Cognitive Computing for Tacit Knowledge - Palliative or Tonic?

Cognitive Computing Enthusiasts

September 16th, 2015

HackerDojo, Mountain View, CA

About me

Cognitive Sciences: 1950 - 1978Interdisciplinary inquiry of several university researchers/experts A report accepted by Sloan Foundation in 1978 (picture). Aimed at “universal science” to discover the representationaland computational capacities of the human mind and theirstructural and functional realization in the human brain.

The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective by George A. Miller, Department of Psychology, Princeton University (2003)

In 1978:- cybernetics used concepts developed by computer science to model brain functions elucidated in neuroscience.- computer science and linguistics were linked through computational linguistics

1978 - 2004

Is cracking “human mind computation” the solution to semiconductor technology crisis?

Why were “cognitive sciences” silent during the boom of personal computers, Internet and Enterprise IT?

I am here to share & learn…

Which “Wave” are we on now?

Cognition

(Definition) “Set of all mental abilities and processes related to knowledge, attention, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and "computation", problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of language, etc…. Cognitive processes use existing knowledge and generate new knowledge” (Wikipedia, retrieved September 2015)

Cognitive Computing

(Adaptation) “Makes a new class of problems computable. It addresses complex situations

that are characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty; in other words it handles human

kinds of problems” (Wikipedia, retrieved September 2015)

Cognitive Computing

Systems

(Purpose) “Learn and interact naturally with people to extend what either humans or machine could do on their own. They help human experts make better decisions by penetrating the complexity of Big Data” (IBM Research , September 2015)

Identity?

Humanities?

“Socio-technical” systems?

Traditions of Cognitive Science

COGNITIVISM EMERGENCE ENACTION

"When the symbols appropriately represent some aspect of the real world, and the information

processing leads to ... successful solution of the problem given..."

"When the emergent properties (and resulting structure) can be seen to correspond to a specific

cognitive capacity -- a successful solution to a required task."

"When it becomes part of an ongoing existing world (as the young of every species do) or shapes a new one (as

happens in evolutionary history)."

Varela, Thompson & Rosch (The Embodied Mind : Cognitive Science and Human Experience, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.1991).

Encyclopaedia Autopoietica: a work of Randall Whitaker http://www.informatik.umu.se/~rwhit/EAIntro.html , retrieved from http://www.cybsoc.org/EA.html#enactive%20cognitive%20science on September 15th 2015

People learning through problem solving(with or without machines)

People solving problems with machines (higher complexity, less self-learning, more stress)

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN A COGNITIVE SYSTEM IS FUNCTIONING

ADEQUATELY?(beyond the Turing test/Jeopardy game)

A “Personal Watson” or a “Synthetic Neocortex”?

2 mins window

200 bits storage& manipulation

False memory syndromeMemory enrichment

“Flash-bulb” memory

Hyper-diffused storage

We have in the cranium a slightly alkaline three-pound electrochemical computer running on glucose at about 25 watts. This computer contains some ten thousand million (that’s ten to the ten) logical elements called neurons, operating on a basic scanning rhythm of ten cycles per second. Then this is a high-variety dynamic system all right; but it really is finite. It follows (from Ashby’s Law) that we can recognize patterns up to a certain limit, and not beyond (Stafford Beer, “Science in the Service of Man” , 1973)

Our System 2 requires at least 1.5 minutes (90 seconds) to engageOur System 2 has a very small size working memory: - most of us can recall only 5 to 9 of the items shown onceOur System 2 has a “faulty” long term memory:- can not remember each and every time we need to remember- each time a memory is accessed, it is rebuilt and distorted

I am intrigued that Cognitive Computing field does so little to help us deal with

our weaknesses and so much to “mimic the way the human brain works”

Conceptual differences ….

How CC helps me and you create value and preserve

identity?

Real-Time collaboration in creative work

(PhD research& dissertation – 1994 -1999)

Industrialization of Software Engineering, Internet and Enterprise IT (1996 onwards)

Managing variability to develop healthy and productive organizations (2008 onwards)

Clark, D.R. (2004). Knowledge Typology Map Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/knowledge/knowledge_typology.html on June 2014.

Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody—either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action." -Peter F. Drucker in The New Realities

Tacit knowledge is personal knowledge embedded in individual experience and involves intangible factors, such as personal beliefs, perspective, and the value system.- Know-how and other cognitive sciences aspects- Hard to articulate with languages

Environment of digital computers in all individual and institutional aspects

Cognitive computing for collaborative creative work in telepresence (analog or digital – does it matter?)

