The problem is we are pretty mush maxing out or exceeding the screen time per day on our smart devices without increasing our Knowledge Worker productivity. I picked this problem to solve as it is the gorilla in the room.
The Social Problem that is Destroying Us
Today's smart devices move the people's opinions and beliefs faster than the free press ever did. We suffer lack of progress, stagnation, lost in a sea of political opinions, subjective facts and subjective news reporting, modified to support extreme politics. The process of Constitutional Government is gridlocked.
We are all Knowledge Workers with or without a job that we get paid to do. The quality of our life and our country as a whole depends on how efficiently we learn objective facts and find common ground on subjective facts, that are always subordinate. The US is built for individualism NOT collectivism. America is NOT designed to be a simple Democracy; it is moreover a Republic. In 1776 the writers of our US Constitution were deeply knowledgeable of human history and viewed a simple Democracy as too vulnerable to subjective opinion. Therefore, the Constitution requires a 2/3 majority of Congress or a 2/3 majority of states to propose change to the Constitution and 3/4 majority to ratify. We have become the most sought after place to live in the world, in human history, was created. Let us not loose that.
Use 1989 Mental Model in 2022
Can the mental model I used in 1989 to build a successful software solution, Objective Systems Integrators (OSI) NetExpert , be successfully used in 2022 to solve the social dilemma and improve Knowledge Worker productivity. NetExpert is one of the first Artificial Intelligent (AI) systems to deliver 25x productivity improvement. Designed as a general purposed AI system solution, it delivered blockbuster productivity improvements to network managers and automated dispatch of repair crews to fix malfunctioning bank ATMs.
Is There a Market for Productivity Improvement ?
Is there enough money to support solving these 2 problems? In a previous article I revealed the global productivity management system market size was valued at USD 47.33 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8% from 2022 to 2030. I think there is more market for productivity improvement than described in this article, so the opportunity is much bigger.
1989
It has been 33 years since I sat in my home office over the Christmas holidays and decided to take my mental model of a general AI software solution, a product of a 24 year career and embark on a startup for the fourth or fifth time in my life. I had just finished a proof of concept for New York Telephone (NYNEX) and IBM at a White Plains, New York LAB. My gut was telling me the stars were lined up for success, but a lot of work was left to do. I had just enough money to support my family until March 15, 1989, I needed a customer down payment so I could make a house payment due April 15.
The mental model that made this limited amount of time to get the first customer possible was based on a software architecture that integrated strategic off-the-shelf software, representing 90% of what was needed to demonstrate the product to a potential customer. Only 10% of the code, the user interface that integrated and hide the 90% products, had to be developed, a doable task. By January 20 we were able to secure a partnership with Sun Microsystems, Oracle, AI Expert, SL Corp's Graphical User Interface Builder and various available freeware software components.
A week before our deadline we made a sale to 2 customers. They were Silicon Valley communication equipment manufacturers who wanted a management system to demonstrate their product at an industry trade show. We had until June to deliver a working demo followed by a working product by August, doable. These 2 companies plus the $1,000,000 contract from IBM in the summer of 1989 started Objective Systems Integrators.
In the following year, 1990, we developed a Generalized Gateway process module that allowed us to bi-directionally communicate with a wide array of diverse command and data protocols interfacing with proprietary systems. We also replaced the AI Expert product with our own code so we could make necessary enhancements to the AI Rule Engine, the new process module we called IDEAS.
2022
Our Knowledge exists in layers, like an onion. Each layer is composed of ever larger and complex globs or chunks some in our conscious mind and some in our subconscious mind. Knowledge is learned when orderly organized and digested before being committed as one of these chunks to memory. The problem is our smart devices use non-AI apps delivering too much low level unintegrated data too fast for our brains to digest and learn, make chunks. We just take it in and forget most of it as short term memory waste. The human brain needs the smart device with AI to organize and preprocess data into chunks of knowledge.
How AI is Used by Our Smart Devices Today is Not What We Need
From 1989 to 2022 the technology and market for AI has evolved from Rule Languages to Data Science, Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Instead of increasing a smart device Knowledge Worker's Productivity by 25->50x, AI is being used to classify, engage, entertain and hold the user's attention to make more money for social media companies. If you have not seen "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix, please stop and do it right now. If you have seen it, watch it again. Even the youtube reviews that criticize it are supportive of not enough being done to prevent media platforms from turning us all into "lizard brains", being manipulated and satisfied without gaining knowledge guiding us to take some action or support some opinion.
Knowledge Worker Productivity Slowed by Manual Workflow Process
In the last 33 years nothing has been done to improve Knowledge Worker Productivity by the 25->50x achieved by OSI's NetExpert in the 1990s. On our smart devices we are still stuck with mostly isolated Apps that must be driven by the Knowledge worker manually taking the results from one app and inputing it into the next app in a procedural work flow. The complete process can take hours or even days. This workflow process can and should be mostly automated using AI technology. Today's unsustainable solution having the user slaving over their "smart" device apps doing manual integration trying to derive the knowledge by organizing chunks of knowledge and combine diverse knowledge chunks into higher level knowledge without the help of AI is too labor intensive.
