Close integrations of the third kind

Have you noticed that technology is getting quieter as the years go by?
As fax machines and analog modems head to the technology scrap heap, it
seems that technology-induced sound effects are disappearing too.
Silence is rife on the modern desktop. Do you remember the telltale
chirping of analog modems and fax machines[1] or the ominous
Solresolesque[2] plainsong of a Winchester hard disk[3]? I feel a bout
of aural nostalgia coming on.

Call me weird (you would not be the first), but I find the noises
created by an analog modem whilst negotiating a protocol with another
analog modem, both useful and comforting. It is useful noise in the
sense that the sounds provide better feedback as to what is really going
on than any amount of multicolored dialog boxes ever can. You can tell
instantly, for example, if your modem is struggling to get a dialog
going with the other modem. You can even tell (with a bit of experience)
what speed you have made the connection at, based on when the
negotiation stops and the true conversation flow starts.

I find the noises comforting in the sense that they seem so, well, so
very *human*. Whether we are conscious of it or not, a communication
algorithm is built into each and every one of us and it dictates how we
talk to each other. It goes like this:

(a) negotiate a communication language,
(b) if successful
(b1) start a conversation using that language,
otherwise
(b2) retry (a) until exasperated.

For example, you meet someone you do not know in some foreign place. You
need to find the nearest train station. How do you proceed? You first
ask (assuming English speaker) "Excuse me. Do you speak English?". If
you get back "Yes." then the negotiation phase is over and you can
safely proceed to the conversation. If you get back "?", you need to try
another route and so negotiation continues.

Another example, but this time at a higher level of language
negotiation. You are setting up a new relationship with a parts
supplier. You get on the phone. You explain "We like to place orders
every six weeks and take delivery within three working days of the
order.". Your supplier says "We can work with that but would prefer
monthly orders. We can promise two working day turnaround time on
those.". You say "Okay. Let's go with that.".

In this example, the lower level language - English in this case - is
already established. The negotiation is happening at a higher level but
takes the same basic form. You and your supplier are engaged in the
negotiation of a business language in order to proceed real
"conversation" in the form of value exchange between the two
enterprises.

The language negotiation process is so natural to us that business
people in my experience, simply assume that computers must talk[4] to
each other the same way we do (i.e. by first negotiating a language and
then starting a conversation in that language).

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