Phunny Phone?

Phunny Phone?

Take a smart phone with an ‘intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator’ function such as ‘Siri’.

Ask Siri to tell a joke. You could do this more than once.

Task Question:

• Is Siri funny?

Nested Questions

• What is ‘funny’?
• What makes someone funny?
• Can or could A.I. ever be funny?
• What is a joke?
• What makes a joke funny?
• How does one tell a joke well?
• What is Siri?
• Can intentional states be ascribed to Siri?
• Can someone/thing be funny without intending to be?

Who’s a clever phone, then?

A colleague of mine, Andrew West, does a session making use of his speaking ‘intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator’ function on his phone. He ‘asks his phone’ a series of questions such as:

What is the capital of France?

What is 2 + 2?

What is 2 + 2 + 2 + 6098?

Are there any train stations nearby?

What’s the weather going to be like this evening?

Are you clever?

Task Questions

• Is my phone clever?’
• What question could you ask my phone to find out if it’s clever or not?
• Is my phone cleverer than a baby?

Download Phunny Phone?