Toward a Theory of Complex and Cognitive Systems

• The Aretha Franklin Principle: Do not devalue the human in order to justify the machine. Do not criticize the machine in order to rationalize the human. Advocate the human-machine system in order to amplify both. 1 • The Sacagawea Principle: Human-centered computational tools need to support active organization of information, active search for information, active exploration of information, reflection on the meaning of information, and evaluation and choice among action sequence alternatives. 2 • The Lewis and Clark Principle: The human user of the guidance needs to be shown the guidance in a way that is organized in terms of his or her major goals. Information needed for each particular goal should be shown in a meaningful form, and should allow the human to directly comprehend the major decisions associated with each goal. 2 • The Envisioned World Principle: The introduction of new technology, including appropriately human-centered technology, will bring about changes in environmental constraints (that is, features of the sociotechnical system, or the context of practice). Even though the domain constraints might remain unchanged, and even if cognitive constraints are leveraged and amplified, changes to the environmental constraints might be negative. 3 • The Fort Knox Principle: The knowledge and skills of proficient workers is gold. It must be elicited and preserved , but the gold must not simply be stored and safeguarded. It must be disseminated and utilized within the organization when needed. 4 • The Pleasure Principle: Good tools provide a feeling of direct engagement. They simultaneously provide a feeling of flow and challenge. 5 • The Janus Principle: Human-centered systems do not force a separation between learning and performance. They integrate them. 6 • The Mirror-Mirror Principle: Every participant in a complex cognitive system will form a model of the other participant agents as well as a model of the controlled process and its environment. 7 • The Moving Target Principle: The sociotechnical workplace is constantly changing, and constant change in environmental constraints might entail constant change in cognitive constraints, even if domain constraints remain constant. 3 The term " principle " doesn't actually do much work in science. Colloquially, it's used as a tacit reference to laws, as in " This device works according to the principle of gravity. " What are these so-called principles? Our answer leads to additional considerations involving the use of the principles. Are the principles we've proposed simply aids …