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At a recent ERASMUS lecture on "Delinquent Genius" in Brighton , Mike Cooley, the architect of the human centred debate, reflected on the double edge nature of man's technology which produced the beauty of Venice and hideousness of Chernobyl, the architectural beauty of the Taj Mahal and the shamelessness of Bhopal. What makes the delinquent genius to turn the potential of information technology from stimulating human creativity and social progress, into an instrument of control which reduces human beings as abject machine appendages?
In the age of global competitiveness the objective of science and technology is determined in terms of exploiting natural resources, manipulation of data and control of nature. This notion of the "Present Tense Technology" loses perspectives of the past and the future. The proponents of this technology talk about the world in terms of an 'artificial laboratory' in which the human is just a functional unit; manufacturing in terms of lean production and automation in which the human is just a cog of the machine; innovation in terms of total quality control and total quality management in which the human is just a 'spread sheet'; the citizen in term of a customer whose needs, aspirations, obligations, duties, and functions are all determined by the market.
The 'rampant delinquent' has been playing uneven odds. In this uneven game, the notions of 'automation' and 'artificial' reality' regard humans as reserved spectacles. The delinquent which has turned flowers into plastic, birds into battery hens, life as television soaps, our spirit as an illusion, our humanity as a liability, our skills as an uncertainty, also instructs us that we are machines and that we should live in factory cities, and expects us to behave as machines.
The arrogance of the delinquent genius is derived from the flawed idea of science and technology which accepts only causal explanations, and which then leads to the conclusion that the human is a machine. There is now an increasing recognition of alternative forms of science and technology which are based upon human intentionality and human purpose.
Five years ago the AI & Society journal grew out of a deep concern about the notion of the 'causal science and technology', the growing straightjacket of techno-centric notions of progress, and about the short-termism of market-led education and research. AI & Society provided an alternative humanistic forum for the long term debate on science and technology, and has since then contributed to the widening of the human-centred debate from the narrow horizon of 'manufacturing production' to a wider horizon of 'working and living' environments.
AI & Society is entering into the next stage of its forum on 'working and living environment' and is looking for participation of our readers and contributions from authors on wider issues such as The role and impact of information technology on industrial, business, research, education, and training policies; Sociology and politics of technology; Innovation, creativity and sustainability; Information policies and quality of services; Human centred systems, anthropocentric systems; Identity, consciousness, cultural diversity; Vulnerability and ethics; Ecology, holistic, human and social forms; Science and technology cohesion and co-development.
Reference
Mike Cooley's forthcoming book" Delinquent Genius" (early 1993).
Details form Mike Cooley, 95 Sussex Place, Slough, Berk SL1 1NN, England
Karamjit S Gill
Editor