Presented at The Power of the Written Word (Universiteit van Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 14 July 2022), the 2022 annual conference for the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing. Presents work in progress related to thanabots: chatbots trained on the data of the dead. Suggests the use of a lifeworld perspective for analysis of thanabot development, functonality, and output. Concludes with a call to action for book historians to contribute to conversations about digital phenomena.

1. Wake Me Up When December Ends:
Making Sense of Chatbot ‘Authors’
SHARP 2022: Power of the Written Word | 'Whose Power?' Panel
Leah Henrickson
Title Page
University of Leeds
L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
twitter.com/leahhenrickson

2. Title Page Introduction
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/jessica-simulation-artificial-intelligence
Meet Jessica (sort of).

3. Title Page Introduction Key Questions
dead people chatbots power what is happening
What are the personal and social
implications of this kind of technology?
What power do these systems have?
Whose power might these systems be
embodying?
Who is the author of a chatbot/thanabot's
output?
How do we make sense of these
interactions?
Who are we actually talking to when we
talk to a chatbot/thanabot?
'I began with the desire to speak
with the dead. […] It was true that
I could hear only my own voice,
but my own voice was the voice
of the dead, for the dead had
contrived to leave textual traces
of themselves, and those traces
make themselves heard in the
voices of the living.'
Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p. 1.
Key Questions

4. Title Page Introduction Key Questions Literature
how to reference yourself without looking conceited
'Algorithmic authorship affronts the conventional
author–reader relationship – the hermeneutic
contract – through hyper-individualistic
personalisation of reading experiences.'
Me, Reading Computer-Generated Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2021), p. 36.
The Hermeneutic Contract
The Lovelace Effect
'The Lovelace effect mediates actual software
functionality with how individuals conceptualize and
interpret that software, reminding us that all
outcomes of interactions between humans and
machines represent constant implicit and indirect
negotiation between programmer intention and user
experience.'
Simone Natale and Me, 'The Lovelace effect: Perceptions of creativity in machines', New
Media & Society (2022), 13 <https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221077278>.
Literature

5. Title Page Introduction Literature Methodology
Manuel Menke and Christian Schwarzenegger, 'On the Relativity of Old and New Media: A Lifeworld Perspective', Convergence, 25.4 (2019), 657-672.
How do we talk about these
technologies?
Rhetoric
How do we use these technologies?
Everyday Experiences
How do these technologies
make us feel?
Emotions
Key Questions
Lifeworlds of Chatbots
'Be Right Back (S2E1)', Black Mirror (2013) https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-photos-of-toddlers-1596882
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-white-and-black-striped-crew-neck-shirt-holding-black-smartphone-3869370

6. Title Page Introduction Methodology Results?
why book history matters
Results: Be Right Back.
This is all about authorship and reader response.
We need book historians to speak up in conversations about chatbots.
Book historians are especially well-positioned to contribute to discussions about the development, ethics,
usage, hermeneutics, and so many more facets of digital experiences. Many of these discussions are
currently dominated by computing folks who are driven by novelty and pushing the boundaries of what is
possible. Book historians know the power of communicative technologies, though. They have thousands of
years of examples that show that just because something can be done does not mean that it should be done.
Likewise, they have thousands of years of examples of innovative and impactful applications of
communications technologies: examples that can help us identify ways of facilitating connections and self-
reflection (and, for thanabots, grieving) that don't come with excessively divisive power dynamics.
Key Questions Literature

7. Title Page Introduction Literature Methodology
Key Questions Results? Conclusion
I ❤️SHARP
Leah Henrickson
University of Leeds
L.R.Henrickson@leeds.ac.uk
twitter.com/leahhenrickson
chat with
chat with
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