Mind, Machine and Morality

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'Professor Peter Hancock is the modern day Renaissance man, crossing discipline boundaries with ease. Mind, Machines and Morality treats us to a metaphysical account of the issues that touch our everyday lives. Peter tells a good story, often rooted in his personal experience, which draw the reader's attention to the crux of the big human-technology issues. This book will challenge your conceptions of the discipline of Human Factors; it will whet your appetite and leave you thirsting for more.' Neville Stanton, Brunel University, UK 'A delightful and penetrating philosophy of purpose and process in human-machine-society interactions, as only Peter Hancock can render it - liberally spiced with history, humor and erudition.' Tom Sheridan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , USA 'Mind, Machine and Morality is a masterwork by one of the great scientists and thinkers of our time. Hancock's theory relies on notions of perception-action coupling and goal-orientation of human-machine systems. Thus, were I to reach into history, I would say that Hancock has taken Edward C. Tolman's Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men and James J. Gibson's Ecological Psychology, arguably two of the great works in psychology, and extended them into the computer age, and well beyond. Hancock does far more than present tales of caution about the impact of machines on people: He presents tales of celebration of the human ability to adapt and to exercise its moral faculty. Hancock's intellect, itself charged with a clear sense of right and wrong, races across history, using poetry, lithograph, allegory, metaphor, and tales of modern technological woes. Just the set of poems by great poets about the dangers and woes of mechanization and machines is itself worth the price of admission. Hancock's mind courses across history to bring tales of technology and morality, juxtaposed in crystalline relief. Only a mind as far-reaching and at the same time as scientifically grounded as Hancock's co