bzs@pinocchio.encore.com (Barry Shein) (02/09/89)
Subject: Alternative Technology by Prof M.Cooley.
(Reply to your message of Tue, 07 Feb 89 16:38:31)
From : David S Misell
E-Mail : DSM@uk.AC.NE-LONDON-POLY
Postal : David S Misell, North East London Polytechnic
: Holbrook House, Holbrook Rd, London E15
Tel : 01-589-7722 ex 3230 c/o Secretary, Wendy.
:
:
Dear FUTURIST,
THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF A TALK GIVEN BY Professor Michael Cooley
The audience consisted of about 100 NELP Students and staff, and
was held at the holbrook site, home of the School for Independent
study.
The talk addressed the following topics: -
i) the development of the human centred computer/ work system.
ii) Projects under way using feedback to develop i.
:- EEC Human Centred CIM Systems, Espirit Project 1217 (1199)
Japanese 21st Century City development programme.
Japanese corporate policy.
West German engineering initiatives.
iii) Obvious faults with technology in our world.
iv) Parallels with the past
v) Problems with implementing our models and styles of science
These were the major topics on which He based his talk which was
accompanied by a slide show and followed by a Question and Answer
session. The following I now exract from copious notes.
The populist view of history is that containing May-Poles and
Sonnets - the reality is more like Squallor and filth. New technology
has brought us to the brink of a turning point in the way in which we
relate to each other and work etc.
A letter now takes longer to get from Washington to New York than
in the days of the stage-coach, but we now have communications networks
that can send information wherever there is a telephone line within
seconds. There is an immense reality gap within technology - While
design engineers tailor cars for high performance at average speeds of
120 MPH the average speed of cars on city roads is 6.8 MPH whereas the
horse drawn carriage at the turn of the century along the same roads
had an average speed of 8.7 MPH.
The blind still hobble around in much the same fashion of
Dickensian times.
Norbalt Vienor ( I am not sure of spelling), at Bremen in "Human
use of Human being." states that :-
Machines are subject to human Criticism, but that criticism may be
delayed until long after the technology is effective.
There is a well known leaked West German document that details
plans to turn de-commisioned Nuclear Reactors into "Beautiful
Mountains", burying the problem for future generations to deal with.
In showing a spray robot how to do his job the worker`s
consciousness is absorbed, he loses his bargaining power in conferring
life on machine.
do we elevate to a universal level the obsession to computerise
all. Increasingly we talk to machines and not people. Olivetti have
an advert in which a "Dolly-bird Secretary " smiles glee-fully at a
word-processor. The reality is that secretaries will be required to be
more productive- No-more chatting, walking around, dreaming.
When pressed for the source of his inspiration at a Seattle talk
Einstein said that at 14 he had imagined waht it would be like to be a
ray of light looking back at the Earth. Imagination is far more
important than knowledge
Scientific society now admits the damage of an Agriculture in which
4% of the population of the 19th Century now produce many times as
much.
The EEC would not allow the sale of a mother's milk however because
of the pollutants.
Studies in catastrophe theory and of the green-house effect are
accepted whereas in the 60s they were not. the practicl person is
under-rated. In Germany a general engineering apprentice-ship is the
norm, whereas here in England the basic operation of a single process
within a factory is all to common as an "Apprenticeship"
In Germany a single failure within a factory is not sufficient to
impair production. Here it is without workers having the
where-with-all to make local changes, and management un-aware of the
potential of their employees.
The German policy of Arbeitskriese " Alternative Production " looks
into all asepcts of work as a whole.
The Japanese approach is to now get away from the automated factory
without workers, and to use feed-back from workers, and although not
giving them control to continually use their ideas - the gold in
workers minds. A senior Mitsubishi executive was heard to say "We are
going to win, your firms are built on a tailor method, and so are your
heads ".
The Japanese have several related policies to ensure that they
maintain a position of world influence.
The tactic of cornering world patents of an inter-linking nature
gives them control over the style of technology development. Each city
has a holistic plan for development by the yaer 2001 encompassing all
levels of technology- the saying LIBERTY-VITALITY-CREATIVITY-OSAKA
2001. Is the summary of a project in which feedback from people of all
sorts produces the plan.
The technology of today has led to an 1800 by designers using
automated systems - and yet has allowed creativity to dwindle to
insignificance. " No-longer think of humans but as operating units as
" Metal parts or other materials. They are fragile, subject to
fatigue, obselescence, even death. They even seek to design their own
material and that is unforgivable in a material.
The American Machinist has summarised the best worker as having a
mental age of 12. That would be fine if the aim were to employ the
mentally handi-capped, but it is not and as Prof Noble at MIT points
out We learn through work, and if you are not a vegetable at the time
you enter such a factory then you are by the time you come out.
Prof Goddard of MIT has been known for his work on analogue
systems. the use of suitable equipment leads in turning to a 40
programming times, this may not be predicatble or repeatable, but
works. Unfortunately it leaves the power with the shop-floor worker -
unacceptable to management.
Drawing in the form of cave walls has been with us for many
thousand years. It is estimated that as a means of communicating it
will dissappear by 1995
At Cornell University the library was designed as a computer data
structure which could be moved around, by anyone using the VDU to look
at it. This allowed movement of a picture but in an attempt to replace
reality could never hope to model the abstractions of the smell of
green grass, the feel of the ground or shadows, and yet was accepted as
reality.
Three Ph D Aero-Engineers working on design of a complex surface
for an after-burner using Kuhn's (? ) Pattern surface definition found
it impossible to design a suitable contour shape - Imagine their
surprise when a traditional designer and a sheet metal worker already
had. They were forced to accept that the pair had completed the work
without understanding.
As Po-Yang put it : I Know but cannot tell.
The technology must if it is to develop fully have a Human Centred
Approach for in that way the limits of what is possible are truely mind
blowing.
Twin is the third world Information Network- a UK charity
networking between the 1st and 3rd world it's quarterly THE NETWORK is
available from:- TWIN 345 GOSWELL RD LONDON E1V 7JT 7 POUNDS P.A.)
ESPIRIT :- ESTABLISH DESIGN CRITERIA FOR HUMAN CENTRED CIM SYSTEMS
ESTABLISH ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL COMPETITIVENESS ACHIEVE BETTER
WORKING ENVIROMENT ACHIEVE HIGH LEVEL OF FLEXIBILITY AND ROBUST CIM
SYSTEMS DEFINE TRAINING FOR A NEW TYPE OF MULTI-SKILLED WORKER
DEMONSTRATE IN EUROPE THAT THERE IS BETTER ORGANISING AND MANUFACTURE.
CAP -in Germany, CAD in Denmark, CAM in Denmark. The consortium:
Greater London Enterprise Board in Britain Ronald Mackay, Project
manager ESPIRIT PROJECT 1217 (1199) GLEB 63-67 Newington Causeway
London SE1 6BD GB +44 1 403 0300
I hope that I have'nt missed to much. The views expressed are not
all mine and I am a poor transcriptor . DAVID S MISELL NE-LONDON-POLY
FEB 1989