ABSTRACT
In CSE, the concept of the Joint Cognitive System becomes the critical unit of
analysis for work systems. The opposition, separation, and substitution of people
and machines disappears (Woods & Tinapple, 1999). The goal is to design for
coordination and resilience of the joint system as it adapts to the demands of work
and adapts artifacts to support strategies for work. This is in stark contrast to the
repeated attempts to design and embody autonomous algorithms as means to
overcome human limits and to substitute these for human involvement (JCSFoundations, p. 17). Historically, the substitution approach has been encapsulated
through (cf., JCS-Foundations, pp. 121-123):
• Continuing attempts to update lists of what machines do well versus what
people do well (based on the original attempt by Fitts, 1951, hence the name
Fitts List; cf. also, Hoffman et al., 2002);
• Continuing attempts to define different degrees of substitution between
people and automation given different levels of autonomy and authority of machines (e.g., Sheridan 1992; JCS-Foundations, Figure 6.2, p. 119);
• Continuing attempts to design systems based on allocation of tasks between
people and machines, which assumes decomposability of work into
independent parts or tasks.
