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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000000222475 | T14 R59 1990 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
There is at present a widespread unease about the direction in which our technology is taking us, apparently against our will. Advances continue to damage the environment and reduce human work to the trivial mechanical repetition of actions which have no human meaning. Attempts to design technology which complements rather than rejects human skills are all too often frustrated by the current scientific belief that `man is a machine', and what is more, that he can contribute nothing that cannot equally well be contributed by a machine. This challenging and stimulating book refutes four centuries of science based on strictly causal explanations. It shows that man and nature can be viewed as `machines with a purpose', and that the advancement of technology can be to the benefit and not the detriment of the human race and the environment.
Author Notes
HowardRosenbrockEmeritus Professor of Control EngineeringUniversity of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Will all human work be reduced to trivial mechanical repetition of actions that have no human meaning? The answer is "yes" if the present dominant attitude, that "man is a machine," prevails. Rosenbrock campaigns for machines with a purpose, based on a technology in which the human contribution is central and in which a truly human kind of work is encouraged. Purpose can be found even in the foundations of classical mechanics via Hamilton's Principle and in quantum mechanics via random distributions. In fact, scientific understanding can be interpreted in two equivalent ways--as cause and effect and as a world with a purpose. The former interpretation offers only a bleak prospect in which work ceases to be a source of satisfaction and self-esteem. The latter dictates that "machines should be designed to be subordinate to the purpose expressed by the workers in their tasks." Rosenbrock has answered the question completely with due consideration for all possible viewpoints. Excellent references; appendixes contain more difficult mathematical details. Advanced undergraduates and up. -F. Potter, University of California, Irvine
Table of Contents
| 1 An Outline of the Argument |
| 2 Control Theory: Incorporating Human Purpose in Machines |
| 3 Hamilton's Principle: Purpose in Natural Systems |
| 4 Equivalence: The Undetermination of Theory |
| 5 Extensions of the Argument: Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Subordinate Purposes |
| 6 The Purposive Myth: How It Would Seem if We Believed It |
| 7 The Causal Myth: How It is Now |
| 8 Scientific Management: A Case in Point |
| 9 An Alternative Technology |
