Concluding Thoughts on Productivity

Computers are universal machines. They can, by manipulating just zeros and ones, work in almost any situation. Yet reality is composed of a wide variety of particular circumstances. The rules for order storage and manipulation are pretty standard for Sporty’s (and followed by the computer) yet the filling of orders is seen as a very particularized activity (and done by people) all in order to achieve the real goal—to meet customer expectations. Sporty’s knows how to focus on the task at hand, not on the use per se of the computer. The focus on task rather than on the means to accomplish it is important to achieve productivity.

At bottom, the roadblock to using computers productively may lie in our traditional, western way of thinking about knowledge and how it relates to reality.

The brothers Dreyfus suggest that:

… once the Greeks invented logic and geometry, the idea that all expertise might be reduced to some kind of calculative reasoning has fascinated most of the Western tradition’s rigorous thinkers. So we arrive at the self-evident claim that computers and people alike are rule-following, symbol-manipulating, rational beings.

Dreyfus
p. 132

If this is so why not let computers take over? Don’t we both think the same? And doesn’t then the computer just think faster (and more accurately)?

But have we been created that way? We certainly can follow rules and manipulate symbols rationally. We do that in a variety of ways. But we also create meaning for these computer manipulations. And, within our createdness we should be doing so in love, for a purpose that will enhance our lives, the lives of our neighbors, and in so doing be an imago Dei. Should we not then use the computer for what it can do best while we add meaning to its results and then use them in a responsible, thoughtful manner? Isn’t this how to really achieve productive machine-human systems?

We know why we are doing what we do (unlike the novice) and especially we know the context within which we are doing them (like the expert). The computer does not possess this contextual information. It is a novice. And we are responsible, not the computer. While the computer thinks in reduced calculative, symbol manipulating terms, we work holistically, taking in the entire system at one time. That is who we are.

It is my belief that when we design and utilize computer systems to enhance norms or values mentioned in this paper we may see genuine productivity that is not only economically viable but also satisfying to the soul.