Skip to content

Ask HN: Name of field of algorithm design focused on execution by human-agents?

1 pointabcanthurdiscuss
On HN

Is there a name for sub-field of research focused on achieving some goal (possibly computational) with human and/or other imperfect agents?

One is probably solving for some real physical world "UI/UX" considerations on one hand, possibly in dispersed/async conditions, and robustly managing unreliable agents on the other hand.

I suppose the highest current form might be the augmented humans in amazon warehouses. But what was the best coolest way to run a warehouse before any high-tech augmentation was available?

Also that thing about how UPS drivers only make right turns? Traveling salesman with a team of competing salesman in one market? Best way to unload a truck into specific rooms of a house? Without running a python script on a laptop because that's not a real solution anyway?

I would imagine there is a rich history and retrospective research on how pre-telegraph societies implemented particularly effective and clever dispersed problem solving. Maybe draw a line somewhere below the huge scale/complexity of command-and-control military theory or whatever. That line might be that the research aims for and achieves discrete prediction of success and the time/energy spent. Maybe just a corner of operations research?

Or cool histories of whatever I'm talking about!!

Comments

No comments yet.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.