From the January 2004 Scientific American Magazine | 0 comments

Why Machines Should Fear ( Preview )

Once a curmudgeonly champion of "usable" design, cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman argues that future machines will need emotions to be truly dependable

By W. Wayt Gibbs

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Slowly and with care, Donald A. Norman refills his teacup, but the tea drips down the pot anyway. I look down at the small puddles of green tea on the restaurant table and back up at Norman. Here it comes, I think, bracing myself for a classic Norman fulmination on how basic design flaws in ordinary objects are the true sources of most "human error." After all, such cantankerous critiques in his 1988 book The Psychology of Everyday Things were what brought him international fame outside the narrow field of cognitive science.

But Norman calmly wipes his napkin over the spill without comment. Although he still calls himself a user advocate, these days he focuses less on the failures of modern technology and more on its potential, envisioning a world populated by well-performing, easy-to-use and even emotive machines.

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