Ernesto Arias / Gerhard Fischer Fall 97, Information Society Course

Assignment 1

due: September 8th in class

Read E.G. Arias: "Designing in a Design Community: Insights and Challenges", in Proceedings of DIS'95, Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems (Ann Arbor, MI), New York, pp. 259-263 - and summarize (in half a page) what you consider the most important ideas of this paper!

Read G. Fischer: "Making Learning a Part of Life" - and summarize (in half a page) what you consider the most important ideas of this paper!

Read Chapter 1 in the book by Simon

Summarize (in half a page) what you consider the most important issues discussed in the chapter; specifically, discuss your point of view with respect to the following two statements:

  1. A simulation is not better than the assumptions built into it.

  2. A computer can only do what it is programmed to do.

Read Chapter 2 in the book by Simon!

Summarize (in half a page) what you consider the most important issues discussed in the chapter; specifically, discuss your point of view with respect to the following two issues:

  1. describe situations where "satisfycing" is the most promising way to reach a solution? Discuss 'why'?

  2. discuss the role of evolution (in a context chosen by you; e.g. in software engineering, in writing a book, in organizing a large information store, etc.)

Remember the famous saying of Pascal: "I made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it shorter!"