Discussion

Abstract

A recurring question in the design of teleprogramming systems is, at what level should the human operator interact with the machine? In the present implementation, only low-level interaction is possible—the decision to use such an approach being made based on our intuition that performing tasks in the real world (and particularly recovering from errors) would be particularly difficult and unsuitable to automated approaches. It was our feeling that, if tasks could not be performed when a human was making all the high-level decisions, then they probably could not be performed at all.

“The many levels in a complex computer system have the combined effect of cushioning the user, preventing him from having to think about the many lower-level goings-on… A passenger in an aeroplane does not usually want to be aware of the level of fuel in the tanks, or the wind speeds, or how many chicken dinners are to be served, or the status of the rest of the air traffic around the destination… it is when something goes wrong— such as his baggage not arriving—that the passenger is made aware of the confusing system of levels underneath him.”

—Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid, D. R. Hofstadter, Penguin Books, 1980.