Knowledge is Everywhere
We all use our smart phones, pads, computers and televisions to digest news, tweets, emails, texts, facebook, podcasts, articles, advertising, books, videos and I am sure I left some things out. The problem is in order to gain Knowledge from 50x more information we need a 50x Knowledge productivity improvement. We are spending over half of our waking hours per day looking for and digesting content from the internet. The rule based AI of 1989 would deliver at least a 10->20x Knowledge productivity improvement. With the Deep Learning AI available in 2022 applied to vast diverse information sources, we can reach the 50x Knowledge productivity improvement goal. Like someone once said Knowledge will set you free. I think it will help the political left and right find common ground again. One thing is for sure. As long as the truth is buried in a sea of opinion we are deadlocked. The shear quantity of diverse sources long ago surpassed the human brains ability to unlock the Knowledge available.
Quality Knowledge is Hiding in a Sea of Information. From The Blockbuster Principle by Michael Simmons. Quality articles that we learn from represent a small fraction of the sources available on the internet. With today's AI we could preprocess 50x more, >100x more ?, information than we could possibly preprocess manually. AI can go past the title into the content and with deep learning working under control of an individual delivers quality Knowledge.
Michael Simmons - Blockbuster Principle
There is More - Too Much Opinion or Subjective Truth
Do you have a friend that is politically opposed to you? Even if you don't AI can apply your individual AI search as if you were political opposite. It would be interesting to see what middle ground can be found using smart devices in this way. AI could help find common ground narrowing the divide between the left and right. A politically neutral AI processor could correctly identify Objective Truth, Subjective Truth Left, Subjective Truth Right and Subjective Truth Compromised. Third party? Why not? The AI system could publish meaningful polls on the opinion of the nation.
Small Steps in the Right Direction
There have been feeble attempts to integrate applications and offer a graphical widget interface to offer a consolidated interface to higher level knowledge. There seems to be an enfaces on health APPs overall. I use Apple devices, but I assume this is a trend for all tech companies. I am also a type 1 diabetic and as you see the Dexcom G6 widget, right top in figure 1, giving me my blood sugar and its 3 hour trend. Press the Dexcom widget brings up the Dexcom APP not the Tandem APP, they are not totally integrated. The only AI involved is in my Tandem insulin pump that gives me insulin when my blood sugar is too high and/or rising too fast, although there is no indication in the widget, clicking on the widget brings up the Dexcom application up on the screen where I have more information and completely control my Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). There is a Tandem APP, but no widget interface. If I click on the Tandem APP I get the screen shown in figure 2 which includes what if any action AI has triggered. The only place I have full functionality is the insulin pump screen itself. I also get the smart phone info in a similar widget format on my smart watch. It could be better but it does integrate the functionality of both the Tandem and Dexcom to an acceptable degree.
One reason things are not better integrated is common in the smart phone environment. Dexcom and Tandem both work with different partners; for example Dexcom works with Medtronic and Tandem works with FreeStyle.
Figure 1
Figure 2
On the Apple smart devices there is a major attempt to integrate Health Knowledge into something that looks like an integrated APP. The source health information is obtained and shared with many diverse APPs. Just like the diabetes solution above, this could be better.
The Ultimate AI Device
I think there is a huge need/market for a device that gives us back all the screen time and interruptions we experience using our current smart devices. Your new best friend is a personal smart shell that interacts with all your smart device apps through a matrix of high resolution dashboard screens. You never have to interrupt what you are doing to check your smart device again. If the information you seek could be obtained by you executing a series of steps hovering over a number of smart device apps you can now automate and execute the steps in the personal smart AI shell. You can leave your aiPhone at home without feeling panicked. Small dashboard screens will appear or can be summoned on whatever smart device you are wearing or using. For example, aiGlasses and/or a aiWatch device.
Your smart shell friend consumes the huge growing quantities of data streamed 24x7 for the derivations that are important to you. You are presented easy to digest and quick to learn from organized information. Information can be arranged hierarchically so you can drill down where ever you wish. Rule guided artificial intelligence (AI) is utilized in the smart shell similarly to how OSI's NetExpert, in 1989, quickly got to the truth about faults in a huge complex worldwide network.
Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash
AI Device Before MetaVerse & Virtual Reality
The MetaVerse and Virtual Reality just puts Knowledge and Productivity further out of reach. More chewing gum for the mind is not what we need. However, if we get aiDevices first the MetaVerse and Virtual Reality may leverage Knowledge to soaring heights and lead us to a functional Constitutional Government.
Aurich Lawson - Getty Images
One More Thing -> Knowledge Device
I can see the big Apple event, someday in the future, announcing The Next Big Thing , the aiPhone that will be your new best friend. You want a successful life, get an aiPhone.
Imagine the Future !!!
Your new helpful friend is not a quick fix to your problems. Teaching your new friend is an iterative process. One by one you will automate the World of Knowledge Work, LIFE !
Conclusion:
Ok, my challenge is done. I have attempted to answer the question of what the mental model I used in 1989 would look like in 2022. My articles in the future I will be investigating the technology available today and how I would form a startup today. Given my past success you know I will be leveraging partnerships to eliminate or reduce the need for venture capital. The goal is a win-win deal for all involved. Please FOLLOW me if Interested in the Future.