Comments on: Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the Year 2020 http://www.feiramoderna.net/2008/04/28/being-human-human-computer-interaction-in-the-year-2020/ Feira Moderna is the website of Mauro Pinheiro, a brazilian designer and a professor at the Design Department of Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo. Here you will find some of my projects, academic articles and random thoughts. Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:41:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Marcio Rocha http://www.feiramoderna.net/2008/04/28/being-human-human-computer-interaction-in-the-year-2020/comment-page-1/#comment-881 Marcio Rocha Sat, 24 May 2008 01:05:36 +0000 http://www.feiramoderna.net/2008/04/28/being-human-human-computer-interaction-in-the-year-2020/#comment-881 Well, i kinda disagree with you about "computers as we know them going away". Think about "fuzzy logic". It is actually a completely un-fuzzy system hacked with some clever, clever sideways thinking. Like a thermostat that instead of measuring temperature measures if the temp is raising or lowering. It is, well, clever. But too much cleverness bites us back. Like smart programs that are nifty when they work but a fu** hell of a nightmare when they decide to stop working. What i mean is: the issue is not making "the computer more humane". This will only lead to more complicatedness with few increased complexity. And this means: things will be harder and harder to deal with, and the increased "joy" it brings to our lives will not accompany the effort. One example: processor power has raised like a quintillion times since some years ago, but our current computers seem just as sluggish as they ever were. More, if you actually can remember those DOS days. I know, DOS did suck, but i could write my school papers just fine. What exactly is my computer doing MORE? Simply put, making computers "more humane", while a good thing per se, is not a solution to the problem. Sometimes a completely mechanical uncreative computer that just dumbly does what you thought it would do helps you more than a clever, humane, caring computer that actually does a lot of things you don't even understand. Even simpler: remember Microsoft Word's Clippy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant Well, i kinda disagree with you about “computers as we know them going away”. Think about “fuzzy logic”. It is actually a completely un-fuzzy system hacked with some clever, clever sideways thinking. Like a thermostat that instead of measuring temperature measures if the temp is raising or lowering. It is, well, clever. But too much cleverness bites us back. Like smart programs that are nifty when they work but a fu** hell of a nightmare when they decide to stop working.

What i mean is: the issue is not making “the computer more humane”. This will only lead to more complicatedness with few increased complexity. And this means: things will be harder and harder to deal with, and the increased “joy” it brings to our lives will not accompany the effort.

One example: processor power has raised like a quintillion times since some years ago, but our current computers seem just as sluggish as they ever were. More, if you actually can remember those DOS days. I know, DOS did suck, but i could write my school papers just fine. What exactly is my computer doing MORE?

Simply put, making computers “more humane”, while a good thing per se, is not a solution to the problem.

Sometimes a completely mechanical uncreative computer that just dumbly does what you thought it would do helps you more than a clever, humane, caring computer that actually does a lot of things you don’t even understand.

Even simpler: remember Microsoft Word’s Clippy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant

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