| Twenty first Century military operations are heavily reliant upon information technology (IT) (Carter A., 2015). The extent of the symbiosis between the human and IT element in DoD operations is significant. The purpose of this study was to investigate and expose the unanticipated vulnerabilities inherent in an ever-increasing symbiotic relationship between the person and IT in the realm of military operations.;This research found that problems and vulnerabilities derived from a shared workload between a human and a computer fall into three general areas, human cognitive factors, human psychological factors, and system design factors. As computers get smarter and faster, humans fall behind. Psychological factors include automation bias, overconfidence in system capability, loss of moral restraint and a lowered inhibition to kill. System design factors include inadequate and overly complex computer interfaces. Human-computer shared workload leads to vulnerabilities when system designers allocate tasks without careful consideration of the strengths and capabilities of both the human and the computer. |
