ABSTRACT
Some predictions about automation seem conservative enough: faster, cheaper, generally more powerful computer chips—and therefore more computer chips and more computers in a greater variety of forms—in the office, factory, hospital, school, home, and automobile. The tendency of the public is to think of automation as a replacement for people. An anxious public demands safety of automation, and generally it is getting safety, but the situation is not all rosy, and there are complications. As automation is steadily being introduced, air transportation is gradually getting safer. During automatic action the humans monitor high-level displays of information, which present an integrated picture of what is happening in the system, and specify new goals and procedures to be implemented through the computer interface. This new human-machine relation is more and more coming to characterize modern factories, offices, transportation systems, hospitals, buildings, and homes.
