Augmenting Compassion Using Intimate Digital Media to Parallel Traditional Developmental Approaches

Christine RosakranseStanford University

Oakland, CA

rosakranse@alum.mit.edu

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a framework for augmenting human compassion and the possible directions for research in this area with a focus on using inimate digital media with ambient intelligence.

Categories and Subject DescriptorsH.5.1 [Multimedia Information Systems]: Evaluation and methodology.

General TermsMeasurement, Documentation, Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Standardization, Theory.

KeywordsCompassion augmentation, intimate digital media, interconnectivity, ambient intelligence.

1. INTRODUCTIONOne unfortunate consequence of the increasing sophistication and ubiquity of technology has been the general reduction of empathy and compassion in everyday life. Due partly to the distracting effect of mobile computing, the average individual disconnects from his or her immediate environment and the people within it in favor of communication with a small network of nonadjacent friends, either through phone, text, chat or e-mail. They are not necessarily engaged with the space and people around them and do not actively pay attention to, empathize with, or feel compassion for others in the immediate vicinity [Nass].

In order to reverse the trend of empathic fragmentation that leads to lower levels of everyday compassion, the neural mechanisms behind compassion development must be revealed and methods for augmenting compassion must be designed and researched based on those functions. This would then allow us to introduce a new level of social awareness into our technological dynamic by way of an ambient intelligence that leverages intimate media to effect both the level of concern and intimacy felt by an individual towards others.

To fully develop human potential, all resources available must be utilized to that end, including digital media. Licklider, Ashby, and Engelbart have all written on the subject of augmenting or amplifying human intellect [1,2]. Licklider (1960) defined a concept called “man-computer symbiosis”, a system whereby humans and computers work in conjunction to “think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today”[2]. Engelbart believed technology could augment human intellect by developing “an integrated hierarchy of cooperative mancomputer process capabilities.” This would “step-up” the mental abilities of a person level by level to be able to handle more complex thought processes. He also explains, “We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human ‘feel for a situation’ usefully coexist with powerful concepts, streamlined technologies and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids”[1].

While some research and development in this field has discovered methods for augmenting human intelligence as per the recommendation and work of these scientists and engineers, another facet of our potential has been less closely researched due to a lack of a clear and concise quantifiable representation. This particular facet comes in the form of developing compassion. In fact, to some extent, technology is causing a disintegration within the empathic continuum.

As technology improves and we find ourselves more capable of complex problem solving when working in conjunction with these technologies, the emotional components of our development must also be addressed. Along with amplifying intelligence, our cognitive hemispheres must become a more balanced. Luckily, the plasticity of our mental architecture makes this a distinct, if not also necessary, possibility in human evolution.

While it was historically seen as the realm of parents and family (in society at large) to instill compassion and empathy, several proponents have come to the fore regarding compassion augmentation based in the realm of science, including the Dalai Lama, Lappé, and Ekman [3].

In starting the search for methods that augment human compassion using digital means, many avenues present themselves. One useful place to begin is with the traditional methods developed by cultures around the world.

2. DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK2.1 Theoretical GroundingUsing the precedents set by Emotional Design, as it has begun to see an upswing as a mainstream approach by realizing that emotion does play a role in interaction, and Value-sensitive Design, which also adds weight to the implications of interface design, a Grounded Theory Approach with selective coding is suggested for the initial development of this research framework.

Following the format for research performed to augment human intellect, the objective of this study, which includes the previous suppositions and conjectures, is to discover the factors that determine a given individual’s level of compassion and to develop methods that would act to augment human compassion by paralleling traditional approaches.

In this specific case, the use of intimate digital media provides a basis for further study and parelleling the Buddhist compassion practice of Metta provides a sample structure for research design. With this approach we can use observational analysis to create conceptual categories to define types of interaction with intimate digital media as a first step to gradually refine and reevaluate these connections in a more formalized research setting.

The elements of engagement with this media can be placed into the following categories:

1) perceptual/cognitive

2) physiological

3) conscious or reflective coherence

4) emergent/transcendent

With these categories of engagement in place, testing the level of interaction versus the level of change or augmentation in compassion becomes a matter of defining sound methodologies for measuring this state or temperament in a quantifiable manner.

