On 11/6/07, Monika Krishan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So when speaking of augmentation, a clarification would have to made as to > whether the enhancement refers to human competence or human performance. > ..... and hence the related issue of "discovering human competencies".
Ah. *nods* Well, literally millions of volumes have been written on the subject, so you'll need to ask a more specific question :) Are you asking whether computers have enabled any completely new human competencies, anything we didn't in principle know beforehand how to do even the tiniest bit of? There aren't a lot of examples of that (and more or less by definition, we can't foresee future examples). Depending on how you define the terms, experimental mathematics, quantum chemistry and video games might mostly/almost qualify. (Programming itself, ironically, is a mostly/almost; the world's first programmer never did get her hands on a working computer.) ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=62205266-d3662d
