Whom (or what) do you (mis)trust?: historical reflections on the psychology and sociology of information technology

Abstract

The article presents some reflections on the history of information technology. It use the sundial, the typewriter, the computer, the expert system, and the advanced information processing workstation (AIPW) as case studies to trace changes in the research and development process as it relates to human factors issues. The historical trends involve questions of trust-trust and mistrust of the computer technology on the part of the end user, on the one hand, and trust and mistrust of the research and development process on the part of system developers on the other.