Figure 1. Compassion as the result of concern and intimacy

Even with this grounding, there is still a gulf between science and the humanities in terms of determining which components

of a human’s behavior, specifically those relating to compassion development, can be effected by technology. However, the overall process under review would be the following:

I. Exposure to intimate media stimulus (classified by valence and type of interaction, i.e. pictures of friends at a social gathering), with the interspersion of different types of pictures

II. Cognitive processing (conscious, subconscious, unconscious)

a. Within the research design, we must check for initial attunement prior to an attempt for protracting, expanding, or proliferating the feeling of compassion towards others (also known as secure attachment).

b. The cohesion of relationships might also be revealed during the studied, and linked to effectiveness.

c. Neural integration represents the amount of the reflective component included. This is directly related to the amount of reflection facilitated by the interface design.

d. A “natural” interface (ambient intelligence) is also important for optimal effectiveness. Obvious glitches cause the participant to disconnect from the experience itself.

III. Change to level of compassion (as a temperament, includes the change to the activation energy required to enter a compassionate state)

IV. Resultant action (prosocial behavior, including degree of spontaneity and unbiasedness, or measures from fMRI)

3. LITERATURE REVIEWIn researching methods for the development of empathic concern, we find that the syncretic nature of visceral, affective, somatic, and cognitive interactions creates a complex system of emergent emotional phenomena.  Accounting for these intricacies within a research design becomes problematic without first determining the proper vocabulary to accurately represent the nature of this system.   Drawing from the realm of mathematics provides one source for descriptors.  Daniel Siegel, in his book The Mindful Brain, using complexity theory specifically, explains the logic of our human systems by writing that “an integrated state enables the most flexible, adaptive, and stable states to be created within a dynamical, complex system.” 

3.1 LexiconThe definition of compassion in our modern lexicon remains nebulous within the context of social interaction. Whether it is an emotion, sentiment, temperament, or feeling has not yet been concretely determined. Compassion requires a more stringent classification to include elements of behavior that compose compassion, empathic concern, and kindness as well as determining the scientific methods for measurement.

In order to fully encompass the nature and magnitude of these possibilities, we may borrow from the lexicon of quantum physics, the fields of mathematics, specifically complex dynamics, and chemistry to allow for a more robust set of terms to describe intelligence and compassion augmentation. The initial step of determining terminology is key because any

further study would require a sound grounding in what factors effect compassion levels and how they do so. Within the context of interactive and intimate digital media, these factors may be counterintuitive or may include non-trivial emergent properties. Having a more exact vocabulary would undermine semantic ambiguity and allow for a cross-communication between fields.

Some of the difficulty in soundly defining the concepts relevant to compassion augmentation stems from the family-only approach normally taken for the development of compassion in a child’s life. It is often seen as the responsibility of parents and families to engender this value. Beyond childhood, only societal norms act to regulate compassion. The exact nature of compassion is also nebulous enough within our society as a whole to defy easy definition. Definitions for compassion describe a semantic range of possibilities including awareness

(purely knowledge), an emotion, or a feeling. Examples where the ambiguous language is most obvious include the chapter on The Nature of Compassion in the book Emotional Awareness, which is a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman[3].

As Ekman and the Dalai Lama discuss how compassion may or may not be considered an emotion, the Dalai Lama explains, “Once the person experiences this heightened compassion, his or her compassion retains that kind of tone throughout the day...” Ekman argues against this by explaining that moods are transitory and, therefore, compassion cannot explained with the definitions of mood or emotion. However, taking the neurological definition of mood and emotion into account, one could argue for the term temperament as a desciptor for the long-term nature of this change.

The word nature itself is used colloquially. However, nature has the connotation of being unchangeable and fixed. For now, the term temperament will be used in this paper to describe compassion, in that it is a sustained perceptual filter that governs the overall level of compassion of an individual as well as the level of spontaneity and unbiasedness related to prosocial actions (kindness, sympathy, etc.). This definition is further explained in section 3.1.3. In a similar lexical vein, creating a long-term temperament involves lowering the activation energy for a compassionate state.

Key ideas for further development include the following:

Defining compassion as a temperament that can be altered and developed.

Creation thereof lowers the activation energy required for prosocial behavior Using this terminology from chemiastry provides one

Emergent phenomena reveals multiple sources of influence for this creation.

