Book Reading #4: Design of Future Things - Ch2

The Psychology of People and Machines

Reference Information:
Title: Design of Future Things
Author: Donald Norman
Publication: Basic Books 2009.

Summary:
In this chapter, Norman explains the psychology of people towards machines. He says that machines are made up of mechanical and electrical parts, on the other hand, humans are made up of highly complex biological tissues, ligaments and muscles. The brain is capable of intense parallel computation that the machines are not. Animals and people have evolved complex systems of perception and action, emotion and cognition. Machines need analogous systems. Human brain has three stages of processing - Visceral, Behavioral an reflective.
Most exciting of future technologies are those that enter into symbiotic relationship i.e. human+machine, for example, car+driver. This splits the processing levels, the machine takes over the visceral levels while the operator takes over the behavioral level. As the technology progresses, the machine is also taking over the behavioral components. Author claims that these systems aren't really intelligent, they are just responsive. All they do is to respond to the sensor signals, as they were programmed to do. Norman argues that for effective communication and interaction between man and machine, there has to be a common ground. The lack of this common ground is a major cause of our inability to communicate with machines.

Discussion:
I've loved reading Norman's writings. The simple examples he provides to support his theories are just awesome. I find all his arguments about difficulty of communication between humans and machines to be extremely convincing, especially, the common ground argument and his argument about the composure of human body vs. a machine.