Mind Control With Derren Brown

MindControlWithDerrenBrown is a reality television series that started in Britain and has very recently reached America (2007). The series features a man, Darren Brown, who entitles himself a 'psychological illusionist'. In his show he uses "suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship" - "magic" in the sense of the sleight of hand and parlor tricks. He has become quite famous for his "mind reading" tricks (in which he uses both very subtle clues and equally subtle suggestion to aide in 'reading the minds' of others).

For more on the man and his show, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown

Relating Derren Brown with HCI

This page I started not for discussing the show itself, but because the following thought struck me as I sat there enjoying it: "Why can't my computer utilize these subtle clues I'm giving off to help me control it? - there are plenty of clues available (given some extra sensory equipment): my eyes, my posture, my gestures, my voice, my facial microexpressions, and the entire communications context with it up to that point. Why can't I just 'want' to do a search, and suddenly have my text-editor ready to enter search-mode (possibly providing a little semi-transparent icon or dialog in the lower corner, with a one button confirmation, at least until the confidence is high enough)? And on the reverse: why can't my computer use subtle suggestion to remind me of appointments, to teach me how to use it, to provide for me the tools and applications most likely to be useful for me at the moment, to prevent me from doing something stupid?"

If you've killed the Microsoft 'Paperclip' a few times, or dealt with those 'helpful' Wizards that pop up when you get your new OEM-packaged DELL or HP, you know how obnoxious and annoying these 'suggestions' can be. It's the subtle suggestions that work best, that keep me happiest - the defaults, the auto-detection of hardware, etc.

A good personal computer, especially a good user agent, should be like a good servant - not obviously presumptuous, but subtly presumptuous enough that my tea is hot and on my desk right when I'm thinking to ask for it. Not domineering, but subtly influential enough to make sure I'm brushing my teeth, buckling my seatbelt, and otherwise taking good care of myself and my computer.

This sort of personal service is beyond state-of-the-art today, but MindControlWithDerrenBrown helps reveal what is possible.

(Of course, I'd rather not have computers around the world start hypnotizing people. Keeping all forms of suggestion benign would also be important... especially if developed was an easy means of describing a subject to be taught by suggestion.)

This is a sound idea, and to my recollection has been the subject of some serious academic research, but it's worth noting that even Derren Brown rarely, if at all, uses subtle clues to conduct his tricks. His shows are packaged to look like he's employing clever psychology, clues and "mind reading", but that's just his schtick. Aside from the cold reading which he's occasionally demonstrated, much of his performance consists of classic stage magic -- sleight-of-hand, misdirection, gadgets, harmless cheats and slick showmanship. Most of his tricks have been the stock-in-trade of mentalist and hypnotist acts for over a century. Anyone remember "The Amazing Kreskin" from the early 70's? Derren Brown is old wine in new bottles.

I'm not particularly concerned as to the source of Derren Brown's tricks, whether they be new or old. (As far as entertainment goes, old wine in new bottles is just fine for those of us who weren't even alive in the late 70s. ;-) But the aspects of most interest to myself are that Derren Brown does do cold reading and does do misdirection, usually with an audience that would prefer to challenge him (and often requesting said challenge). Of relevance to HCI is that cold reading is possible at all; give the computer a longer history of user-habit, more context and a more cooperative interaction and the 'reading' should only be better - more accurate, more precise, more confident. Similarly, demonstrated ability to perform subtle misdirection implies also an ability to perform subtle instruction... which, again, would be performed in a far more cooperative environment. These are both ideas worthy of significant pursuit.

"As far as entertainment goes, old wine in new bottles is just fine for those of us who weren't even alive in the late 70s." Eh??? Whassat? You young'ns would do well to listen to your elders! [/me ambles off to take a swig of Geritol and go to bed.]

My elders keep telling me that old wine tastes much better than newer wine. The more it ages, the better it gets. --SamuelFalvo?

Derren Brown is great. Do note that a lot of the misdirection and suggestion involved is aimed at us the viewers - getting us to _think_ he's reading subtle clues when actually he's just using conjuring tricks (e.g., staring closely at someone's facial musculature implies he's reading that).

That said, I think magic, conmanship, showmanship and misdirection may have things to teach UI designers. For one thing, hiding the dirty details of how things are done. Apple in recent years has been good with this. This tends to be brittle though.

Far more important I think is the question asked above -- why can't my pc "use the entire communications context with it up to that point"? The 'conversation' I have with a GUI is a conversation with a achizophrenic amnesiac -- it doesn't remember from second to second -- from dialog to dialog, from window to window -- what we've talked about, what I've been doing.

I've put some further thoughts in GuiAsConversation. -- CliffStabbert