Three decades ago, a frustrated young filmmaker named George Lucas wanted to create an alternative to the established genre of Hollywood action films Unable to find a compelling plot line, he picked up a copy of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was about the hero's quest, common to many spiritual traditions, in which youth would go out into the world to take on the forces of evil.
Craig Warren Smith
In Campbell's vision, the hero's aim wasn't to destroy the bad guys. It was to meet the dark power head on, to exorcise it and thereby restore goodness in the darkest souls. In the process both good guys and bad guys meet their own fears. Thus, emerged the Star Wars saga. It broke box office records and made a visceral impact on me as a youth. Emerging from the darkened theatre, I felt transformed.
Nowadays, the entire converged media industry _ armed with an exponential rise in computing power _ is as frustrated as was the young George Lucas. How can they use their awesome power to successfully provide immersive, meaningful experiences for users?
This question is behind a new approach to technology called spiritual computing. (Spiritualcomputing.com) Its ideas are being integrated into new technologists for education, healthcare, multimedia, home design, computer search _ and for religion itself. The key point is that spiritual traditions are repositories of meaningfulness. So why not go to them for insight? It is the underlying principle of a new Institute for Meaningful Technologies being set up at Chulalongkorn University's Centre of Ethics of Science and Technology.
To satisfy users, designers must tap spirituality
Forget whatever associations you might have between spirituality and religion. Spiritual computing is about experience _ making it meaningful. It will draw upon Thailand's rich Buddhist legacy, and that of other robust spiritual traditions, to turn the country into a hub for inspiring software applications that could be exported to a spiritually-hungry world.
It turns out that for thousands of years robust spiritual traditions such as Buddhism have developed enormous expertise on the matter of how to enhance the quality of users' experience. Spiritual computing challenges technology designers to do just that. Our goal is something called Meaningful User Experience.
Over the past two years, I've been on my own quest into the meaning of this new paradigm. It has led me far from my home base (at the University of Washsington Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle) to the world's most significant technology laboratories, where brilliant young computer scientists are shaping next generation technologies.
At each stop I arrived to provide lectures without snazzy PowerPoint. Knowing that my theme would arouse interest, I simply posed the question to my audiences if they thought the two words spiritual and computing could be amicably co-joined _ and become the basis for a new line of products and services.
Google Ponders the Meaning of Search
My first stop was Google. Since they are in the search business, they were very interested in discussing Campbell's concept of spiritual search and how it might help them anticipate what to do with the Semantic Web, which is supposed to bring meaning to the computerised searches.
I guess we have to begin with the realisation that users don't really know what they really want when computer search begins and that somehow the meaning of the search has to arise through the process, said one Google-ite. As designers we have to know enough about users to help them find wisdom even when they think what they want is mere data, said another geeky guy.
At another Google lecture my theme was to present the idea of sacred space to the Google Earth team, which was looking ahead to the next generation of GPS technologies.
So far we are just able to help users zoom in to a specific location. Our next step is to help them share with each other the meaning of the physical locations they care about.
Hint: watch for a new link called sacred space on the Google Earth home page.
Sacred Space at Microsoft
My next stop was Microsoft and I found myself face to face with those designing the Digital Home of the Future. ''So far we have used the principle of ease of use as our criteria for what users want, like having their bath water filled at the right temperature as soon as they arrived home from work,'' said one member of the team. ''But after this discussion I'm going to design a special room just for meditation. We'll use sensor networks to calm and inspire users.''
And so it went. At Intel Research Labs in Portland, the focus was on bringing mindfulness principles into the design of technologies for chronically-ill elderly. At Yahoo, the focus was on integrating spiritual ideas into Flickr, where users tell stories through the placement of photographs. At Electronic Arts in Vancouver we pondered a concept called ''transformative gaming'' in which users, wearing galvanic skin bracelets, would earn points by progressively relaxing their bodies. At Nokia in Finland the focus was on helping users create their own mobile reminders to coax them keep returning their attention to the present moment during the course of their day.
Social Networking for Ramadan in Indonesia
It wasn't until my lecture tour brought me to Asia that I began to get really excited about what spiritual computing might mean. In Indonesia, at the country's flagship technology university, the Institute of Technology Bandung, I asked a bunch of technology designers if they would identify the killer app for Indonesia once broadband becomes pervasive in the country. The answer: a social networking site that would allow users to share the experience of Ramadan.
Clearly, as holders of the world's most significant spiritual traditions, Asian technologists could surely help Asian users find the inner meaning of their own traditions, not just as religious rituals, but as practical guidelines for everyday life and the basis for spiritual friendships.
So even if the time is not right to turn His Majesty the King's notions of Sufficiency Economy and ''gross national happiness'' into public policy, maybe we can work together to turn these ideas into technologies that do for us what Joseph Campbell did for George Lucas.
May the Force be with us.
