A Short History of Human-Automata Interaction

Since their inception in the middle twentieth century, digital technologies developed from big machines accessed only by small groups of scientists and corporative experts to “personal” devices providing opportunities for interaction to large masses of users. As a wide range of hardware and software interfaces were introduced, the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) tackled the pragmatic and theoretical implications of this change. This chapter takes up the toolbox developed in this context to ask new kinds of questions about the history of automata in the nineteenth century. As automata were offered to public spectacle and, to some extent, consumption, commentators discussed the reactions of “users” and observers of these devices, creating a body of theoretical reflections that can be read as HCI ante litteram. By considering other cultural texts and artefacts that contributed to debates about “Human-Automata Interactions,” the chapter mobilises later debates in HCI and Artificial Intelligence to reconsider the ways in which Victorians discussed and/or imagined how people reacted to automata exhibiting the appearance of intelligent behavior.