The Sciences of the Artificial (The MIT Press)

by Herbert A. Simon

At microsocial levels of design it is tacitly assumed that the professional architect, attorney, civil engineer, or physician works for a specified client and that the needs and wishes of the client determine the goals of the professional’s work. In this model of professional activity the architect designs a house that meets the living requirements of the client, while the physician plans a course of treatment for the patient’s ailments. Although in practice matters are not so simple, this definition of the professional role greatly facilitates the development of technologies for each of the professions, for it means that consequences going beyond the client’s goals don’t have to enter into the design calculations. The architect need not decide if the funds the client wants to spend for a house would be better spent, from society’s standpoint, on housing for low-income families. The physician need not ask whether society would be better off if the patient were dead.