ABSTRACT
The computerization of work and living interferes with evolved human capabilities for interacting with a physical environment. Humans evolved to change their locations, change their environment, accomplish their own goals, and execute tasks by relying on feedback from their natural sensory motor capabilities. Increasingly, natural human capability is artificially amplified. Natural capability for action is amplified through tools such as hammers or pointing devices. Natural capability for attributing meaning to input is amplified through interpretive processes that mediate between the physical environment and a human recipient. In the ideal case, the interpretive process provides outputs that make contact with the recipient’s knowledge and skills. In this sense, human-human and humanmachine interactions in work and everyday life have evolved from physical, energy-based interactions to abstract, information-based interactions, and they are often stripped of the multimodal richness that promotes a coherent understanding.
