That’s really interesting

“That’s really interesting” says the robot in an electronic monotone. But we are not convinced that a machine can be interested in anything. For a robot, one bit of information must have the same value as another.

But maybe we can program him to respond intelligently. For information to be interesting, it must be: comprehensible, novel, and relevant.

So if I say to the robot “Jib jab Jehovah, I speckle your prunes.” The robot might be programed to reply  “Sorry, I don’t understand what you are saying.” And if I say “The Moon is not made of cheese.” It might reply “Yes, I already knew that.” And if I say “Crikey! My feet are sore.” It might say “I don’t see how that is relevant.” But if I say “I see Microsoft have just launched a new version of Windows” obviously the robot would be really interested.

Anyway, for us humans, being interesting implies much more than just being comprehensible, novel and relevant – in fact it could be none of those things and still interesting. The world is interconnected. Everything is interesting - but we have to apply filters to prevent information-overload. In mindful meditation we try to pay attention to every detail that presents itself.