Dumb users or Dump Computers Design?

Tech Republic had a "great debate" article (http://www.zdnet.com/debate/great-debate-securitys-greatest-threat-dumb-users-vs-dumb-design/6316982?tag=mantle_skin;content)  about users vs design.

 

I think it is a feedback loop of both.

 

Dumb users exist. Designs are written to account for them as the lowest common denominator to accomplish a given task.

 

The more you hide complexity of any given item the less anyone has any ability to even recognize when something goes wrong since they have no clue as to why it works the way it does so cannot even guess as to why it is behaving differently now.

 

It took over 70 years before all cars (in the USA) STOPPED having manual chokes and carburetor controls on the dash.

 

Course now if you something goes wrong with a car's engine there is NO way the "average" person can even guess at the problem let alone fix it. It has been abstracted so far out that only a small group of people with the right equipment can even look at it. And only they can repair it.

 

Course when  a person goes out and turns the key it just works - but when it does not . . .

 

That is the price paid for dumbing things down.

 

In 70 years I expect computers will function like a car. They will just work but only doing that certain task in ONLY that one way and nothing else. It will be so locked down that it will be, in essence, hundreds of cars in a single device but no ability to do other than a single task that it was designed to do.

 

People will be locked out and not expected to know anything but doing that one task by clicking on that one button. 

 

Kind of like that one soldier sitting at the desk in the original movie  "The Andromeda Strain" where his sole job is to listen for that bell to ring and nothing else. And he has no way of knowing if that bell is working or not since he was designed out of that whole process.