CS 575

Spring 2012Lecture 2

Engelbart Video Discussion• Object-oriented system

• UI, Code, Documentation, Papers

• Language design– “overlay” hierarchy of objects– Custom languages

• Finite State Machines• Compiler-compiler

• Software Engineering– Source-code control, Documentation

• Communication– Message handling and management

• Human-computer, Human-human collaboration concepts implemented in hardware & Software sytems– Remote Videocams, mouse, …

Augmenting the Human Intellect• 1962 Engelbart’s report/proposal to Air Force Ofc. Of

Scientific Research– http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html

• Capability to obtain better solutions to complex problems• New conceptual framework

– Not small tricks• Example scenario: an architect’s workday

– Design alternatives– Operational environments– Functional specifications– Detailed design– Tools

• Synthesis, analysis, verification, debugging

Engelbart Overview• Conceptual framework is needed to know

– What to augment• artifacts• language• methodology• Training

– Goal: problem solving process• Process is what we actually do, and are trying to do more effectively

– Structure or organization across the board• Little steps, organized as a process hierarchy

– Versus objects?• Process repertoire or toolkit• Basic capabilities (‘hardware’) to higher-level capabilities

– Synergy, emergent capabilities, …• Which subprocess to choose?

– Executive Capability: planning, selecting, and supervising – Augmentation impact

• Suppose you had a better writing tool…– Hardware, software, dictionary, spell checker, fact researcher, …– Pencil to word processor

» Benefits?» Break down old process, come up with new process» New capabilities!

Engelbart: Two-domain system

• H-LAM/T

Engelbart (contd)• Capability repertoire hierarchy– Basic capabilities (human and artifact) are the raw

materials– Mental structuring (cognitive structures)

• Development Models: garden, basketball team, machine building– Concept structuring– Symbol structuring– Process structuring

• ‘M’ in H-LAM/T– Physical structuring

• A in H-LAM/T– Interdependence among all these structures

Engelbart (contd)• How did humans get ‘augmented’ during our

development?– 1. concept manipulation– 2. symbol manipulation– 3. Manual, External, Symbol Manipulation

• Whorf’s hypothesis: Language affects our thinking and capabilities– 4. Automated external symbol manipulation (neo-

whorfian: technology affects language and capabilities)• Language can also evolve to meet conceptual and task needs

(counterargument to whorfian hypothesis)

Engelbart (contd)• Brick-pencil experiment

Engelbart (contd)• Brick-pencil expt (de-augmentation)– Typewriter: 7 sec– Pencil: 20 secs– Brick, small letters: 65+ secs– Brick, large letters: 42 secs

• Impacts on effectiveness of culture– Too hard too few people doing it– Different concepts for work, record-keeping, etc.

• What about known impacts of actual augmentation, 46 years after Engelbart wrote this proposal?

Engelbart (contd)

• Concept structuring– concepts are tools– concepts have handles--representations– concept structures map to mental structures– some concept structures are better than others– language (natural lang esp) is the grand concept

structuring tool

Engelbart (contd)

• Symbol structuring– some symbols work better than others • depends on the purpose

– need flexibility, translatability– view generation capability (rather than physical

linear ordering)

Engelbart (contd)

• Interdependence among hierarchies– Cyclic– Regenerative• Improvement in one category feeds improvement in

other categories

Engelbart (contd)• Roles and levels– executive– direct-contributive

• model of executive superstructure– Bureaucratic hierarchy is onerous– contractor-subcontractor model

• Flexibility in the Executive Role– executive tasks are complex– orderly flexibility requirement on symbol etc. structures is

costly– disorderly process of change must be supported

• ‘agile methodologies’

Engelbart (contd)

• Who will benefit– Every person who does his thinking with

symbolized concepts • Human language, pictographs, formal logic,

mathematics, …

– Architects, engineers, lawyers, writers, …– ‘information workers’

Human-computer symbiosis

• Issues– Speed mismatch– System requirements (hardware, memory, …)– Organizational mismatch: Memory organization

(Information structuring and retrieval)– Language mismatch• What versus how

– I/O mismatch• Voice, mobile, touch, …

Computer as communication device

• “In a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face”

• What is communication?– Two tape recorders exchanging data– Two humans having a meeting– Collaborative Modeling

Licklider Contd--Economics

• Models are complex• Simplification is risky and dangerous– Oversimplification– Premature simplification

• Communicating models is expensive– Cost of not doing it?

Licklider Contd

• Computer as switch vs. interactor• Distributed intellectual resources– ‘critical creative mass’

• Vision of internet– Store-and-forward technology

• Economics: billing models

Vision of internet

• Node• Mediator for online life: OLIVER• Social groups• Better for individual• Better for society

Summary

• Human Augmentation & Man-Computer symbiosis studied systematically very early on

• Licklider’s vision of internet was based on communication

Led to TCP/IP

Needfinding Exercise• Post-disaster

– Lost pet– Missing relative

• Age, disability

– Locating relief centers• Available• Match needs

– Getting help to come to you– Procurement

• Barter• Keeping track of balance• Money transfer

– Limitations• Servers down• High traffic• Random failures of connectivity but worldwide connectivity may still be available

• Workarounds, hacks• Errors

Good Questions?

• Feature x: is it important to you?• Specific vulnerability of systems to abuse• Open-ended: what features would you like to

see?• User self-profile

• Who would you interview?

Data recording

• Notetaking• Photos• videos

Other Strategies

• Diary studies