Sensing User Intention

One of the coming waves in technology will be the ability for the machine to sense user intention. As technology moves into this realm, the line of fusion between mind and machine, or the ‘interface’ will become very thin.

HyperInstruments

HyperInstruments has a special interest in inventing musical instruments that “understand” the artistic intentions of the performer, allowing for the enhancement and extension of musical expression.

“We design these instruments for use by highly skilled performers, as well as for students, novices and amateurs. We also explore how new media technology can modify music itself, and how such concepts can in turn be applied to interactive intermedia art and entertainment forms, of which opera is a particularly sophisticated example.”

Current directions in the group are to develop creative experiences and “musical toys” for children from ages 6 to 12, and to design future performance spaces that measure and react to performer sound, gesture, and intention.

Noetic Spaces: The human mind and the sense of reality

The philosopher John Searle explains the difference between the mind and the computer is its’ existence or absence of intentionality.

The digital languages are inputted and outputted data through conduits of proxy systems. On the other hand, minds interpret the information by filtering it through people’s belief systems.
Searle defines “seeing” as “seeing as”, and “perceiving” as “perceiving as” according to the focus of each person’s attention.  He states that the mood and state of minds filter information as to how and when we perceive things.

I assume it is because each person’s “semantic engine” or “conceptual apparatus” (both are metaphors of mind) are different according to their configurations (ways of thinking or personalities).
Then Searle’s states, “computers will never function as human minds because computers do not have intentionality.”

Examining the lexical item “intentionality” may be helpful to explain the meaning of “mind”. The lexical item “intend” is originated from the Old French, from Latin “intendere”. The Old French “in” means “toward”, and “tendere” means, “to stretch”.

It shows one of the natures of the” mind” which has plasticity and a scope of attention. The ancient Greek used a metaphor of mind-as-a slingshot, which may be to define mind as something which has intention, or mind as intention itself.

See Also:

• Intending, and Artificial Intelligence – Larry Hauser
• The next computer interface: your finger – ZDNet
• Brain-Machine Interfaces – Nature