Process Adaptation for Human-Computer Interaction

This paper introduces the concept of “process adaptation” as a human-computer interaction (HCI) approach which differs from the currently used HCI approaches in considering the humans and the computers as part of one holistic system. The society as a social system is viewed, from “process adaptation” perspective, as comprising two co-evolving subsystems: · a human-subsystem, considered in sense of traditional self-organizing social system but characterized with the knowledge/abilities to use given technology (involving particular type of software) or with the knowledge/abilities to accept a new technology; · a machine-subsystem (software) which is product of human activities and whose particular form is defined by the abilities of the society to produce it and by the knowledge/abilities of the society to use it, thus emerging as social entity. The evolution of the society comprehends the dynamics in development of these two subsystems. They augment each other’s capacities and provide a context for each other’s development. Thus the form of HCI at a given stage is product of the social evolution. To facilitate the human-computer interactions the concept of “process adaptation” requires establishing co-evolving social systems in which the evolutionary process is provided by continuous and simultaneous (to each other) adaptation of the human and machine components.