Chapter 4: The Ecology of the Augmented Mind: Designing Immersive Human+Computer Systems

Despite the guiding principles of systems thinking, the early cyberneticists had no practical tools to enact and iterate entire socio-technical systems. The advent of data rich networked computing put the unprecedented power of social engineering in the hands of owners and designers of socio-technical networks and social media platforms.¹ Companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google have already given us glimpses of the potential power of data-driven human–computer networks. What we have seen so far is just the beginning. Sociotechnical system design is emerging as one of the most consequential areas of systems design yet. In this and the next chapter, I lay out my proposal for how we can usher the creation of ecological and socially viable human–computer symbiosis based on two essential tasks. The first one of these involves (1) the creation of a framework for the design, implementation, and iteration of purposeful, multi-minded, participatory immersive H+C systems. The second one is focused on (2) the extended reality experience (XRX) design practice that rhetorically persuades users to actively engage with immersive systems. I will address XRX design in the next chapter and focus on the first task here. The proposed framework is based on the work of family therapists Paul Watzlawick, Jane Beavin Bavelas, Don D. Jackson, organizational management designer Jamshid Gharajedaghi, gaming scholars Brian Upton and Jeremy Gibson Bond, sociologist Bruno Latour, and polymath Gregory Bateson, among others. As it will become apparent, these researchers and practitioners were first and foremost concerned with human well-being, communication, purposeful behavior, experience, and social cohesion. The chapter builds on these foundations to introduce a number of conceptual tools, such the Seven Dimensions of H+C Immersion Design, and the Layered H+C System Design framework to guide system designers through the balancing act of immersing humans into the hyper real worlds of computer simulation.