The tree and the insect are thus heavily interdependent: the tree cannot reproduce without the insect the insect cannot eat without the tree together, they constitute not only a viable but a productive and thriving partnership. The larva of the insect lives in the ovary of the fig tree, and there it gets its food. The fig tree is pollinated only by the insect Blastophaga grossorun.
Prerequisites for the achievement of the effective, cooperative association include developments in computer time sharing, in memory components, in memory organization, in programming languages, and in input and output equipment. Preliminary analyses indicate that the symbiotic partnership will perform intellectual operations much more effectively than man alone can perform them. Computing machines will do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking. In the anticipated symbiotic partnership, men will set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations. The main aims are 1) to let computers facilitate formulative thinking as they now facilitate the solution of formulated problems, and 2) to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs. It will involve very close coupling between the human and the electronic members of the partnership. Summary Man-computer symbiosis is an expected development in cooperative interaction between men and electronic computers.
IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, Man-Computer Symbiosis Man-Computer Symbiosis