Ironies of Automation¶
Bainbridge, L. (1983). Ironies of Automation. Automatica, 19(6), 775-779.
Cited by¶
6 citations across 6 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Domain-specific¶
- Operator-Vigilance Dependency
- The "irony of automation" (Bainbridge 1983) sharpens the paradox
Supported in partVerified against a saved copy of the source
“"title":["Ironies of automation"]”
- The "irony of automation" (Bainbridge 1983) sharpens the paradox
Mechanisms¶
- Assumption Testing Protocol
- The premise is false — automation induces monitoring complacency.
This sourceDocuments automation induces monitoring complacency.
- The premise is false — automation induces monitoring complacency.
- Human-in-the-Loop Operating Model
- Its failure mode is the ironies of automation — automate the easy majority and you leave humans only the rare, hard residual, while their vigilance and skill erode from disuse precisely where you need them sharpest.
This sourceExplains that automating routine work leaves human operators responsible for rare abnormal conditions while depriving them of the practice and vigilance needed to handle them.
- Its failure mode is the ironies of automation — automate the easy majority and you leave humans only the rare, hard residual, while their vigilance and skill erode from disuse precisely where you need them sharpest.
- Manual Continuity Workaround
- … that exists only on paper: an un-rehearsed manual procedure collapses under the stress of a real outage, because the skill to run the fallback has atrophied while everyone leaned on the automation — the irony that the more capable the automation, the less practiced the humans who must take over when it quits.
This sourceExplains how automation erodes the manual and cognitive skills needed for abnormal takeover and why instruction without practical rehearsal is inadequate.
- … that exists only on paper: an un-rehearsed manual procedure collapses under the stress of a real outage, because the skill to run the fallback has atrophied while everyone leaned on the automation — the irony that the more capable the automation, the less practiced the humans who must take over when it quits.
- Manual Override
- Its failure mode is the deep irony of automation: the override is invoked rarest when the automation is best, so the humans expected to take over in a crisis are the least practiced at it and the most surprised by the state they inherit.
This sourceExplains the automation irony in which rare manual intervention leaves human operators least practiced and least informed precisely when abnormal conditions require takeover.
- Its failure mode is the deep irony of automation: the override is invoked rarest when the automation is best, so the humans expected to take over in a crisis are the least practiced at it and the most surprised by the state they inherit.
- Tool Capability Addition
- Its failure mode is that a tool can automate a response so completely that the human skill to do it — or to catch the tool's errors — atrophies: the irony of automation, where the operator is left unable to take over at the very moment the tool is wrong.
This sourceExplains that automation can erode the manual and cognitive skills operators need precisely when abnormal conditions require them to take over.
- Its failure mode is that a tool can automate a response so completely that the human skill to do it — or to catch the tool's errors — atrophies: the irony of automation, where the operator is left unable to take over at the very moment the tool is wrong.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 1 of 6 citations: 1 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
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