Intimate media (of varying valence) may be used to modulate the neural networks associated with compassion development. Specifically, Tucker, Luu and Derryberry have demonstrated how “intimacy modulates the neural response of empathy for pain.”

Reflective coherence is a necessary component of compassion development [Tucker, Luu and Derryberry, Rueda, Kabat-Zinn, Ackerman]. This allows for neural integration of what is

experienced as it changes middle prefrontal function. Siegel explains that reflection included the three following facets to function: ”receptivity, self-observation, and reflexivity.”

The inclusion of these components of development in an ambient intelligence would allow for a more consistent exposure to the stimuli, which may lead to faster and more prolonged changes.

Additionally, compassion augmentation represents a form of “cognitive hybridization.” As defined by Andy Clark, “Some technologies constitute a cascade of mindware upgrades - cognitive upheavals in which the effective architecture on the human mind is altered and transformed” [4]. This is similar to the concept of encephalization as presented by Tucker, Luu, and Derryberry [5]. “Encephalization is a concept that is complimentary to the construct of terminal additions. It describes how functions of more primitive neural structures were elaborated with more recently evolved terminal additions[6].”

Also of great relevance is the concept of arousal as it pertains to the effectiveness of a given interface to cause change within the participant.

3.2 General Approaches for Measurement

Only when this “emergent” mode of thinking is combined with the constantly growing lexicon provided by evolutionary biology and advancements in brain research can we begin to express the interconnected nature of neurological development.        The development of empathic concern itself involves several facets of interaction that build upon each other, an evolution that is cognitive, emotional, and physical.  In addition to initial instances of secure attachment, later stages of life include the development of a self-regulating equilibrium. 

Siegel later describes a triad of mental well-being as including “coherence of mind, empathy of relationships, and neural integration,” with implications arising from the possible interplay between these traits. If one apex of this triangle is actively modulted, do the others follow suit to a certain degree or not?

Reviewing current research into related topics, including developing empathy in children, compassion meditation studies, studies into nociceptive capacity, and compassion fatigue psychometric testing, has revealed three general approaches to testing for elements of the temperament of compassion, as well as related elements of psychological development.

3.2.1 Cognitive/Physiological AnalysisBrave and Nass have indicated that the level of activity in the limbic and cortical regions of the brain relate to an individual’s empathic responses [2]. In their work, Brave and Nass reveal the underlying mechanisms of emotion that stem from the connections between the thalamus, the cortex, and the limbic system. The thalamic-limbic pathway is responsible for the primary emotions, while secondary emotions “result from activation of the limbic system by processing in the cortex.”

They then go on to cover the debate over whether or not emotion is innate or learned. Regarding this debate, Brave and Nass describe the middle of the two extremes where “the limbic system is prewired to recognize the basic categories of emotion, but social learning and higher cortical processes still play a significant role in differentiation.”. In short, between the realm of pure emotion and pure cognition lies the key for compassion development. Name that more evolved neural structures “did not replace the hindbrain, but rather modulated its function, largely through inhibitory control.” In accordance with our neuroplasticity, certain neural structures developed during early childhood can be altered [Lutz, et al.].

The experiment in the article entitled Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure differences in brain activity between novice and experienced meditators, those having 10,000 plus hours of Buddhist compassion mediation practice [5]. This paper identifies activity in the limbic region associated with increased levels of compassion in buddhist monks with over 10,000 hours of compassion meditation practice. They were asked two alternate between actively generating a condition of compassion mediation and refraining from the practice.

In this case:

“The meditative practice studied here involves the generation of a state in which an “unconditional feeling of loving-kindness and compassion pervades the whole mind as a way of being, with no other consideration, or discursive thoughts” ... According to the tradition, as a result of this practice, feelings and actions for the benefit of others arise more readily when relevant situations arise. Our main hypothesis was thus that the concern for others cultivated during this meditation would enhance the affective responses to emotional human vocalizations, in particular to negative ones, and that this affective response would be modulated by the degree of meditation training.”

They analyzed the areas of the brain associated with empathy including the insula cortex and the somatosensory cortex. The data support their main hypothesis, namely that “the brain regions underlying emotions and feelings are modulated in response to emotional sounds as a function of the state of compassion, the valence of the emotional sounds and the degree of expertise”[5].

