Created: 2023-04-12 22:31
A process is fundamentally changed by the introduction of machines and automation into it, from doing it by humans and tools.
The same happens with the switch from analog to digital.
It is not only the “how” the process is done that changes but the process itself.
For example, when writing on physical mediums (ie. paper), be it by hand or with a typewriter, we are limited by the inability to erase and change what’s already written. Thus the process of writing is more immutable. We are forced to rewrite at least a whole page from scratch, if not the whole document, when changes have to be made and for new iterations of the document.
When writing on digital mediums, we are able to erase and alter the writing as much as we want, the document becomes highly mutable. Thus the process of writing changes completely. It is blended with the editing.
Hamming gives several examples of this phenomenon in The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn. For example, by introducing computers in a physics laboratory the type of experiments being run changed drastically.
When digitalizing a process we must be aware of this, it isn’t merely a 1:1 translation from the analog but careful consideration of how the process can become better, more efficient, etc. by introducing digital tools or digitalizing the whole process.