Ergonomics and sustainability: Towards and embrace of complexity and emergence

Technology offers a promising route to a sustainable future, and ergonomics can serve a vital role. The argument of this article is that the lasting success of sustainability initiatives in ergonomics hinges on an examination of ergonomics' own epistemology and ethics. The epistemology of ergonomics is fundamentally empiricist and positivist. This places practical constraints on its ability to address important issues such as sustainability, emergence and complexity. The implicit ethical position of ergonomics is one of neutrality, and its positivist epistemology generally puts value-laden questions outside the parameters of what it sees as scientific practice. We argue, by contrast, that a discipline that deals with both technology and human beings cannot avoid engaging with questions of complexity and emergence and seeking innovative ways of addressing these issues.No Full Tex

Adaptive Work-Centered and Human-Aware Support Agents for Augmented Cognition in Tactical Environments

Abstract. We introduce a support system concept that offers both work-centered and human-aware support for operators in tactical command and control environments. The support system augments the cognitive capabilities of the operator by offering instant, personalized task and work support. The operator obtains support by entering into a collaborative agreement with support agents. Such an agreement creates opportunities to establish adaptive capabilities and human-aware support features. We describe the concept in and propose an experimental design to evaluate its effectiveness in tactical environments