived attention to and understanding of the ongoing discussion. This is often attributed to the degree of appropriateness in responses as indicating that the conversational partner understands the "gist" of the conversation, rather than just responding to the last sentence. This illuminates a somewhat ambiguous concept which I will continue to call the "gist". If a bot or human does not seem to be picking up the subtle communications (or "gist") of the conversation, the human conversation partner assumes they are obtuse (or a bot), either purposefully or due to stupidity.

Gistedness

The ability to perceive that there is an underlying communication to the conversation, that encompasses more than a simple "subject". A "gist" may encompass someone's feelings about the subject being discussed, or it may encompass the understanding that they have ambivalent or confused emotional responses to the relationship between two separate topics covered during the conversation. The "gist" is in essence the underlying often unspoken consensus being worked towards, the result of combining both parties "agenda".

Agendaness

The characteristic of human conversation of having an "agenda" or objective underlying the communication. Meaning that you "have something to say", or a desire to make a specific communication for emotional or intellectual edification of the other party. Even in casual conversation there is a desire to "tell them about your day". In more serious contexts the flow and duration of a conversation is often determined by one or both parties agenda.

Egoness

The human characteristic of diplomatic social boundaries not to be crossed. Meaning that a human conversation partner will only put up with an arbitrary degree of offensive communication before they have "had it" and become angry. This is usually a cumulative and temporal property . Meaning that transgressions are remembered over time, and the significance attached is a complex function of the degree of offense, time passed, and the amends made. A conversation partner with a high number of past transgressions is given less leniency, etc.

Temporalness

The characteristic of remembering past conversations modulated by the amount of time passed since said communications. Meaning that perfect recall of a conversation years before is as surprising as not remembering a conversation two hours before. Further, humans tend to exhibit an increasing "murkiness" or lack of specificity over time. The degree of "murkiness" over time is a function of the relative significance (or "weight") of the information. Such as remembering that your conversational partners spouse died is pretty important to a human.

Weightedness

The characteristic of understanding the significance of information exchanged. Meaning that a human immediately reacts to the significance of being told they have a spider on their shoulder, versus being told that it is warm outside. Conversely, the context impacts the significance of such "weighting", such as being told it is warm outside is important if previously told that the ice-cream is on the stoop.

Topicedness

The characteristic ability to maintain multiple topics within a conversation. Meaning that a human can cover many topics during a discussion, and refer back to previous subjects extemporaneously of their own volition, by reference from the conversation partner, or to spontaneously make an "observation" about the relation to the more recent topic(s), or to add an "oh yeah, I just remembered" comment about a previous topic. The latter being a most human trait….

Observedness

The characteristic ability to show deeper understanding of a topic or "gist" by spontaneously uttering an observation. This is often characterized by forwarding analogy that indicates comprehension of the "gist", such as: "you know, programming is like art because everyone is a critic". An also common occurrence of this is to draw parallels between topics covered in the current or recent conversations. Another simple function of this would be to reiterate previous statements made by the conversational partner at the appropriate time, such as: "Oh yeah, you said you went to Greece last summer" in response to a comment about the flavor of ouzo .

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