Lecture: Too Much Information and Too Little Time
Raj Reddy
Abstract:
This talk is about having to cope with too much information within human time limitations given that we are not changing at exponential rates like semiconductors. Humans make errors, tend to forget, are impatient and look for least effort solutions. Such limitations, sometimes, lead to catastrophic results. At the same time, humans learn with experience, tolerate error and ambiguity, use vast amounts of knowledge, and communicate using speech and language. Such features are still lacking in most of our systems. Most systems don’t get better with experience. Future opportunities lie in creating tools for coping with 21st century world of “too much information and too little time”. In this talk we will present two families of intelligent agents, viz., “cognition amplifiers” and “guardian angels” to help with problem of scarcity of attention. A Cognition Amplifier is a personal autonomic intelligent agent that anticipates what you want to do and helps you to do it with less effort. A Guardian Angel is a personal autonomic intelligent agent that discovers and warns you about unanticipated, possibly catastrophic, events that could impact your safety, security, and wellbeing. Both Cogs and Gats are enduring, autonomic, nonintrusive intelligent agents which are always-on, always working, and always-learning. Future breakthroughs will emerge from those who understand human limitations and can cater to such human needs.
