The Design of Future Things by Don Norman Read Free Book Online Page B

horses or people. So, too, does the modern car behaviorally modify its speed, keep to its own lane, brake when it senses danger, and control other aspects of the driving experience.

    F IGURE 2.2
    Horse+rider and car+driver as symbiotic systems. A horse+rider can be treated as a symbiotic system, with the horse providing visceral-level guidance and the rider the reflective level, with both overlapping at the behavioral level. So, too, can a car+driver be thought of as a symbiotic system, with the car increasingly taking over the visceral level, the driver the reflective level. And, once again, with a lot of overlap at the behavioral level. Note that in both cases, the horse or the intelligent car also tries to exert control at the reflective level.
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    Reflection is mostly left to the rider or driver, but not always, as when the horse decides to slow down or go home, or, not liking the interaction with its rider, decides to throw the rider off or just simply to ignore him or her. It is not difficult to imagine some future day when the car will decide which route to take and steer its way there or to pull off the road when it thinks it time to purchase gasoline or for its driver to eat a meal or take a break—or, perhaps, when it has been enticed to do so by messages sent to it by the roadway and commercial establishments along the path.
    Car+driver is a conscious, emotional, intelligent system. When automobiles were first available at the very start of the twentieth century, the human driver provided all processing levels: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. As the technology improved, more and more visceral elements were added, so that the car took care of internal engine and fuel adjustments and shifting. With antiskid braking, stability controls, cruise control, and now lane-keeping functionality, the car has taken on more and more of the behavioral side of driving. So, with most modern cars, the car provides the visceral part, and the driver the reflective part, with both active at the behavioral level.
    The twenty-first-century automobile has more and more reflective components: the conscious, reflective parts of the car+driver are being taken over by the car itself. The reflective powers are evident in the adaptive cruise control that continuallyassesses how close the car is to other vehicles, navigation systems that monitor how well the driver conforms to instructions, and all systems that monitor the driver’s behavior. When the car’s reflective analyses find problems, they signal the person to change behavior or just simply correct it when possible—but the car will take over complete control when it determines that this is required.
    Someday cars will no longer need drivers. Instead, people will all be passengers, able to gossip, read, or even sleep while the car chauffeurs them to their destination. Do you enjoy driving? Fine, there will be special places set aside for people to drive their cars, just as those who enjoy horseback riding today have special places set aside for that activity. When this day arrives, and I expect it to happen some time in the twenty-first century, the entity known as car+driver will be extinct. Instead, we will have cars, and we will have people, just as we used to, except now the car will be visceral, behavioral, and reflective: a truly intelligent, autonomous machine, at least for the purposes of transportation, which will include not only the navigation and driving but also taking care of the comfort and well-being of the passengers, providing the right lighting, temperature, food and drink, and entertainment.
    Will passengers be able to have meaningful conversations with their cars? In the past, the human tendency to assign beliefs, emotions, and personality traits to all sorts of things has been criticized as anthropomorphism. As machines gain in their cognitive and emotional capacities, the anthropomorphism may not be so erroneous. These assignments might