The Challenges and Opportunities of Human Technology

When thinking of users, it is possible to look at them from a variety of perspectives. One essential way of considering users within the human-technology environment involves technical concepts. In this manner, we define what users should be able to do with a particular technical system. As such, there are tasks to accomplish and goals to reach by means of some technology, and therefore specific operations must be carried out in order to reach those goals or fulfill those tasks. For example, if someone wishes to buy boots from an eShop, it is necessary to get onto the Internet, find the eShop, find the boots, load them into a virtual shopping cart, and follow the process to check out. Savvy online shoppers can do this quite effortlessly. This example provides a perspective on human-technology that can be called technical. This view simply defines what it is that people need to do technically to successfully accomplish whatever it is that they want to do. Within this perspective, people are considered a subsystem of a particular technical system-actually, one of several subsystems that work together to accomplish an intended goal. And, like all of the subsystems, the human element needs to be seriously considered in planning how the technology will work, thus making it a necessary component of human-technology interaction. This represents a traditional perspective on the role of humans in the design of technology: If the interaction does not operate smoothly, no one will be able to reach the goal with that particular technology, and so the technology is useless. Therefore, a focus on the technical aspects of design is emphasized. However, recent developments in technology design, and in particular design for online services, have raised the discussion about extending or rethinking the traditional view on human-technology interaction. People cannot-and should not-be viewed only as extensions of machines, or as simply one more element in a complex technological system. Thus, significant and fundamental changes are required in the theory language that provides an alternative to the technology-based analysis. First, research has demonstrated clearly the reality that people cannot possibly do everything. The human mind is simply not capable of every potential process, and so machines can assist in many areas. However, even though the human can, generally speaking, succeed at a wide variety of functions, the success level of any given individual for any particular task is quite variable. For example, the interaction models that are commonly used are just too difficult

2012

As I begin my tenure as editor in chief of Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Humans in ICT Environments, I am pleased both personally and professionally to continue building the significance of this journal in the scientific literature of many research fields. The founding editor in chief, Professor Pertti Saariluoma, has contributed greatly to defining the basis for the scope of Human Technology. During his editorial tenure, the papers published in the journal have addressed a wide variety of questions related to human–technology research. Earlier issues of the journal have covered research on mobile communication, innovations, ICT and education, human technologies for special needs, games and smart environments, culture, creativity and technology, distributed leadership and on-line communities, design-use relationships, cognition and HCI, psychology of programming, and creativity in software design. This variety of fields and topics certainly illustrates the multid...

2013

Technology strongly interacts with almost every facet of our lives. It has also come to interact with almost every facet of the natural world. It is this fundamental interdependence that creates the strong linkages between the studies of sustainable engineering, industrial ecology, and the more specific methodologies such as life cycle assessment. Furthermore, the integration of technology with social and environmental systems, a key aspect of sustainability creates another important dynamic. Technology as a human competence is undergoing a rapid, unprecedented and accelerating period of evolutionary growth, especially in the key foundational areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, information and communications technology and applied cognitive science (6). It is this influence or impact of technology on man and society that has raised the critical question: Is man in control of technology or is technology in control of man? This has brought about a dialectics, which will ...

International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering, 2019

University students were reported more stressful than others at any other stages in life. A major reason of stress among students is due to the presence of excessive information or known as information overload. The individual's cognitive style is one of the factors that leads to information overload, which influence the individual's information searching behavior. This has been recognized by a preliminary study, conducted to nine (9) postgraduate students in Universiti Teknologi MARA. A semi-structured interview had been completed and the result showed that 67% of the students suffered information overload during information searching activity due to lack of searching skills to filter information. 78% of the students suggested to have a well-organized browser (structured information and searching flow) to assist their information searching activity. Based on Technology, People, and Process (TPP) approach, any IT system should harmonize three (3) key components: Technology, People and Process to ensure better performance or solution. Therefore, a literature analysis had been done with respect to the research context and the result showed that there is possibility of relationship between technology (human-centered), people (information processing), and process (information searching) components. Finally, it could answer the research question: how to design a better technology solution for people through information searching mechanism to reduce information overload.