Topic: "Group communication in a computer mediated environment: analysis, experiences and evaluations on enterprise collaborative projects and group training"

Digital technologies context: Telecom ISDN (2*64kb/16kb, PictureTel/H323), CSCW (server centric design), OO Programming (principles), Internet (IETF), Mbone (ALF/ILP, VBR encoding, p2p principles, open source)

Idea: “let each member of the group instantiate his/her own workspace, as he/she feels the need while engaged in solving the task at hand”

(CS/Software Engineering R&D 1994-1997/PhD dissertation March 1999)

9

Proposed model: “computer mediated telepresence” as a cognitive system - to the benefit of group accomplishment - rather than a multimodal communication system

Inspired by Roberto Maturana’s Cognition (1975) how cognition as a biological phenomenon takes place and Maturana & Varela “autopoietic systems”

“Can the whole system - people, computers, software tools - operate effectively and successfully in a given domain, language included?"

Test and validation for specific domain (professional training) different group interactions to accomplish specific goals in situation of telepresence

• Objective assessments (work results)• Compared with identical scenarios in physical presence• Subjective assessment (technology sufficiency/affordability/usability)

Prototype & experimentation of above model for mediated cooperative work on practical case studies:

Peer-to-peer architectures, User agents, Application Level Framing and Integrated Layer Processing for adaptation to variable conditions, Internet Mbone (IP multicast source based routing), variable bit-rate video encoding, (IETF MMUSIC + …. SIP adoption in 3GPP)

NRG@

Cross the borders into cognitive sciences:

It takes a village:

1995-1996 school year experimentation: 1 professor of Mechanical Engineering @INSA de Lyon, 40 students in 4 mediated sessions and 30 in 3 real presence sessions (1 semester of studies in “Genie Productique”/mechanical engineering ) + 1 professor of social sciences3 scenarios: lecture, lab and project (teams of 5 people, isolated in media offices)

Mbone

Lecture set up – very much like today’s webinars

Memory test

Concept test

11

Qualité

d’usage/rôle

Apprenant Formateur

1 3,85 3,66

2 2,87 4,66

3 3,43 4

4a

4b

2,85

3,58

5

3

Qualité

d’usage/rôle

exécutant chef apprenant

(exéc. + chef)

Formateur

1 4,11 3,83 4,04 4,25

2 3,52 3,52 3,52 3,6

3 4,2 4,2 4,2 4,8

4a

4b

3,2

2,7

3,5

2,7

3,4

2,7

3,6

situation de cours/travaux dirigés

situation de projet coopératif

1. l’acceptation

2. la difficulté d’exécution de la tâche

3. l’effort personnel

4.la qualité de réponse du système:

4a. pour la production

4b pour la communication/téléprésence

Landed 3 years contract 1996-1999 in TeleRegions SUN – TeleApplicationsfor Europeans Regions (health, education, citizen services in 6 regions, 4 countries)

Project results (avg)

Usability results (avg)

Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of IndividualityRobert Sapolsky, Ph.D. Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery Stanford University

1996

2015 (still no video for everyone!)

This experiment 20 years after ….

But mobile operators are launching Video over LTEusing …. IP Multicast, RTP/RTCP!

It took 20 years of denial. Economists expertise required!

1. How much of our creative work, the one that engages deeply our tacit knowledge, is “real-time collaborative”?- Writing, Coding or Designing/Planning/Creating/Simulating an action or an object- Manufacturing/Acting on physical objects- Pondering alternatives and deciding

2. Can we work & communicate synchronously such as our communicative behavior becomes a mutual orientation for the purpose of accomplishing a creative task rather than a painful exercise of memory and manipulation of widgets?

We have: • Online gaming for skills development (procedural

knowledge) • Webex/Citrix/Skype/Whatsapp/WeChat/IM for group

communication (presence and telecommunications)• Virtual Worlds and Robotics

"Don't worry about turning your system over to the computer programmers. There won't be any in 1985, because the machine will be doing the job itself. The job will be automated, as intelligent computers program themselves."

(1960) Herbert Simon one of the founding fathers of several of today's important scientific domains, including artificial intelligence, information processing, decision-making, problem-solving, attention economics, organization theory, complex systems, and computer simulation of scientific discovery.

Industrialization of Software Engineering, Internet services and Enterprise IT (1996 onwards)

“…The increasing complexity of programming work associated with a new and more powerful generation of computers had overwhelmed the technical and managerial ability of software groups. Software was late, over budget, lacked features, worked inefficiently, and was unreliable. Something to be called “software engineering” was proposed as the solution to the crisis. …” – as concluded by NATO Conference on Software Engineering, held in Garmisch, Germany in 1968.

