Synopses & Reviews
This volume examines the human-centred approach to designing systems and technologies, which emphasises the symbiosis of human capability and machine capacity. Its main ideas have become integral to many design methodologies, including social ergonomics and cognitive technology. Human Machine Symbiosis offers a unique coverage of the topic: it brings together various strands of human-centred systems philosophy, and gives a comprehensive overview of relevant traditions, approaches, methodologies, and practices. It provides theoretical and methodological underpinnings for the design and application of technologies and systems, along with frameworks and models for designing information, communication and multimedia technologies. It contains contributions from a variety of leading researchers in the field, including some of the pioneers of the European human-centred tradition.
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.