19-31, in: Essays in Post-Critical Philosophy of Technology. Eds.: M. Héder and E. Nádasi, Vernon Press, Wilmington, Delaware, 2019

This paper proposes a specific approach to understanding the nature of technology that encompasses the entire field of technological praxis, from the making of primitive tools to using the Internet. In that approach, technology is a specific form of human agency that yields to (an imperfect) realization of human control over a technological situation—that is, a situation not governed to an end by natural constraints but by specific human aims. The components of such technological situations are a given collection of natural or artificial beings, humans, human aims, and situation-bound tools. By performing technological situation analysis, the essential form of tool making, the complex system of relationships between science and technology, technological practices with and without machines, the finiteness or imperfectness of any technology, and engineering (i.e., the possibility of the creation of technological situations) can be considered. For a better characterization of the approach to technology, the paper also presents a comparison of other philosophies of technology. Following Feenberg’s comparative analysis, the so-called fundamental question of the philosophy of technology is formulated, its two sides are identified, and it is applied for clarification of our position within philosophy of technology. In our approach, all human praxis can be considered to be technological; more precisely, every human activity has a technological aspect or dimension

Human technology : an interdisciplinary journal on humans in ICT environments, 2008

When thinking of users, it is possible to look at them from a variety of perspectives. One essential way of considering users within the human-technology environment involves technical concepts. In this manner, we define what users should be able to do with a particular technical system. As such, there are tasks to accomplish and goals to reach by means of some technology, and therefore specific operations must be carried out in order to reach those goals or fulfill those tasks. For example, if someone wishes to buy boots from an eShop, it is necessary to get onto the Internet, find the eShop, find the boots, load them into a virtual shopping cart, and follow the process to check out. Savvy online shoppers can do this quite effortlessly. This example provides a perspective on human-technology that can be called technical. This view simply defines what it is that people need to do technically to successfully accomplish whatever it is that they want to do. Within this perspective, people are considered a subsystem of a particular technical system-actually, one of several subsystems that work together to accomplish an intended goal. And, like all of the subsystems, the human element needs to be seriously considered in planning how the technology will work, thus making it a necessary component of human-technology interaction. This represents a traditional perspective on the role of humans in the design of technology: If the interaction does not operate smoothly, no one will be able to reach the goal with that particular technology, and so the technology is useless. Therefore, a focus on the technical aspects of design is emphasized. However, recent developments in technology design, and in particular design for online services, have raised the discussion about extending or rethinking the traditional view on human-technology interaction. People cannot-and should not-be viewed only as extensions of machines, or as simply one more element in a complex technological system. Thus, significant and fundamental changes are required in the theory language that provides an alternative to the technology-based analysis. First, research has demonstrated clearly the reality that people cannot possibly do everything. The human mind is simply not capable of every potential process, and so machines can assist in many areas. However, even though the human can, generally speaking, succeed at a wide variety of functions, the success level of any given individual for any particular task is quite variable. For example, the interaction models that are commonly used are just too difficult

Connecting the dots between discoveries in neuroscience(neuroplasticity), psychoneuroimmunology(the brainimmune loop) and user experience (gadget rub-off) indicate the nature of our time spent with gadgets is a vector in human health -mentally, socially and physically. The positive design of our interactions with devices therefore can have a positive impact on economy, civilization and society. Likewise, the absence of design that encourages positive interaction may encourage undesirable behaviors. Much like the architecture of physical spaces and buildings, the consequences of the architecture of the 21stcentury conversation between man and machine may last generations. AI and the Internet of Things are primary vectors for positive and negative impacts of technology. We describe a growing body of co-discoveries occurring across a variety of disciplines that support the argument for human sciences in technology design.

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2014

In the midst of the many large-scale societal and technological transformations, there is a need for design approaches that respect human values and needs and are able to integrate multiple perspectives into technology design in order to work for outcomes that are interesting, feasible and sustainable in all senses of the term. For this purpose, we discuss a possible approach to the design of technology that is driven by human and social values, is collaborative in nature and reflective in terms of responsibility and ethics in the design. We call this approach 'Human-Driven Design' and argue that it is needed especially when designing for enabling and emerging information and communication technologies. A human-driven design approach should focus on the early phases of design, be strongly future-oriented and aim to contribute to innovation for a sustainable society and better quality of life in the future.

Technologies are conceived in science, gestated in engineering and applied in industry under the influence of economics and politics. Automation, the application in industry of information technology (IT) and other forms of new technology replace what were previously known as craft skills by other forms of activity. The controversial question is whether this replacement need constitute deskilling; and a difficulty is that repetitive and seemingly unskilled tasks may contain an element of inspection. IT can contribute to the retraining of workers, but a difficult question is what proportion of the population can be retrained for information-based instead of manual work. Automation is neither the sole cause of unemployment nor the remedy for it.