Thomas Haigh - “Crisis, What Crisis?” Reconsidering the Software Crisis of the 1960s and the Origins of Software Engineering (2010)

Economics of mass production embrace the human brainchild enabled by computers: “Software”

Difference Area Hardware Software Human Factors

Major Life-cycle Cost Source Development, manufacturing Maintenance and Evolution Training and operations labor

Ease of Changes Generally difficult Good within architectural framework Very good, but people-dependent

Change Process Manual, labor-intensive, expensive Electronic, inexpensive Needs retraining, can be expensive

User-tailorability/Friendliness Generally difficult, limited options Technically easy; mission-driven Technically easy; mission-driven

Sub-setability/Divisibility Inflexible lower limit Flexible lower limit Smaller increments easier to introduce

Underlying Science Physics, chemistry, continuous

mathematics

Discrete mathematics,

linguistics/programming

Behavioral sciences

Testing By test organization; much analytic

continuity

By test organization;

little analytic continuity

Directly by usersAdapted from

1975 - Software Engineering of IBM OS/360 defies industrial (large scale manufacturing) management: increasing the team size also increases the time to complete the workCulprit: Communication of thinking among software engineers combined with lack of job specific tools

Domain specific Language(s)Domain(s) specific Models(s)Multiple perspectivesMultiple tools~Industrialization of Software

Years to Develop Software,Hardware

HW

Thousands of source lines of code (KSLOC)

SWToday: Massive software projects become possible, with exponentially growing delivery time.Culprit: the cone of requirements uncertainty ( inability to imagine the end product amplified by the easiness to change the current one)

"adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".Fred Brooks

Stafford Beer, “The disregarded tools of modern man”, lectures, 1973

“Mapping the value of employee collaboration” McKinsey Quarterly 2006, Number 3

Context Factor Attribute of Relevant theoretical concept

Im-pact * Explanation

Technology

Hardware cost Product Relative advantage + Lintel runs on commodity hardware

Software cost Innovation Relative advantage + OSS operating systems are ??free??

Reliability Product Relative advantage +/- Varying perceptions of OSS platform reliability

Availability of 3rd party apps Product Compatibility Network effects +

Prerequisite to adoption, depends on platform

popularity

Portability of own apps Product Compatibility Switching costs +/0 Increases adoption where such apps exist

Skills of existing IT workers Product Compatibility Switching costs +/-

Increases adoption if and only if existing skills are

compatible

Fit to task Product Compatibility +/0 Increases adoption for certain tasks

Difficulty in administra-tion Product Complexity - Perceived complexity decreases adoption

Ease of ex-perimenting Innovation Trialability + Reduces risk

Organization

IT capital budget Innovation Slack -

Large budgets alllow more choice of expensive

options

IT staff time Innovation Slack + Slack required to evaluate new technologies

Innovativeness of IT organization Innovation Innovativeness +

More innovative firms take more risks, want to be ??cutting edge??

Worker experience with new

platform Product Boundary spanning +

Linux knowledge that workers bring to

organization prior to adoption

Environment

Industry maturity Innovation Industry life cycle - Infant industries not committed to old ways

Availability of skilled IT workers Product Support infrastructure Network effects +

Availability essential to adoption, more likely with

popular platforms

Availability of external support

services Innovation Support infrastructure Sponsorship +

Support needed to run in critical environments and

to reassure management

Platform long-term viability Product

"Angry orphan"

(switching costs) +

Organizations avoid (re)investment in

technologies that may become unsupported

WHY FIRMS ADOPT OPEN SOURCE PLATFORMS: A GROUNDED THEORY OF INNOVATION AND STANDARDS ADOPTION (HBS and MIT Sloan, 2003)

Fluid Intelligence(perception and reasoning)

KnowledgeExperience

•Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information.

•In Enterprises it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms.

Crystallized Intelligence(educational & cultural interactions)

Skills

Tacit knowledge drives learning

Procedural knowledge stresses executive functions

John B. Carroll's three stratum model of cognitive abilities. -fluid intelligence (Gf),-crystallized intelligence (Gc),- general memory and learning (Gy),- broad visual perception (Gv), - broad auditory perception (Gu)- broad retrieval ability (Gr),- broad cognitive speediness (Gs)- processing speed (Gt).

Tacit knowledge

Fluid Intelligence(inductive & deductive reasoning)

KnowledgeExperienceSkills

Crystallized Intelligence(educational & cultural interactions)

Internal representationof knowledge resulting

from the slow process of learning

Cognitive Neuroscience(from Prof. Garzzaniga)

Cognitive Computing DL simulatesGy, Gv & Gu while inherently apt at Gr, Gs &Gt

Qualitative Analysis

Quantitative Analysis

Hypothesis Formulation

Factor/Dependencies Analysis

ConceptsModeling

Systems (dynamic, agents)Modeling & Simulation

Consistent/coherent visual design

Argumentationsupport

Information diffusion

Research overwhelmingly shows that human have preferences and poor objectivity95 % time, people fail to alter their behavior through conscious effort alone High motivation it simply takes too much mental energy and vigilance

Computers are inherently logical and controlledThey can channel the creativity of the “Fast brain” through visualsWhile engaging the “Slow brain” to think broad and deepThey retain this work as an external, automated, and objective mindThey can show it back in different ways, helping to iterate

Economics … Enaction …

Summary

Industrialization of Software Engineering, Internet services and Enterprise IT (1996 onwards)

Cognitive computing for collaborative creative work in telepresence (analog or digital – does it matter?)

Lucia.Gradinariu@lggsolutions.com

- Synchronous collaboration on creative work (conceptual

- The reasoning software engineer- The memory – consumer-entertainment product, executive functions impairments