Computer science is a discipline of how we organize data (data structures), and how we work with data (algorithms). Cognitive science is a discipline of how the human thinking (cognitive) system works.
An intriguing questions posed by cognitive science is, what are boundaries for the cognitive system? Does the system only consist of the human brain? Embodied cognition considers the senses as part of the system. How about distributed cognition, where we harness resources around us as part of our mental state? (Such as a cell phone or notebook to store reminders or track information.)
After considering larger boundaries to a cognitive system than just the human mind, I find it fascinating to return to the domain of computer science - data structures and algorithms. Since algorithms are the steps taken to process data, and data structures are the decisions made on how to organize said data, we can consider both of those as decisions being made by a person. With that connection, the computer becomes a storer and automater of the decisions made by a human mind. Rather than considering anthropomorphizing of computers by mistakenly thinking that there is real intelligence in there, we can seriously consider the intelligence behind a program's actions and responses as purposefully placed there by a human being. The intelligence we perceive in the computer is thus a piece of the developer who wrote a piece of their own mental model into that program.
The best example I have of this comes from working on large system development with a team. The specs for the project were too big for any of us to hold it all in our heads at any given time, so we would often have to rely on the software code itself to guide how we understood any aspect of the system. Yet all of that code emerged from each developer's understanding of what was needed for that feature set. When we would receive questions about how the system would handle some obscure edge case, we would initially scramble to try to remember all of the different requirements that would possibly impact getting to that edge case. Inevitably, we'd ask the developer who had worked most directly with the software for the feature, and ask them how they would handle the edge case. In most instances, their mental model for how they solved the challenges of the feature was still the best representation for how the system behaved.
Whenever a customer would listen to the response, and indicate that the described behavior is not what they would desire, the end result was that we as a team of developers needed to revisit our design for how that edge case was handled. In short, the system literally was an implementation of our mental models of how we would handle all of the requirements. If we got the model wrong, then we built the system wrong.
I continue to be fascinated by computing, and the opportunity for intelligence augmentation (IA, as opposed to AI). I'm excited for more people to realize the potential that computing bears for each of them, to harness technology as a tool to accomplish anything they can imagine!
Image from my visit to Lego Mindstorms experience at Legoland, California in July 2015.
An intriguing questions posed by cognitive science is, what are boundaries for the cognitive system? Does the system only consist of the human brain? Embodied cognition considers the senses as part of the system. How about distributed cognition, where we harness resources around us as part of our mental state? (Such as a cell phone or notebook to store reminders or track information.)
After considering larger boundaries to a cognitive system than just the human mind, I find it fascinating to return to the domain of computer science - data structures and algorithms. Since algorithms are the steps taken to process data, and data structures are the decisions made on how to organize said data, we can consider both of those as decisions being made by a person. With that connection, the computer becomes a storer and automater of the decisions made by a human mind. Rather than considering anthropomorphizing of computers by mistakenly thinking that there is real intelligence in there, we can seriously consider the intelligence behind a program's actions and responses as purposefully placed there by a human being. The intelligence we perceive in the computer is thus a piece of the developer who wrote a piece of their own mental model into that program.
The best example I have of this comes from working on large system development with a team. The specs for the project were too big for any of us to hold it all in our heads at any given time, so we would often have to rely on the software code itself to guide how we understood any aspect of the system. Yet all of that code emerged from each developer's understanding of what was needed for that feature set. When we would receive questions about how the system would handle some obscure edge case, we would initially scramble to try to remember all of the different requirements that would possibly impact getting to that edge case. Inevitably, we'd ask the developer who had worked most directly with the software for the feature, and ask them how they would handle the edge case. In most instances, their mental model for how they solved the challenges of the feature was still the best representation for how the system behaved.
Whenever a customer would listen to the response, and indicate that the described behavior is not what they would desire, the end result was that we as a team of developers needed to revisit our design for how that edge case was handled. In short, the system literally was an implementation of our mental models of how we would handle all of the requirements. If we got the model wrong, then we built the system wrong.
I continue to be fascinated by computing, and the opportunity for intelligence augmentation (IA, as opposed to AI). I'm excited for more people to realize the potential that computing bears for each of them, to harness technology as a tool to accomplish anything they can imagine!
Image from my visit to Lego Mindstorms experience at Legoland, California in July 2015.