Human Machine Symbiosis: The Foundations of Human-centred Systems Design

✍ Scribed by Karamjit S. Gill (auth.), Karamjit S. Gill BA (Hons), MA, MSc, Dphil (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag London
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 501
• Series: Human-centred Systems
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

There is now a serious discussion taking place about the moment at which human beings will be surpassed and replaced by the machine. On the one hand we are designing machines which embed more and more human intelligence, but at the same time we are in danger of becoming more and more like machines. In these circumstances, we all need to consider: • What can we do? • What should we do? • What are the alternatives of doing it? This book is about the human-centred alternative of designing systems and technologies. This alternative is rooted in the European tradition of human-centredness which emphasises the symbiosis of human capabilities and machine capacity. The human-centred tra­ dition celebrates the diversity of human skill and ingenuity and provides an alternative to the 'mechanistic' paradigm of 'one best way', the 'sameness of science' and the 'dream of the exact language'. This alternative vision has its origin in the founding European human-centred movements of the 1970s. These include the British movement of Socially Useful Technology, the Scandinavian move­ ment of Democratic Participation, and the German movement of Humanisation of Work and Technology. The present volume brings together various strands of human-centred systems philosophy which span the conceptual richness and cultural diversity of the human-centred movements. The core ideas of human-centredness include human-machine symbiosis, the tacit dimension of knowl­ edge, the system as a tool rather than a machine, dialogue, partici­ pation, social shaping and usability.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxii
The Foundations of Human-centred Systems....Pages 1-68
On Human-Machine Symbiosis....Pages 69-100
Rosenbrock’s Account of Causality and Purpose....Pages 101-142
Culture, Mind and Technology: Making a Difference....Pages 143-176
The Social Construction of Human-centredness....Pages 177-202
Human-centred Methods of Social and Technical Design....Pages 203-254
Information Systems Design: a User-Involved Perspective....Pages 255-312
Designing for Knowledge Transfer....Pages 313-360
Designing Practice-Based Learning Environments....Pages 361-428
Workplace Innovations: the Making of a Human-centred Industrial Culture....Pages 429-458
Meanwhile, Out in the Real World: Developing a Commercial Human-centred Software Application....Pages 459-471
Back Matter....Pages 473-480

✦ Subjects

User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction