Reading Reflection: Augmenting Human Intellect
Today, we are accustomed to using a personal computer. In 1962, however, the computer was not a tool for the personal use of an individual. It is surprising that Douglas C. Engelbart’s vision is what we are pursuing right now. When computers take care of storing and sharing information, humans expand the scope of their thinking and get insight.
The most striking part is that the “untrained aborigines” achieve a complex goal with augmenting four basic human capabilities, which are language, artifacts, methodology, and training. Intellectual workers develop a specific repertoire of process capabilities from which they select and adapt those that will compose the processes that they execute. Through this process, the workers accomplish the processes of deriving and implementing problem solutions.
Engelbart’s insight indicates how to design a new integrated system over time. It reminds me of iPhone’s Skeuomorphism that explains how Apple’s designers developed their products during the first age of smartphone development. Skeuomorphism is the design concept of making items represented resemble their real-world counterparts. Most people were not familiar with the touch display when the early iPhones came out. Apple’s designers tried to make the application like the everyday physical objects (e.g., Notepad app mimics the typical yellow pad of paper, buttons are embossed so that the user knows they are clickable.) A few years later, Apple introduced the flat design, and its elements created an elegant and clean user experience. Since then, Google’s Material design, which emphasizes the reactivity of the user’s interaction, has become widespread. I could imagine how the ordinary people get used to touch interface, through the transition of smartphone graphical user interface.
I have to agree that his statement meets the human needs because we are living in the computerized world just as he depicted in 1962. Engelbart imagined that technology would augment the capability of people. He believed that if the computer helped people improve the way of sharing knowledge and information, the computer would be able to change the lives of humankind. I agree with his idea. However, designers need to step back and watch this digital world with a critical eye. Thanks to technology, we are living in an affluent society. People create ‘clerks’ because people need them. Soon, people become obsessed with the ‘clerks’ and cannot live without the ‘them.’ Can we admit this situation as an augmenting the capability of people? It is hard to agree. I am not saying that we need to go back to primitive lifestyle. Nonetheless, we need to take a look at ourselves. We can also learn from nature and find beauty from ordinary things. I, as a designer and a consumer, want to think about how to be a better person as a part of the world, rather than thinking about augmenting our capability.
