The Humanity of Humanless Systems

Abstract

This work considers the future of human interaction with progressively more autonomous systems. I argue that the temporal dissonance between the human’s ‘cycle time’ and machine ‘cycle time,’ will become an overwhelming barrier to collaborative interaction. We may slow machines, we may buffer information exchange, we may default to meta-levels of strategic interchange but in the end all transparency of information interchange will dissolve under the driving influence of time. HF/E is thus already fighting rear-guard action. The question remains as to the sustenance of human quality of life in this evolving milieu.