Concepts

This is one of the shorter chapters because, with the exception of road vehicles, the research effort is considerable but the practical application is limited and shows no signs of expanding rapidly in the near future. Nevertheless it is worthwhile to introduce the topic because at least potentially there is a considerable Human Factors contribution to the issues.

The technology-based society

The issue in general terms is that, throughout the world, changes in the environment, work and leisure are now based on advances in technology. If these changes are left to the physical scientists and engineers the consequences are not entirely satisfactory to the customer, the ordinary citizen. In his role as the people's representative in technology design teams the Human Factors specialist ought to take some responsibility for improving this state of affairs. There are a number of difficulties:

–the ultimate responsibility is with the politicians elected to government, but in terms of intellect, education and training, politicians are not well equipped to assimilate and weight the conflicting advice they receive, and national constitutions were designed for a different era. For example, most countries have a governmental Department of Transport, but no country has an integrated transport policy. There are too many vested interests, the interactions are too complicated, the consequences of decisions extend well beyond the life cycle of any one government – in general the problem is too big. Some impact is possible at regional and district levels, but not on a national scale.