Rebuilding Science from Scratch
One of my interests is using digital cognitive systems to accelerate the exploration of “rebuilding science from scratch” – given 20-20 hindsight what is the sequence of steps to rebuild science from scratch – data, experiments, models?
I find Pat Langley (AAAI Fellow, doctoral work with Herb Simon (CMU)) presentation below very inspiring: http://cra.org/ccc/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/11/csd.11.16.pdf
The book “The Knowledge” is a highly relevant read as well:
https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Aftermath-Cataclysm/dp/0143127047
Of course, this also connects with rebuilding smart service systems from scratch and empowering makers in the cognitive era:
https://service-science.info/archives/4306
And to “rebuild education” this kind of “rebuilding from scratch challenge” can be a design pattern:
https://service-science.info/archives/2189
We the people – we are biological cognitive systems, and some of us as students of science are trying to understand the evolving ecology of complex systems. This is hard…. listen here:
https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/complexity-stupidity
However, if we could rapidly rebuild science from scratch – data, experiments, models – perhaps we could not only rebuild faster and faster, but perhaps we could extend into the future faster and faster. Learning to make knowledge discovery steps more modular is hard.
If you have time to listen to podcasts check out:
(1) Minutes 40-50 in this David Krakauer interview: https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/complexity-stupidity
(2) Minutes 44-55 in this Stuart Russell interview: https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/the-dawn-of-artificial-intelligence1
Intelligence Augmentation designed correctly, the way Doug Engelbart envisioned it in 1962, can help people become better at solving their complex, urgent problems….
See: http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html
David Krakauer, makes this same point when he talks about “tools that build virtual versions of themselves in our brain…. versus tools that do not…”
Stuart Russell is less clear, but looks to make mathematically rigorous designs of pathways that help people – so I think his spirit is in the right direction as well.
The David Krakauer piece is best about what we need to design/build, so that is the one “most” important ten minute slice to listen to…
The Stuart Russell piece suggests the purpose is stable diversity… more clearly explained in Robert Wright’s “Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny”
– Buy the book used for just one cent on Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-Logic-Destiny-Robert-Wright/dp/0679758941
Sometimes entities will get it wrong, and then things break, so learning to rapidly rebuild from scratch is important: http://service-science.info/archives/4308
Intelligence augmentation and the socio-technical system design loop is hard to get right…. there are many ways to go into the ditch when you are moving fast.