ABSTRACT
There is no more dramatic illustration of the role and ubiquity of performance variability in nature than the panorama of evolution. As noted in the introduction to Chapter 1, this conclusion is explicit in Darwin’s original account of the role of performance variability in the emergence of species, “descent with modification.” With regard to the field of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) targeted by this bookprimarily concerned with the interaction of human performance and design of the performance environment-both human performance and designs created by such performance are products of evolution acting over millions of years.
