ABSTRACT
The Hudson River incident and the disaster in the Atlantic Ocean discussed in Chapter 1 serve as reminders of the difficulty of designing fully fail-proof systems. There are recurring themes within these stories that should be remembered when designing systems, such as keeping the operator in the loop, maintaining effective operator-machine interaction, and ensuring that the operator is in control of his or her machine partner. The Hudson River incident demonstrates humankind’s brilliant ability to adapt to unknown situations. No matter how intelligent machines become, systems designers should not underestimate or forget human creativity and adaptability-the human cannot be replaced. Optimal human-machine interaction can only be achieved through the effective design of IASs.