Craig Warren Smith is the Senior Advisor, Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington
© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1996-2008
September 17, 2008
THAILAND: How technology can make experience meaningful
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BANGKOK, Thailand (The Bangkok Post), September 17, 2008:
DATABASE
By Craig Warren Smith
Three decades ago, a frustrated young filmmaker named George Lucas wanted to create an alternative to the established genre of Hollywood action films Unable to find a compelling plot line, he picked up a copy of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was about the hero's quest, common to many spiritual traditions, in which youth would go out into the world to take on the forces of evil.
Craig Warren Smith
In Campbell's vision, the hero's aim wasn't to destroy the bad guys. It was to meet the dark power head on, to exorcise it and thereby restore goodness in the darkest souls. In the process both good guys and bad guys meet their own fears. Thus, emerged the Star Wars saga. It broke box office records and made a visceral impact on me as a youth. Emerging from the darkened theatre, I felt transformed.
Nowadays, the entire converged media industry _ armed with an exponential rise in computing power _ is as frustrated as was the young George Lucas. How can they use their awesome power to successfully provide immersive, meaningful experiences for users?
This question is behind a new approach to technology called spiritual computing. (Spiritualcomputing.com) Its ideas are being integrated into new technologists for education, healthcare, multimedia, home design, computer search _ and for religion itself. The key point is that spiritual traditions are repositories of meaningfulness. So why not go to them for insight? It is the underlying principle of a new Institute for Meaningful Technologies being set up at Chulalongkorn University's Centre of Ethics of Science and Technology.
To satisfy users, designers must tap spirituality
Forget whatever associations you might have between spirituality and religion. Spiritual computing is about experience _ making it meaningful. It will draw upon Thailand's rich Buddhist legacy, and that of other robust spiritual traditions, to turn the country into a hub for inspiring software applications that could be exported to a spiritually-hungry world.
It turns out that for thousands of years robust spiritual traditions such as Buddhism have developed enormous expertise on the matter of how to enhance the quality of users' experience. Spiritual computing challenges technology designers to do just that. Our goal is something called Meaningful User Experience.
Over the past two years, I've been on my own quest into the meaning of this new paradigm. It has led me far from my home base (at the University of Washsington Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle) to the world's most significant technology laboratories, where brilliant young computer scientists are shaping next generation technologies.
At each stop I arrived to provide lectures without snazzy PowerPoint. Knowing that my theme would arouse interest, I simply posed the question to my audiences if they thought the two words spiritual and computing could be amicably co-joined _ and become the basis for a new line of products and services.
Google Ponders the Meaning of Search
My first stop was Google. Since they are in the search business, they were very interested in discussing Campbell's concept of spiritual search and how it might help them anticipate what to do with the Semantic Web, which is supposed to bring meaning to the computerised searches.
I guess we have to begin with the realisation that users don't really know what they really want when computer search begins and that somehow the meaning of the search has to arise through the process, said one Google-ite. As designers we have to know enough about users to help them find wisdom even when they think what they want is mere data, said another geeky guy.
At another Google lecture my theme was to present the idea of sacred space to the Google Earth team, which was looking ahead to the next generation of GPS technologies.
So far we are just able to help users zoom in to a specific location. Our next step is to help them share with each other the meaning of the physical locations they care about.
Hint: watch for a new link called sacred space on the Google Earth home page.
Sacred Space at Microsoft
My next stop was Microsoft and I found myself face to face with those designing the Digital Home of the Future. ''So far we have used the principle of ease of use as our criteria for what users want, like having their bath water filled at the right temperature as soon as they arrived home from work,'' said one member of the team. ''But after this discussion I'm going to design a special room just for meditation. We'll use sensor networks to calm and inspire users.''
And so it went. At Intel Research Labs in Portland, the focus was on bringing mindfulness principles into the design of technologies for chronically-ill elderly. At Yahoo, the focus was on integrating spiritual ideas into Flickr, where users tell stories through the placement of photographs. At Electronic Arts in Vancouver we pondered a concept called ''transformative gaming'' in which users, wearing galvanic skin bracelets, would earn points by progressively relaxing their bodies. At Nokia in Finland the focus was on helping users create their own mobile reminders to coax them keep returning their attention to the present moment during the course of their day.
Social Networking for Ramadan in Indonesia
It wasn't until my lecture tour brought me to Asia that I began to get really excited about what spiritual computing might mean. In Indonesia, at the country's flagship technology university, the Institute of Technology Bandung, I asked a bunch of technology designers if they would identify the killer app for Indonesia once broadband becomes pervasive in the country. The answer: a social networking site that would allow users to share the experience of Ramadan.
Clearly, as holders of the world's most significant spiritual traditions, Asian technologists could surely help Asian users find the inner meaning of their own traditions, not just as religious rituals, but as practical guidelines for everyday life and the basis for spiritual friendships.
So even if the time is not right to turn His Majesty the King's notions of Sufficiency Economy and ''gross national happiness'' into public policy, maybe we can work together to turn these ideas into technologies that do for us what Joseph Campbell did for George Lucas.
May the Force be with us.