One interesting way to see these results is to acknowledge that the meditation itself, over time, changes the neurology of the practitioner in such a way that the empathy and compassion become more automatic and spontaneous. In the section on Effects of Affect: Attention, Brave and Nass state, “people also often consciously regulate mood, selecting and attending to stimuli that sustain desired moods or, alternatively, counteract undesired moods” [6]. This might prove to be insightful for informing experimental design by suggesting the role of intention and prolonged exposure to compassion-based stimuli.

Compassion meditation would then put people in a more sustained compassionate temperament. The definition of mood also defines some of the elements of compassion. “Moods...are nonintentional; they are not directed at any object in particular and are thus experienced as more diffuse, global, and general.”

This would seem to be the case with long-term practitioners of compassion mediation. It becomes a “way of being.”

Brave and Nass support this by saying, “Intense or repetitive emotional experiences tend to prolong themselves into moods”[6]. The Lutz, Johnstone and Davidson study used fMRI results to measure affect, but Brave and Nass also suggest other methods for doing so, including electroencephalogram (EEG) to test neurological responses, autonomic activity, facial expression, voice, self-report measures, and affect recognition by users.

Depending on the conditions of the study, these methods for testing affect differ in efficacy. The Compassion Mediation study did not use behavioral analysis during the testing because the meditators informed them that this would interfere with the meditation process itself. So they has to rely on the fMRI measurements and a certain amount of self-reporting. Self-report measures, in particular, suffer from a problem with temporal relevance. Brave and Nass point out that “questionnaires are capable of measuring only the conscious experience of emotion and mood. Much of affective processing, however, resides in the limbic system and in nonconscious processes.”

The dimensional theories using arousal and valence were also used during the Compassion Mediation study and with correlational results. This would support that for further research, where any self-reporting is necessary, compassion should be tested as a temperament emergent from a two-dimensional space of “conscious emotional experience” [7]. The key lies in consistent intention and progression.

How much we relate to someone else or engage with them correlates to the amount of intimacy we feel when interacting with or thinking of that person. We are more intimate with loved ones than with strangers and this translates into how much empathy we feels towards them and how much compassion we can generate for that person. Cheng, et al. in their article “Love hurts: An fMRI study” describe the mechanism of intimacy “as including the other in the self...” They specifically studied empathy of pain, looking at the neural network involved in the “pain matrix”.

They discovered that not only does imagining a love one in pain cause greater activity in the pain matrix, but it also causes less activation in those regions associated with distinguishing self from the other, such as the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) which is involved with an individual’s Theory of Mind, “allowing overlap between self and the other”.

From the direction of compassion development, one obstacle to empathic growth towards strangers rests in difficulty of evoking another’s perspective. Specifically, as those portions of our neural network are dampened in activity when we think of strangers, how can we overcome that in a productive way that fosters compassion development without interrupting necessary thought processes?

Siegel also suggests “that a developmental psychopathology approach to problems such as empathy may be facilitated by an evolutionary-developmental analysis of neuropsychological mechanisms of attachment and self-regulation.” The combination of these two elements leads to compassion

augmentation and having one without the other does not allow for optimal development. Precursors to empathic expansion would then include both an initial attunement or secure attachment and the development of cognitive skills associated with reflective thought. Siegel explains, “The evolution of the neural mechanisms that integrate pain/distress motive with vocalization lays the foundation for understanding the vertical integration of attachment and regulation for parent/infant bonds that can then be extended to more general social bonds. []” Without an initial bond with a parent, other caretaker, or friend later interpersonal attunement becomes more difficult, and would remain outside the scope of this study.

Figure 2. Steps for Change in Neural Architecture

3.2.2 Behavioral AnalysisThe generation of a compassionate mood rests in two dimensions: concern and intimacy.  Concern can also be called caring or more specifically empathic concern. Intimacy can also be understood as the level of connectedness one person feels with another or with the process itself of compassion development.  Therefore, it must be taken into account that intimacy in this case refers to both the nature of the media presented for constructive reflection and the space or environment in which it is presented. Both have implications for research design. 

Neurologically, it is interesting to note that the very mechanism which allows us to function in everyday life by allowing us to realize that others can hold views contradictory to our own, called the Theory of Mind, keeps human beings from fully being able to see another as self.  This separation, key to social development and lacking in autistic individuals, provides a boundary that cannot be overcome.  Complete autonomous functioning would then be the other extreme of the connectedness spectrum. 

