Dear Gunnar,

You wrote,

“How does human computer interaction resemble religious or other
ceremonial activity and how could such activity inform human computer
interface?”

There is a great deal of information available on early mathematics,
religious culture, and scribal culture that shows a parallel to human
computer interaction, both on the programming side and on the user
interaction side.

Much early mathematics was done in temples to chart or understand the
seasons. Some reasons were practical: calendars, harvests, crops. Others
were religious: festivals, ceremonies, astrology. The same people
trained for mathematics also worked on problems in geometry for land
measurement, boundaries, and the like. And this had to do with training
civil servants and bureaucrats. Without asserting an overarching
doctrine of classes or oppression, the role of education in religious
organizations was an important part of the relationship between the
church and public administration. 

In medieval Europe, cathedral schools trained people who would work
professionally with numbers and letters as administrators for the church
or the state. The bishop was responsible for doctrine and the spiritual
life of the diocese. The senior priest of the cathedral – the dean –
had responsibility for education, and for the cathedral school. Some of
the first European universities grew out of cathedral schools to become
independent organizations chartered by bishops or the Pope, and later by
the crown or the ministry of education. The leaders of university
faculties took with them the title of dean, a title we share with senior
cathedral priests to this day. In contrast to early days, university
deans are now as likely to be female as male, and this is true of
cathedral deans in some denominations.

The information management processes of scribal culture were supported
by complex rules designed to preserve and transmit information
accurately. There are strict rules for the physical transcription of
sacred texts in many religions, and the Judaic and Islamic scribes
responsible for copying holy books have observed these rules for
centuries. Following the canonical organization of the sacred texts, the
text on the page has remained remarkably consistent. This also applied
to legal documents, wills, decrees, and many such texts. The word was
important – remember Yul Brynner as Ramses in The Ten Commandments:
“So let it be written, so let it be done.”

Several books describe scribal cultures and ways of life. These books
generally explain the influence of scribal culture on one aspect of
civilization or another, such as Karel van der Toorn’s 2009 Scribal
Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible from Harvard University Press
or a 1996 book by Jesuit scholar Robert Burns from University of
California Press titled Jews in the Notarial Culture: Latinate Wills in
Mediterranean Spain, 1250-1350. There is a new book out from the Society
for Biblical Literature titled Writing and Literacy in the World of
Ancient Israel that also discusses these issues – I have not yet seen
a copy, but the descriptions seem appropriate to your query.

As apt as all this is, it doesn’t quite fit because it is
metaphorical. We have only had computing machines for a short time.
While computers perform functions that bring together issues and
processes dating back many millennia, we only now have the kinds of
interfaces and interactive systems that computers create in a unified
environment.

On the interpretive side, exegetics and hermeneutics provide an
understanding of the interactive environment that users experience.
Henri de Lubac’s Four Senses of Medieval Exegesis is the classic in
the field. The four senses of exegesis are literal meaning, allegorical
interpretation, moral meaning with an emphasis on human conduct, and
anagogical meaning for future application. Within each text, one finds a
world of meaning – the goal of hermeneutics is to enhance our
interaction with the text and the world of meaning from which the text
arises. This is the world from which an author speaks to us in our
world. Anthony Thiselton’s books and Kevin Vanhoozer’s books offer
the best comprehensive overview of hermeneutics. On one hand, the
hermeneutical horizon of those who write a text established one context
for interaction. On the other, the reception and understanding of those
who receive a text establishes key measures of interaction. This is true
of artifacts and cultural processes as well. While Thiselton and
Vanhoozer are theologians, their work on hermeneutics can be usefully
applied to the social sciences in general, and – I suggest – to the
design sciences as well, including interaction design. This offers
useful approaches to research – and to design.

There is little computing in the Bible, but there are cases of
numbering and ceremonial activity. Let me wrap up with two short
fragments from Job:

“Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. He owned 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen and 500 female donkeys, as well
as a great number of servants; so that he was the wealthiest man in the
east.

“It was the custom of his sons to give banquets, each on his set day
in his own house; and they would invite their three sisters to eat and
drink with them.”

Job 1: 2-4

Or my favorite,

“Who gives the ibis wisdom
or gives the rooster understanding? 
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard 
and the clods of earth stick together?”

Job 38: 36-38

Not that the ibis explained things very well, either. 

To end on a ceremonial note: Skaal!

Ken

Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
| Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3 9214 6078 |
Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design