Automation, a curse or a blessing?

I spoke of the computer as a curse or an addiction (the computer pull). I spoke of the computer as a blessing or a means of liberation (an instrument on the road to Self-knowledge). Now, we can ask ourselves whether there is perhaps beauty in automation itself.

Beauty is a vital aspect behind creation. The great importance of beauty and the true function of art lie in breaking loose from petty thinking processes. The abundance of works of art gathered in the offices of this country’s largest IT bureau, Cap Gemini, and the carefully selected paintings that serve as illustrations in the annual reports of Cap Gemini Sogeti have the purpose of re-minding. Especially in the job of an IT professional, where ‘mechanicalism’ is always lurking, it is extremely important to be re-minded and not lose oneself in petty nonsense.

For the concept of beauty we will go back to the dialogue between Socrates and Diotima[30] about the question: What is beauty? In this dialogue, various forms of expressing beauty are discussed, such as physical beauty, subtle or mental beauty and causal beauty14), as well as the ulterior beauty itself. Beauty, after all, is not just external; there is a great wealth of internal beauty. Reasonable people reduce all events and actions to the inner source, the Self, pure conscience. Thus, they bring all of their actions under the reign of moderation, and they live healthy and conscientious lives15).

With respect to the concept of beauty, automation shows great similarity to mathematics. Automated solutions are well-ordered. The consistent order may show a certain beauty because of the ‘eternity’ of the consistency. A sense of measure and rhythm. The pleasure a mathematical mind derives from a harmonious formula or formulation is the same as the pleasure a true information technologist derives from a good, sound piece of software. Which experienced IT expert doesn’t feel that occasional sense of admiration at a certain formulation or solution, that feeling of: I would like to be able to do that.

Beauty in functional and technical design actually means: without muddle or petty embellishments16). A design should be orderly, straightforward, well-balanced and natural, against the background of a solid foundation. Many functional design reports either have ‘leaks’ (they are incomplete or inconsistent) or they are unreadable (intellectualistic). Another disaster is a beautiful functional design that is based on an incomplete information analysis. Because of the ensuing mass of changes and extensions, which one of my colleagues calls the ‘bay window phenomenon’, we still end up with a top-heavy system. In your own neighbourhood you undoubtedly know some beautiful, grand old house which doesn’t quite meet the functional demands of present-day living. As a result, so many dormers, bay windows and other extensions are added, that the original architectural harmony is completely overshadowed. Beauty, after all, has everything to do with ‘temperance’, one of the four most important Platonic virtues17).

The fact that moderation plays an important role in experiencing the beauty of IT solutions, is the reason why a client will prefer a custom solution to a software package, if he can afford it. Customisation creates harmony; it gives that which is necessary.

Because large quantities of documentation used to be (and sometimes still are) hand written, the process of system development acquired a dull and boring image. It became a mechanical process, which degenerated into a paper routine; it became donkey work, so it will be no surprise that the results, too, were often dull and boring. Routine automatically leads to loss of beauty. Automation of the automation alleviates this problem.

The routine of using an information system is perhaps even worse than the routine of the development process. This routine increasingly leads to sloppiness all around, ‘routine sloppiness’! Routine induces laziness of the mind, shutting off all reason. This has been going on since the invention of the script, as was already discussed. At first we blamed the computer when we made another sloppy mistake, but I hardly hear this excuse anymore today. Might this be because we have arrived at the insight that we, the users, are to blame? Or are we dealing with a process of habituation or even mental numbing? Routine in the use of an information system leads to loss of the beauty of our work, which causes the pleasure we have in our work to disappear. The pleasure we need to break loose from the physical.

In any future attempt to formulate a framework behind the quality attributes of the duo Delen and Rijsenbrij ([7], [10] and [16]), the concept of beauty must play an important role. What is also recommended is a thorough investigation into the beauty of the functional design.

True beauty is an absolute concept, according to Plato. That means that any calm mind, any mind that is not driven by greed, fear, prejudice and such, recognises the same beauty. Beauty is reflected in objects and in the beholder who receives the beauty through these objects. If there were no beauty within the beholder, he would not be able to find beauty outside of himself. The fact alone that beauty can be seen proves that beauty is present in the nature of the beholder. That is why beauty gives us the strength to break through the addiction and why it can give us back our insight. It can help us to break away from routine by means of automation, without falling in the routine trap of automation. You know: from the frying pan into the fire.

The question ‘Is automation a blessing?’ could therefore be made concrete through the following questions:

1. does the process of automation incorporate beauty, does it give pleasure?18)
2. can any beauty be found in the result of automation?
3. does the process that is supported by automation radiate beauty? does it retain its glow?

If the answer to these questions is positive, you can be sure that you are breaking away from the routine perhaps with a beautiful piece of information technology needed for your specific situation.