Skip to main content
Log in

Reconstructing human-centred technology: Lessons from the Hollywood dream factory

  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A post-modernist analysis of human-centred technology (HCT) suggests the ideology which informs the theoretical and practical development of HCT resonates with ideological representations of machine intelligence portrayed in science fiction (sf) films. It is argued that such an ideology reflects and reinforces ontological dualisms which constrain our ability to imagine and realise our future relations with technology. This paper invites proponents of HCT to meet their shadows, to transgress, the cultural and discursive borders constructed in the name of modernism, and to reflect on what is taken-for-granted and peripheralised within their own work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ansell-Pearson, K. (1997).Viroid Life. Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, G. (1979).Mind In Nature: A Necessary Unity. London: Fontana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1989). Scientific field and scientific thought. In: S. Ortner (ed)Author Meets Critics: Reactions to Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braidotti, R. (1996). Cyberfeminism with a difference.New Formations. 29:9–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brosnan, J. (1991).The Primal Screen: A History of Science Fiction Film, London: Orbit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruno, G. (1990). Ramble city: postmodernism andBlade Runner. In: A. Kuhn (ed)Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capra, F. (1996).The Web of Life. London: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooley, M.J.E. (1987).Architect or Bee? The Human Price of Technology. London: Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, J.M. (1992). Work at the interface: advanced manufacturing technology and job design. In: P.S. Adler and T.A. Winograd (eds)Usability: Turning Technologies Into Tools. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, J.M. (1995). Celluloid projections: images of technology and organisational futures in contemporary science fiction film.Organization 2, 456–488.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. and Parnet, c. (1987).Dialogues. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deluze, G. and Guattari, F. (1980).A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Paris: Minuit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downey, GL, Dumit, J. and Williams, S. (1995) Cyborg anthropology. In C.H. Gray (ed)The Cyborg Handbook, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, P.N. (1989). The closed world: systems discourse, military policy and post-World War II US historical consciousness. In: L. Levidow and K. Robins (eds)Cyborg Worlds. London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, P.N. (1994). Hypertext and hypertension: post-structuralist critical theory and social studies of science and software.Social Studies of Science. 24, 229–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, H.B. (1983). Don't look where we're going: visions of the future in science fiction films, 1970–82.Science Fiction Studies. 10, 19–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, M. (1993).Rewriting the Self: History, Memory and Narrative. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedrich, J. (1996). Design Science 76.AI and Society. 10, 199–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Game, A. and Pringle, R. (1984).Gender at Work. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, K. (1996). The human-centred movement: the British context.AI and Society. 10, 109–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D.J. (1991). A cyborg manifesto: science, technology and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century. In: D.J. Haraway,Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung, C.G. (1968).Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice. London: Rutledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jung, C.G. (1971).The Collected Works of C.G. Jung Volume 6. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, A. (ed) (1990).Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1993).We have Never Been Modern. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lytje, I. and Qvortrup, L. (1996). Editorial.AI and Society. 10, 107–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcuse, H. (1964).One Dimensional Man. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, E. (1970).The Origins and History of Consciousness. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qvortrup, L. (1996). Scandinavian human-centred systems design: theoretical reflections and challenges.AI and Society. 10, 164–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen, L.B. (1996). Human-centred methods of social and technical design. In: K. Gill (ed)Human Machine Symbiosis: The Foundations of Human-Centred Systems Design. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbrock, H.H. (1990).Machines With a Purpose. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushing, J.H. and Frentz, T.S. (1995).Projecting the Shadow: The Cyborg Hero in American Film. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, M. and Kellner, D. (1988).Camera Politica: Politics and Ideology of the Contemporary Hollywood Film. New York: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobchack, V. (1990). The virginity of astronauts: sex and the science fiction film. In: A. Kuhn (ed)Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabbi, J. (1995).Post-modern Sublime: Technology and American Writing From Mailer to Cyberpunk. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitmont, E.C. (1978).The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W.S. (1991). And/Or: one or the other, or both. In: J. Ballerini (ed)Sequence (con) Sequence: (Sub) Versions of Photography in the Eighties. New York: Aperture.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Martin Corbett.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Martin Corbett, J. Reconstructing human-centred technology: Lessons from the Hollywood dream factory. AI & Soc 12, 214–230 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01206196

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01206196

Keywords

Navigation