"Origin of Species"

Man-Computer Symbiosis
 

Summary

"Man-computer symbiosis is an expected development in cooperative interaction

between men and electronic computers. It will involve very close

coupling between the human and the electronic members of the partnership.

The main aims are 1) to let computers facilitate formulative thinking

as they now facilitate the solution of formulated problems, and 2) to enable

men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex

situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs.

In the anticipated symbiotic partnership, men will set the goals, formulate

the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. Computing

machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare

the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking. Preliminary

analyses indicate that the symbiotic partnership will perform intellectual

operations much more effectively than man alone can perform them.

Prerequisites for the achievement of the effective, cooperative association

include developments in computer time sharing, in memory components, in

memory organization, in programming languages, and in input and output

equipment.

1.1 Symbiosis

The fig tree is pollinated only by the insect Blastophaga grossorun. The

larva of the insect lives in the ovary of the fig tree, and there it gets its

food. The tree and the insect are thus heavily interdependent: the tree

cannot reproduce wit bout the insect; the insect cannot eat wit bout the tree;

together, they constitute not only a viable but a productive and thriving

partnership. This cooperative “living together in intimate association, or

even close union, of two dissimilar organisms” is called symbiosis [27].

“Man-computer symbiosis” is a subclass of man-machine systems. There

are many man-machine systems. At present, however, there are no mancomputer

symbioses. The purposes of this paper are to present the concept

and, hopefully, to foster the development of man-computer symbiosis by analyzing

some problems of interaction between men and computing machines,

calling attention to applicable principles of man-machine engineering, and

pointing out a few questions to which research answers are needed. The

hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines

will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will

think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not

approached by the information-handling machines we know today."

Excerto do artigo de J.C.R. Licklider escrito em 1960.