Several studies have tested subjects by utilizing behavioral analysis to reveal the presence and levels of compassion. The question of whether or not empathy is, as related to compassion, hard-wired into the brain has been tested. Frans de Waal also writes about kindness from the evolutionary perspective [8].

Another experiment with more direct human relevance discovered that when participants were given money to use, giving the money away to another person made themfeel more satisfied and happy than using it for their own personal consumption[9]. Whether or not altruism directly relates to compassion or can be seen as a resultant action of a compassionate state would also have to be further studied.

Testing within a school setting has also provided some concrete evidence of the effectiveness of teaching children empathy and compassion. The Second Step Program by the Committee for Children in Seattle teaches children empathy and measure success with lower reported incidents of bullying and school violence [10].

3.2.3 Psychometric (Self-reporting) MeasuresIn developing a test for compassion so that quantitative results can verify any changes over time, several parallel types of testing present themselves as possibilities. To first determine the level of intial secure attachment, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) can be used as it is “akin to an assessment of the reflective aspects of midfulness.[]” Similarly, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) as a test for mood could provide the basis for determining the type of affect that the digital intimate media has on the subject while an additional compassion test would be necessary to correlate that affect with a change in temperament equivalent to compassion development [11].

However, the most direct method of testing would involve the participants' changing of tags as related to changed levels of compassion felt toward the pictured subject.

Additionally, one method used to discover compassion in nurses is a compassion fatigue test developed for caregivers. This might prove useful as a before and after test to determine change in overall mentality[12].

4. PROPOSED RESEARCH DESIGN

After a participant is exposed to an initial stimulus of a picture of a “loved one” or their closest associate (mother, best friend, etc.), they are then asked to perpetuate the feeling of compassion (at the same intensity/valence) while viewing pictures of friends, strangers, and “enemies”. The fact that we can develop a sense of connection with someone we have never met has been well established in the literature (Lombard and Ditton, Rafaeli, Parks and Floyd, etc.). As this type of connection is created primarily during a cognitive process, it can be called sociomental (Chayko and Zerubarel, 1993).

4.1 Research Design

In order for this system to have the greatest efficacy, the pictures must be drawn from the participant’s life. The creation of an interface that leverages readily available intimate digital media, such as pictures stored online, combined with categorization methods, such as tagging and grouping, is the first step.

Setting: Initial studies are to be performed in a lab setting, with the ultimate goal being integration into the home environment through a computer interface or digital photo frames.

Steps: Participants are asked to go through their photostream, tagging each photo containing a person with the level of compassion they feel towards that person. In order to avoid complex interference, only those pictures with one person should be used. Level One would represent those closest to the participant (center point in the diagram, see diagram). Level Two represents friends. Level Three are strangers (which are pulled from random pictures, not from the participant’s photostream). Level Four are “enemies”, those people to whom the participant shows an aversion. The tags will allow the application to show the participant Level One pictures first. It is important to have the participant reflect on the feelings that are aroused by the picture, specifically that of compassion. This allows for intrapersonal attunment, one aspect of which is the alteration of self-other perspectives. After a preset period of time, the Level Two pictures will be shown and the participants will be asked to perpetuate that initial level of compassion to these pictures, as well as they can. In order to most closely parallel traditional techniques, the first sessions should only include Level One and Two pictures. Once the intensity of compassion for Level Two draws near that of Level One, then Level Three pictures should be introduced and so on to Level Four.

Measurements:

For initial assessments, self-reporting measures will be used to track the participants’ progress, as pictures change in level of compassion felt. A more rigid study can be performed using fMRI readings to quantify the change in neural activity of those regions of the brain associated with compassion. This also follows from Siegel's summation, “But disrupting the usual forms of personal identity within awareness may involve large-scale assembly alterations on a larger and more diffuse level that perhaps could be detected with careful computer assisted electrical measurements of whole system integration.[]”

5. GOALS AND FURTHER RESEARCHAs technology becomes more advanced, allowing for actual intellectual “amplification”, we must counter this with the augmentation of compassion in order to balance out the human equation. As it is now understood that certain emergent phenomena occur within the brain as well as effecting the outside world, we may expect to find a terrific potential for growth and mental evolution at the intersection of intellect and compassion.

