Green's little ironies

Ironies of automation

-This paper discusses the ways in which automation of industrial processes may expand rather than eliminate problems with the human operator. Some comments will be made on methods of alleviating these problems within the "classic' approach of leaving the operator with responsibility for abnormal conditions, and on the potential for continued use of the human operator for on-line decision-making...

Genes, greens, and homocysteine.

Historical ironies: the Australian Aboriginal art revolution*

Margaret Preston, an Australian painter, has been credited as the first nonanthropologist to begin to explore Australian Aboriginal art as an art. Preston saw in Aboriginal painting the well-spring for an ‘indigenous art of Australia’. The seeking of a national identity, and specifically a connection with place, is common to many if not most societies, reflecting a Herderian idea of art, langua...

The Ironies of Instability in Indonesia

Indonesia seems perpetually condemned to “live in interesting times,” as the famous Chinese curse goes. The past decade has seen the country attract global notoriety as a land of recurrent economic shocks, ethnic confl icts, terrorist bombings, separatist rebellions, and natural catastrophes. Political authorities have appeared too corrupt and inept to respond effectively. Thus, when Susilo Bam...

Assimilation and Its Discontents: Ironies and Paradoxes

“I have endeavoured to guard myself against the enthusiastic prejudice which holds that our civilization is the most precious thing that we possess or could acquire and that its path will necessarily lead to heights of unimagined perfection... One thing only do I know for certain and that is that man’s judgments of value follow directly his wishes for happiness—that, accordingly, they are an at...