MODES OF REASONING IN THEORIES OF THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

This paper briefly reviews difficulties in the way scientists and engineers reason about the relationship between human and machine. It argues that there is a polarisation between technically-oriented reasoning on the one hand, and socially-oriented reasoning on the other. It draws on the application of manufacturing business systems to health-care in order to unpack some of these polarities. The paper proposes a re-assessment of human-centred systems (HCS) thinking as a way to address these polarities, and seek a more equitable balance between the social and the technical.