Chris,
We're saying pretty much the same thing, I think. The only difference
is that I draw a larger lasso around designing, to include certainly all
the non-codifiable stuff, but also at least some of the codifiable stuff.
Example: a case-based reasoning system once designed a faucet having
knowledge only of fundamentals of heat transfer and children's see-saws.
That is, the software designed something it had no information about.
You might argue that this wasn't 'real' design, but think about the
state of the software -- in its context, it *did* design something
entirely new.
You write about the boundary between what is and isn't design; I write
about the boundary between different kinds of design. But I think it's
the same boundary in the end.
Cheers.
Fil
Rust, Chris wrote:
> Fil:
>
>>>So, while for pragmatic reasons, we should work on the assumption that
>
> there are significant portions of designing that simply will not be
> automated, we should also remain open to the possibility that in time,
> we'll find new ways of thinking about design that, like the organised
> watchmaker, will change the boundaries of design that can and that
> cannot be automated.<<
>
> What I was trying to say in my original post on this was that once you have automated any design task it is not longer designing,
> just the practice of applying more or less complex rules. It will be the result of an engineer taking the wickedness out of that
> particular problem. Designing, as Horst Rittel pointed out is essentially about social system problems, arising because our
> society and our wishes step outside what has been codified.
>
> Meanwhile if anybody hopes that machines can go beyond processing codified problems but needs a good primer on the subject I
> recommend the BBC Radio "In Our Time" download on "Machines that Think" at
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20051208.shtml
>
> If you don't know the "In Our Time" Series it's worth paying attention to. The archive is a terrific collection of learned
> discussions on the history of ideas and it's available as a podcast so you can get each weekly edition delivered to your computer
> or Ipod. If you want to know more about Gravity, Cynicism, Heaven, Asteroids or the Field of the Cloth of Gold, IoT is the
> place to go.
>
> Best Wishes from Sheffield
> Chris Rust
>
>
> ***************************************
> Professor Chris Rust
> Head of Art and Design Research Centre
> Sheffield Hallam University
> Psalter Lane
> Sheffield S7 1SF, UK
>
> +44 114 225 2686
> [log in to unmask]
> www.chrisrust.net
>
--
Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada
Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
Fax: 416/979-5265
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/
|
