Abstract
The founding father of design science was Herbert E. Simon. Well known for his work on AI, decision making, and economics, Simon wrote a thought-provoking book called Sciences of the Artificial in the 1960s (Simon 1996). His profound insight was that certain phenomena or entities are “artificial” in the sense that they are contingent to the goals or purposes of their designer. In other words, they could have been different had the goals been different (as opposed to natural phenomena which are necessarily evolved given natural laws). He further posits: Since artifacts are contingent, how is a science of the artificial possible? How to study artifacts empirically? On the other hand, Simon also deals with the notion of complexity. This is necessary because artificiality and complexity are inextricably interwoven.
People sometimes ask me what they should read to find out about artificial intelligence. Herbert Simon’s book Sciences of the Artificial is always on the list I give them. Every page issues a challenge to conventional thinking, and the layman who digests it well will certainly understand what the field of artificial intelligence hopes to accomplish. I recommend it in the same spirit that I recommend Freud to people who ask about psychoanalysis, or Piaget to those who ask about child psychology: If you want to learn about a subject, start by reading its founding fathers.
– George A. Miller, Complex Information Processing
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Hevner, A., Chatterjee, S. (2010). Design Science Research Frameworks. In: Design Research in Information Systems. Integrated Series in Information Systems, vol 22. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5653-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5653-8_3
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