One specific arena for further research involves the incorporation of additional types of digital media into the compassion augmentation process, as well as the incorporation of these methods with ambient intelligence, perhaps having something akin to a compassion light or signifier. The nexus of science and art has always been a fascinating space for conjecture, but, as the sphere of science grows to include room for what once seemed to be purely metaphysical concerns, the research is finding ways to ground the effects of arts in a scientifically meaningful vocabulary. The process, however, has just begun.

5.1 Ambient Intelligence and IntimacyWhether in an interactive digital environment such as Second Life, in an at-home setting, or in an immersive “real-world” environment such as a multimedia museum exhibit, the exact nature of an ambient interaction may prove vital to compassion augmentation and this should also be taken into account during the framework development process.

One of the more direct forms that this interaction could take is with a digital photo frame located somewhere in the participant's living environment. With photographs cycling through from “loved ones” to include friends and then strangers, the participant can use active reflection to perpetuate feelings of compassion to the unknown people in their streaming photographs. This can then be correlated to a compassion light or signifier/indicator with the local environment that reminds the participant of that temperament experienced during the exercises.

There are several communities in Second Life already devoted to teaching in new ways specifically designed for an immersive online experience that would also constitute an ambient intelligence. The London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, ran a research project entitled Learning from Online Worlds; Teaching In Second Life where they taught sessions within that context [14] . The viability of such an approach is increasingly proven by such experiments, especially as matters such as presence, trust, reciprocity,

intimacy and goal-oriented learning are imbued within the system.

As computing becomes more ubiquitous, questions regarding propriety and intimacy come to the fore. Exactly how does one distinguish between private and public information displayed in a public space? As social networking continues to grow to include more personal sharing, what defines publicly available information anyway? In Daniel Russell’s paper “Appropriate Expressions of Intimacy: Lessons of Digital Jewelry and Large Displays” he draws conclusions related to these issues from two ends of the ubiquitous computing spectrum. At the USER Lab at the IBM Almaden Research Center, his team created “e-rings” with LEDs that display information based on one’s “personal state.” This could include a wide range of inputs from receiving an e-mail from a certain person to stock prices. A digital jewelry box serves as the device interface for changing display behavior. E-rings display information in a public way, but the definition of the display (what a certain color means to the user) remains private. This is one way of creating a boundary between public and private information as opposed to a pager, which provides public information only when the user acknowledges it (beeping, flashing, etc.) and hides the exact message in the display. Before entering into the discussion of large displays, Russell shares one interesting insight regarding the social signals provided by pagers (which could easily include smart phones). Russell writes that looking at a pager “connotes a sense of importance about an information feed into the wearer’s life that exceeds the need to pay complete and active attention to live, face-to-face interaction.” Of course, this can also be related to someone’s perceived ability to multitask effectively. To test the manner in which users interact with a large display, Russell and his team created IM Here. While instant messaging is normally considered private, this method of display clearly draws these conversations into a public space. In the case of IM Here, in order to create a sense of intimacy, the chat sessions are allocated a small portion of the overall display space. Russell determined that positioning, scale, physical design, and societal norms defined the “public vs. intimate characteristic.” Implications from this can inform design for ambient information systems as well.

Questions for further research that directly effects the ability to integrate intimate media within a public environment include:To what extent are public spaces capable of intimacy?For which experiences is intimacy required and to what extent?

5.2 Interactive Digital Media as Co-creationThe theory that art can effect the human mind has long been held by artists. The connection between digital interactive art, improving a user’s level of empathy, and reducing stress has been made by artists such as Barbara Buckner in her article “Healing Interactions and Interactive Digital Art” [13].

In combination with the standard forms of creative expression, current technology allows for the addition of interactivity and may lead to a feeling of interconnectivity with the artist or others as represented by the project. In the words of Barbara Buckner, “the user becomes cause in the scenario...The user builds an iterative cycle of aesthetic relationships, and through

this cycle of perception and co-creation, fulfills the meaning of the work.” It is this aspect of interactive digital art that would parallel the intentional facet of compassion augmentation by other means, including meditation. “The user is accepting responsibility for co-creating unity through cause and effect.”

