Computerized vs. Human Interpretations

For non-astrologers, the difference between computer-generated interpretation reports and human-written ones may not be obvious. I will attempt to outline some of the differences here.

It might seem that computer-generated interpretations would be the best option, since computers are known to be fast, precise and not subject to fatigue or distractions. But these qualities do not provide every skill necessary for optimum interpretations.

The best astrological interpretations of a natal chart involve a perspective on the chart as a whole, a sense of context, "how everything fits together". The meaning of a planet changes when it interacts with another planet (as in the case of aspects), and the house position as well as the zodiacal sign of both planets will influence their interactions. It is near-impossible to try to anticipate every conceivable variation of every planet as it might interact with every other planet, in every sign, in every house. The task of programming an interpretation of every combination of those variables - planets, houses and signs - would be truly overwhelming.

A human interpretation can be creative, imaginative, empathetic. These qualities cannot be synthesized in their fullest flower, but only imitated in a rather forced, static caricature of their human counterpart. A living, breathing astrologer can think adaptively to unforseen situations; a computer cannot. A computer also cannot put itself in the client's place, and synthesize what would be the best insight to convey to that client, or the best way of saying it to this particular person.

Does this mean that computer-generated interpretations are without value? No. Venus in Cancer still means basically the same thing as it ever did, and Mars in the 5th House does too. Computer-generated reports are inexpensive, since they do not require a large investiture of time to generate, and the low cost and high speed of creating them may make them the perfect fit for someone who just wants the basic chart, and a basic interpretation report. They also make a nice personal gift, but not too personal for a professional or family setting.

Probably the greatest limitation of computer-generated reports is that everything they say had to be written at some point by a human, such that the computer could repeat the words of the astrologer at the proper time. Putting it another way, the best that the computer could accomplish would be a reasonably good imitation of the astrologer's work, and that would be subject to the limitations of every computer program: constraints of memory usage and disk space, human error in entering the data, and the ever-present software bugs. The human astrologer has other demands upon his/her time than to write an endless stream of interpretations that can be incorporated into a software program: live human clients take priority! There will always be some compromise involved in the computerized results.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of a human astrologer over a computer is the ability to answer questions. When a computer has rendered its report on a chart, it is finished: there is no more. There is no point in asking "What did you mean when you said this?" or "What more can you tell me about that?" A human astrologer must always be prepared to deal with questions like these, as long as his clients are people, and not computers!

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