Fellows,
Short and straight: we are not talking of design automatons, but of expert
systems or knowledge-based engineering applications.
Such applications are bundled with human knowledge content. Before it has
been used, there is at least a team of people that worked in its
'construction', lending their design rules to the application database.
In this question, we do return to Friedman's post, and we can assure he is
right by taking this point into consideration.
The thing that may frighten some of the list is that 'anyone' could design
without the help of a specialized person.
But I think the experience of 'anyone' can't equal - in general sense
(perceptions, cognitions and rules of thumb) - the experience of a
professional designer (engineer or industrial designer).
So, I do return to the point that designing is an human act and can't be
made without the human sense - even if such sense is to be the common and/or
individual sense of 'anyone' instead of professional.
With my best regards,
Vinicius Kaster Marini, Mech. Eng.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Federal University of Santa Maria
Post-Graduation Program in Agricultural Engineering
Design and Usage of Agricultural Machinery
|