ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the void between the control and the display in the humancomputer interface. The concepts of computer programming, artificial intelligence, and artificial life emerged in close succession, thanks largely to the work of John von Neumann. As we saw in Chapter 11, the first computer required a human to set a myriad of knobs and dials to correspond to a desired computational operation. The basic concept of computer programming allowed the user to specify and implement most of the control operations in a fast and flexible fashion (Heppenheimer, 1990). In doing so, however, there became a disjoint between the control operations required to set the functions of the machine, and the control operations required to operate the machine. For instance, what I imagine that I am doing now-typing text for this book through a keyboard interface-is substantially different from what a computer programmer did at another place in time. The programmer specified the rules by which my keystrokes converted into text that I see on the screen or on paper if I were to use the control actions for producing a print.