As opposed to passive forms of artistic exposure, having the user become participant introduces them to the themes inherent in the artwork, such as harmony and integration, from the standpoint of a creator.

Additionally, if a disconnect from a common humanity lessens compassion or hinders its development, then key to developing compassion in others would be creating a palpable connection to others and, thereby, to humanity in general. With interactive digital media, the user changes from passive receptor of information to co-creator, completing a cycle of connection and creating a subsequent positive association.

Several additional terms can be introduced at this point:

The amount someone can interact with a piece is agency.

Affordance is the quality that allows someone to perform an action.

5.3 Extending the FrameworkAdditional elements and reference questions can be added in order to develop a more robust version of compassion augmentation. One last component that may increase the range of research possibilities involves questions from the ABE (Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence) as this approach may also prove relevant to the investigation [15]. In their research, Peterson and Seligman find ways to measure if a “person feeling oneness with the universe, a sense of truth, an inability to express experience in mere words, and a vividness and clarity of sensations and perceptions.”

One of the personality characteristics that correspond with an appreciation of beauty includes an openness to new experiences. This also provides another direction for continuing research.

With our current approach we will use observational analysis to create conceptual categories to define types of interaction with digital intimate media as a first step to gradually refine and reevaluate these connections in a more formalized research setting. Future research includes testing the change in levels of compassion of those exposed to interactive digital media over time (designed with the results from this research in mind). We will also be able to research whether or not having a reflective component is necessary and whether or not affect is an issue of intensity versus duration.

6. CONCLUSIONWhile compassion may or may not be our “natural” attitude towards others according to differing traditions, it can be noted that societal constructs, on the whole, do not necessarily support compassionate behavior, favoring instead a market/perceived worth-based social structure. Compassion, however, can be promoted and developed within an individual’s mental architecture through various means, including those involving intimate media and ambient intelligence.

In regards to certain academic traditions, these particular means can go by other names such as “facts”, in the context of Lewin’s

field theory. Those “facts” which are capable of changing a person’s mental state towards a more stable temperament of compassion have not yet been fully explored.

Within the realm of developing technologies and interactive digital media specifically, those factors regarding interaction, user experience design, content, context, intimacy, and empathy are of special interest. The complex nature of multi-faceted interaction towards compassion augmentation provides an exciting milieu for further exploration and study.

It is the responsibility of artists/engineers/scientists to develop and reinvest knowledge continually within an iterative process towards the augmentation of the human intellect as well as towards the augmentation of compassion, as the two act to balance human evolution towards a sustainable future. We, as humans, have the choice to use our emotions, sentiments, and moods in order to modify our behavior. In their work, Brave and Nass reveal the underlying mechanisms of emotion by explaining the connections between the thalamus, the cortex, and the limbic system. Others have continued along this path towards discoveries that allow us to pursue true compassion augmentation.

We now know that the thalamic-limbic pathway is responsible for the primary emotions, while secondary emotions “result from activation of the limbic system by processing in the cortex.” While some debate still exists over whether or not a given emotion is innate or learned, for the purposes of conceptualizing a framework, the mechanism behind the compassionate temperament will be understood as malleable due to the plastic nature of our mental architecture.

Regarding the ability to develop compassion by entering meditative states, the experiment in the article entitled Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure differences in brain activity between novice and experienced meditators, those having 10,000 plus hours of Buddhist compassion mediation practice. Conclusions can be drawn from this they may inform the design of compassion augmentation systems.

The time has arrived for compassion augmentation and, in this digital age, with our astounding level of interconnectivity, the opportunity to utilize technology for this purpose cannot go unrealized. Augmenting human intellect as a theory and aspiration has itself been itself further augmented to suggest that all facets of society must come together and work towards a common goal. Creating a framework for future compassion augmentation research the first step. In order to balance the human equation, prosocial behavior promoted by the temperament compassion should be placed alongside intelligence in our search for human augmentation. With a sound lexicon for development and concrete designs for analysis, the path to augmenting human compassion is now more clearly defined.

7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSMy thanks Professors Nathan Freier, Jim Zappen for their support and review. Also, thanks to Christina Engelbart for her eye-opening correspondence. Thanks to Clifford Nass.

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Gillen, J, Livingstone, D, Smith-Robbins, S. (eds) UK : Springer