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Things That Make Us Smart - Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine (Paperback, Revised) Loot Price: R462
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Things That Make Us Smart - Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine (Paperback, Revised)

Don Norman, Tamara Dunaeff

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List price R549 Loot Price R462 Discovery Miles 4 620 You Save R87 (16%)

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Cognitive psychologist Norman searches for humane technology and just plain user-friendliness in the paraphernalia and artifacts employed in everyday life. What he finds is that "today we serve technology," though, of course, "technology should serve us." Currently a thinker at Apple Computer (actually, "an Apple Fellow"), Norman expands on his previous offerings (Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, 1992; The Psychology of Everyday Things, 1988, etc.) - and his current text, though more thoughtful, is just as user-friendly as his earlier works. Citing the appalling slogan of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms," the good Apple Fellow offers a new guiding principle: "People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms." Usage, he says - especially of computer software - follows design, but it doesn't have to be that way. With intelligences now darting though cyberspace, Norman can differentiate between the human and the artificial kind. Neither of them is the sole, true McCoy: They're just different, each with different innate abilities. People are better at language, the arts and emotions that make life worthwhile. Technology is better at such things as logic and mathematics, both invented artifices. Not new notions, certainly, but when was the last time you heard a technocrat say that "our goal should be to develop human centered activities, to make...the task fit the person, not the other way round"? Norman's presentation is eminently accessible, with incidental insights into such matters as primitive office procedures, and why, for addition and subtraction, Roman numeration is superior to Arabic. As he notes, books are one form of technology. Television is another. It might be interesting to see if his message could survive a change of medium, perhaps to educational TV. Lots of things make us smart, Norman points out. His book could be one of them. (Kirkus Reviews)
In Things That Make Us Smart, Donald A. Norman explores the complex interaction between human thought and the technology it creates, arguing for the development of machines that fit our minds, rather than minds that must conform to the machine.Humans have always worked with objects to extend our cognitive powers, from counting on our fingers to designing massive supercomputers. But advanced technology does more than merely assist with thought and memory,the machines we create begin to shape how we think and, at times, even what we value. Norman, in exploring this complex relationship between humans and machines, gives us the first steps towards demanding a person-centreed redesign of the machines that surround our lives.

General

Imprint: Perseus Books
Country of origin: United States
Release date: April 1994
First published: March 1994
Authors: Don Norman • Tamara Dunaeff
Dimensions: 235 x 155 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 290
Edition: Revised
ISBN-13: 978-0-201-62695-7
Categories: Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > General
LSN: 0-201-62695-0
Barcode: 9780201626957

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