Cybor

How might we interact with future computers? Let me list the ways: by
\ gesture; by hand, foot, and body motion; by the speed and forcefulness of
DONALD A. NORMAN

1 our activities; by our thoughts, feelings, and emotions; by where, how,

/ / and when we look; by speech and sound; by music and touch. Imagine it,

//dind it shall come to pass? Not quite, but the potential is staggering, especially in the area of the cyborgthe implantation of bioelectronic devices to amplify human thought,
memory, vision, and muscle power.
To date, the way we interact
with computers has been incredibly unimaginative and limited.
Basically, we sit in front of the box
looking and listening, pointing
and typing, and occasionally talking. This will change, of course,
but the change will come about
primarily through changes in the
computer itself, getting rid of the
boxes and embedding them into
devices and appliances. After all,
we interact with the computers
that control our automobiles with
no awareness that computers are
involved. Instead, we watch the
road, evaluate the instruments
(including head-up displays),
rotate the steering wheel, depress
the pedals, and shift gears. The
auto changes state, adjusts the
braking, gears, and fuel/air
ratiosall without our awarenessby interpreting our inputs
as intentions, dynamically adjusting itself to the dynamics of our
actions and the car's responses.
New devices will be embedded in
whatever the appropriate physical
form factor for the activity, with
the interaction proceeding naturally, by whatever means is most
suitable.
On the one hand, the fundamentals of life and social settings
did not change all that much in

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the past millennium, perhaps

because so much is determined by
the environment, our biology,
and the laws of the physical
world. People are born, go
through a relatively slow maturation process of roughly 20 years,
lead an adult, active life, then
gracefully (or not so gracefiilly)
grow old and die. We need food,
shelter, medical care, and human
companionship. As a society, we
need governing bodies, laws, and
social institutions. Our behavior
is determined by the culture in
which we live, including its laws
and some enforcement agency.
We have developed the concept of
money as an aid in trading goods
and services, a body of law and an
enforcement mechanism to
restrict our behavior. Meanwhile,
the young must be educated to
learn the prior knowledge of the
society and the history and behavioral norms of the culture.
This much is also unlikely to
change in the millennium just
begun.
Human capability has long
been limited by biology. Our
mental and physical capabilities
are limited. Athletes have pushed
the limits of strength and
endurance. Human working
memory has always been limited

March 2001/Vol. 44. No. 3 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM

to a relatively small number of

items. Our minds, even of the
most talented, are limited. And as
we age, we go frail, both physically and mentally.
Up to now, our advances in
technology have functioned as
accessories, enhancing our capabilities but not making any
changes in our biology. But we
can see the beginnings of change.
Already, we have implanted pacemakers for the heart and artificial
organs. We have artificial limbs,
plastic lenses in our eyes, auditory
implants, and glasses and hearing
aids. Two pieces of technology
watches and cellular telephones
are now so much a part of life
that many people strap them to
their bodies, never to be without
them. For some of us, we might
add music players, whether by
radio, tape, or MP3 player.
For years, I resisted the notion
that technology would supplant
biology, but now I'm sure the
trend is inevitable. We are close to
the point where video cameras
and memory chips will be tiny
enough to be implanted within
our bodies. Add some simple circuitry, solve the power-supply
problem, and we could supplement hearing and sight, along
with memory and reasoning.

Tools and Technologies

Why not build a TV camera

with zoom lens into our eyes,
allowing magnification of distant
scenes or vision through infrared,
the better to see at night? Why
not amplifiers in our ears? And
why not recorders capable of saving all that we have heard, seen,
or even felt for later recall? Never
again does inattentiveness have to
mean missing something. Linger
over the interesting parts of life,
fast-forward through the boring
parts. Add some pattern recognition and never again would we be
at a loss for words or forget a
name or face. "Why John, good
to see you again. Your wife Elaine
had knee surgery; how did it go?
And your son Peter is about to
have a birthday..."
THE enhancements are apt to be
impressive. Memory aids, calculation aids. Decision aids. Implanted
dictionaries and translators. Arithmetic calculators.
Recognize that athletes enhance
their bodies to add strength. If it
is possible to increase muscle
power, why not brain power?
Today, we test athletes in an evermore difficult attempt to eliminate drug-enhanced performance.
Some day we may have to do full
X-ray (3D tomographic) scans in
an ever-more difficult attempt to
detect artificial implants.
Why? Because it is possible.
Today, we have not yet achieved
the necessary miniaturization, but
we can see how to get there. Power
is still a problem, but it will be
solved. At first, enhancements are
apt to be implanted for medical
reasons, but when people discover

that an artificial eye is better than

the real one, or that the memory
chip that remembers events,
names, and facts can be ever-present, the trend will be unstoppable. Order your implant today.
The major remaining hurdle is
the control circuitry. How does
one communicate with an
implanted circuit? Imagine it and
it shall come to pass? Not really.

Linger over the

interesting parts of
life, fast-forv^^ard
through the
boring parts.

The brain communicates with

itself through a complex, highly
parallel communication process
involving the firing patterns of
neural impulses, biochemical
stimulation that bathes the brain
structures with highly tuned molecular structures, and methods as
yet unknown. Just how information is stored, regenerated, and
interpreted within brain circuits
remains a major mystery, one
unlikely to be solved soon. Sure,
we can record neural firings from
tens of neurons. Sure we can stimulate neurons to create crude sensory images and coarse motor
control. But full-fledged, precise
control of the expert performer
eludes understandingwhich
means the behavior of all of us.

for we are all experts in doing our

everyday activities like walking,
talking, seeing, and feeling.
Note how easy it is for computers to perform tasks we fmd
difficult, such as arithmetic calculations and precise memory, how
difficult to perform tasks we find
trivial, such as walking and talking, throwing and seeing, understanding and creating.
The future holds major changes
in computers as they become specialized devices with specialized
forms, meaning we will interact
with them in an increasingly rich
set of natural ways. At the same
time, the future promises major
changes in humans, as technologies are embedded within our
bodies, altering our capabilities.
Not only will the devices we use
have increased power and dynamic
response, but the way they interact
with people will be more natural,
more complex, and more powerful. An incredible variety of new
devices will emerge, most not yet
conceived. Many will find their
way into the human body, to
amplify and transform our sensory, mental, and motor capacities.
Do you think the current concerns over privacy violations and
personal autonomy are large and
complex? You haven't seen anything yet. B

D O N A L D A. N O R M A N (don@jnd.org) is a

co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group

(www.nngroup.com) and president of UNext
Learning Systems, a distance education
company (www.unext.com).

Copyright held by author.

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