ABSTRACT
When dealing with expert systems, researchers, engineers and manufacturers tend to stress the advantages of new technologies whereas social scientists often concentrate on the risks. The risks of jeopardizing the generation and preservation of human expert competence, are likely to vary according to the type of company problem which is dealt with by the use of expert systems (XPS). XPS extend the limits of what is technically feasible, yet they are confined by the general limits of formalizing human competence and the fundamental limits of the feasibility of planning all company processes and sequences. Whichever way the level of expectations may turn the present discussion gives us more reason to fear that the company's reality will have to adapt to the restrictions set by expert systems, rather than hope that XPS-technology will be adapted to the reality of work, to human potential and thus to a humane, low-risk and future-oriented organization of work.
