1. Dumb machine, dumb human - hammers, shovels, etc. (caveat: I'm not dissing the craftsmanship of a Michelangelo...I'm talking about information)
2. Smart machine, dumb human - monolithic systems (e.g., mainframes) with a priesthood of operators that tend to them. "human on the loop"
3. Dumb machine, smart human - distributed systems (e.g. networked PCs, pre-mobile Internet) with humans using the machine as a "speed of need" information tool in a fixed location. "human in the loop"
4. Smart machine, smart human - adaptive agent-like chunks of IT that we weave into our everyday sensemaking activities everywhere we go. "machine on the loop"
The last stage is just emerging...Apple's amazing market cap is evidence of the potential value of such a combination. However, it is a complete paradigm shift (in the strong Kuhnian sense of the word) from machine-centric to human-centric
It raises a fundamental issue: how do you enable humans to easily create, monitor, and manage automated micro-models/narratives? And, do all this within the daily flow of sensemaking?
I mentioned one possible approach a couple of years ago...it seems awfully crude in retrospect and it does not begin to address the create/monitor/manage challenge (which is the real "magic" in the ecosystems that Apple has created).
The only widely used general user IT *modeling* tool I can think of is a spreadsheet (Project is a specialist tool IMO). However, spreadsheet modeling is not done "on-the-fly", so it provides no insight into how to weave micro-modeling into sensemaking flow.
The challenge posed by a smart human, smart machine capability is daunting; the potential is incredible. The good news is that the necessary pre-conditions are largely in place, the needed tools are emerging, and we have some good frameworks for thinking about how to go about architecting this kind of IT (e.g., Klein's Data-Frame, Cynefin).
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