It's always a pleasure to have you.
Computers are people.
Or at least that's how your brain is wired up to see things. And because no one likes to be treated rudely, computers must learn to be polite. The Media Equation , by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, works from that speculation, as the authors reconduct a huge series of sociology tests, which they have hacked to incorporate computers or televisions in the role of people. What they find is that humans nearly always treat the media object as a person, at least unconsciously. Practical applications for this dark knowledge appear at the end of each chapter.