Craig Warren Smith is the Senior Advisor, Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington
© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1996-2008
Three decades ago, a frustrated young filmmaker named George Lucas wanted to create an alternative to the established genre of Hollywood action films Unable to find a compelling plot line, he picked up a copy of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was about the hero's quest, common to many spiritual traditions, in which youth would go out into the world to take on the forces of evil.
Craig Warren Smith
In Campbell's vision, the hero's aim wasn't to destroy the bad guys. It was to meet the dark power head on, to exorcise it and thereby restore goodness in the darkest souls. In the process both good guys and bad guys meet their own fears. Thus, emerged the Star Wars saga. It broke box office records and made a visceral impact on me as a youth. Emerging from the darkened theatre, I felt transformed.
Nowadays, the entire converged media industry _ armed with an exponential rise in computing power _ is as frustrated as was the young George Lucas. How can they use their awesome power to successfully provide immersive, meaningful experiences for users?
This question is behind a new approach to technology called spiritual computing. (Spiritualcomputing.com) Its ideas are being integrated into new technologists for education, healthcare, multimedia, home design, computer search _ and for religion itself. The key point is that spiritual traditions are repositories of meaningfulness. So why not go to them for insight? It is the underlying principle of a new Institute for Meaningful Technologies being set up at Chulalongkorn University's Centre of Ethics of Science and Technology.
To satisfy users, designers must tap spirituality
Forget whatever associations you might have between spirituality and religion. Spiritual computing is about experience _ making it meaningful. It will draw upon Thailand's rich Buddhist legacy, and that of other robust spiritual traditions, to turn the country into a hub for inspiring software applications that could be exported to a spiritually-hungry world.
It turns out that for thousands of years robust spiritual traditions such as Buddhism have developed enormous expertise on the matter of how to enhance the quality of users' experience. Spiritual computing challenges technology designers to do just that. Our goal is something called Meaningful User Experience.
Over the past two years, I've been on my own quest into the meaning of this new paradigm. It has led me far from my home base (at the University of Washsington Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle) to the world's most significant technology laboratories, where brilliant young computer scientists are shaping next generation technologies.
At each stop I arrived to provide lectures without snazzy PowerPoint. Knowing that my theme would arouse interest, I simply posed the question to my audiences if they thought the two words spiritual and computing could be amicably co-joined _ and become the basis for a new line of products and services.
Google Ponders the Meaning of Search
My first stop was Google. Since they are in the search business, they were very interested in discussing Campbell's concept of spiritual search and how it might help them anticipate what to do with the Semantic Web, which is supposed to bring meaning to the computerised searches.
I guess we have to begin with the realisation that users don't really know what they really want when computer search begins and that somehow the meaning of the search has to arise through the process, said one Google-ite. As designers we have to know enough about users to help them find wisdom even when they think what they want is mere data, said another geeky guy.
At another Google lecture my theme was to present the idea of sacred space to the Google Earth team, which was looking ahead to the next generation of GPS technologies.
So far we are just able to help users zoom in to a specific location. Our next step is to help them share with each other the meaning of the physical locations they care about.
Hint: watch for a new link called sacred space on the Google Earth home page.
Sacred Space at Microsoft
My next stop was Microsoft and I found myself face to face with those designing the Digital Home of the Future. ''So far we have used the principle of ease of use as our criteria for what users want, like having their bath water filled at the right temperature as soon as they arrived home from work,'' said one member of the team. ''But after this discussion I'm going to design a special room just for meditation. We'll use sensor networks to calm and inspire users.''
And so it went. At Intel Research Labs in Portland, the focus was on bringing mindfulness principles into the design of technologies for chronically-ill elderly. At Yahoo, the focus was on integrating spiritual ideas into Flickr, where users tell stories through the placement of photographs. At Electronic Arts in Vancouver we pondered a concept called ''transformative gaming'' in which users, wearing galvanic skin bracelets, would earn points by progressively relaxing their bodies. At Nokia in Finland the focus was on helping users create their own mobile reminders to coax them keep returning their attention to the present moment during the course of their day.
Social Networking for Ramadan in Indonesia
It wasn't until my lecture tour brought me to Asia that I began to get really excited about what spiritual computing might mean. In Indonesia, at the country's flagship technology university, the Institute of Technology Bandung, I asked a bunch of technology designers if they would identify the killer app for Indonesia once broadband becomes pervasive in the country. The answer: a social networking site that would allow users to share the experience of Ramadan.
Clearly, as holders of the world's most significant spiritual traditions, Asian technologists could surely help Asian users find the inner meaning of their own traditions, not just as religious rituals, but as practical guidelines for everyday life and the basis for spiritual friendships.
So even if the time is not right to turn His Majesty the King's notions of Sufficiency Economy and ''gross national happiness'' into public policy, maybe we can work together to turn these ideas into technologies that do for us what Joseph Campbell did for George Lucas.
May the Force be with us.
Craig Warren Smith is the Senior Advisor, Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington
© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1996-2008
