The idea of the computer relating to people as both advisor and advisee is becoming increasingly important as applications get more and more advanced. Sophisticated media interfaces are accruing more and more functionality, and soon the bottleneck will not be how to get our computers to do more for us, but how to let them know what we would like them to do, and how we would like them to do it. Intelligent software will have the capability to do more and more problem solving for us, but there is also the danger that the machine may take unwanted actions or we may distance ourselves too far from the problem solving process. The best solution may sometimes be to set up the computer in an advisory capacity, leaving critical decisions and top-level control to the human. Too much of today's human-computer interaction is couched in terms of commands .
Advice is softer.
It needn't be as exact as commands. It need not specify everything the advisee must do, it need only address some aspect or part of the advisee's behavior. It can suggest action or modify action, rather than specify action. It need not solve the whole problem, only part. It does not need to be given or received in a strict sequential order.