ABSTRACT
Conceptually, biological and socioeconomic evolution have occurred concurrently. However, their rates have been differential. Within a minuscule fraction of time socioeconomic evolution has occurred at an explosive rate. The latter was considerably aided by the Industrial Revolution of the New World. So much so, this has revolutionized the human obsession with wealth far beyond the biological necessity of survival. The progressive development of technology has also continued to change rapidly the nature of work and the demand on the worker. Nonetheless, most occupations require varying amounts of perceptual, cognitive, and motor efforts to execute any task. Since the media of action related to task execution changed from psychological to physical to environmental realms, the limitations of and optimal interfacing with them have become critical for safety, comfort, and efficiency. Ergonomics is a science which deals with characteristics of each of these realms in the context of work and endeavors to optimize the compatibility between them.
