David's Robot and Android Adventures

Groupthink: An Interpretation Essay

2016-03-02T16:28:00.005-08:00

Often it is the quiet, reclusive people who are the most creative. The leaders of invention are not always the most outspoken members of the team. Their best work comes when they’re left alone to study, contemplate, and experiment in privacy. But many companies do not subscribe to this view. They operate on the assumption that tearing down the office walls, taking away privacy, and encouraging continuous collaboration, stimulates team productivity in ways that exceed the capabilities of an individual. But there are some who believe that nothing could be further from the truth. In her article “Rise of the New Groupthink,” Susan Cain tries to tell her audience the most creative people work in private, free from the constant distractions of “Groupthink,” and should collaborate in a more casual environment.

Some of the most creative people are found working in privacy (Cain). Where there are fewer distractions, workers are more productive, learn more efficiently, and make fewer mistakes. Cain cites one study, “Coding War Games” by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, which finds that the most productive programmers have a private working area. Workers who are constantly interrupted in an open office environment make twice as many mistakes and take twice as long to finish their tasks. Seclusion also creates a more fruitful learning environment. Employees are able to quickly move past topics they easily grasp, and focus on the concepts which present them with the most difficulty. Cain offers examples of highly creative introverts who were some of the most influential minds in their field. These include the likes of Isaac Newton and Pablo Picasso. But the central figure of her article is Steve Wozniak, inventor of the first Apple computer. Inspired by another computer design, and a home brewers club, Wozniak worked on his design alone, late in the evening. Recluses like these achieved their greatness working in seclusion.

“The New Groupthink has overtaken our workplaces, our schools, and our religious institutions,” Cain declares. Companies develop, manufacture, and market products through a gauntlet of team brainstorming sessions, daily stand-up scrums, status updates, and sprint review meetings. The unending variety of interruptions they enforce serve to stifle creativity, minimize productivity, and keep their finger on the pulse of a team they’re slowing to a crawl. Sometimes the constant, intense scrutiny can even effect the health of the employees. In this environment introverted geniuses, likely some of the most creative in the company, may be afraid to draw attention to themselves in brainstorming sessions. They allow their ideas to be subverted by extroverts who may offer less creative solutions. In the same fashion schools and churches, too, encourage and enforce group participation and learning. Children who are introverted learn to let others lead the way, and parishioners seeking spiritual meditation are immersed in noisy activities.
In her article Cain stresses that she is not advocating putting an end to team collaboration. She points out that without inspiration from the HomeBrew Computer Club, and his collaboration with Steve Jobs, Wozniak’s invention, and Apple Inc., may never have come into existence. A balance can be struck that involves more casual approaches to teamwork. Informal daily meetings, for example, could be scheduled around a company provided continental breakfast. Scripted monthly events could be held over a catered lunch. No matter what the approach, employees should be able to return to a private workspace.

When Groupthink intrudes on the creativity of the individual, productivity suffers and the benefits of informal collaboration are lost. As privacy, so important to the free flow of the imagination and learning new concepts, is stripped away, dreams become memories and innovative solutions are quashed. The difference between a team leader asking for ideas in a conference room filled with managers, and two developers discussing the same problem over donuts and coffee, is the difference between awkward silence and friendly encouragement. Cain’s article is a solitary voice crying out in protest. But there are many, sometimes introverted and quietly suffering, whose research support and applaud her academic revolt. The complex challenges of the 21st century are unlikely to be solved in garages like Mr. Wozniak’s. But the next generation of innovators will need the support, and financing, of companies willing to allow employees to disappear into a cubicle and invent their dreams.

Works Cited
Cain, Susan. "The Rise of the New Groupthink." New York Times 15 Jan. 2012. Newspaper.

Personal Artificial Intelligence: Synthesis and Understanding

2015-10-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

One day we will pick-up our enhanced smartphone and start a relationship with a new kind of confidant, a Personal Artificial Intelligence, or PAI (pronounced “Pie”). As our familiarity with our PAI grows, and the PAI’s knowledge of us expands, we will gradually form a more intimate bond. A bond that some may easily think of as friendship. Though this concept may seem improbable, even absurd, many of the prerequisites required are already in hand. Like the World Wide Web and social networking tools of today, artificial intelligence will be a blend of existing technology capable of transforming our lives in new and meaningful ways.

The realization of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proved more complex, and taken far longer, than first imagined. Serious research of machines that think first began in the 1950s. Scientists felt that automations would one day be capable of doing anything that a human could do. Although research toward that goal continues, there are some who feel the reality is unachievable, even potentially dangerous. But the process can be likened to the slow exploration of Mars. The pressures exerted by scientific curiosity, to explore its secrets, are irresistible, and the dangers can be mitigated.

Contemporary researchers generally define AI as a branch of computer science that attempts to create software that emulates human behavior. These studies include the storage and indexing of knowledge, planning, natural language processing, and machine learning. But the various branches of AI research have become deep and divergent. There are as many avenues of exploration as there are definitions. However, the desirable features of a Personal Artificial Intelligence are easier to envision.

The evolution of a PAI began in the 1990s, when handheld computers called Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, became common tools. The user interacted with the various programs it ran on a resistive touch screen display using a stylus. The most useful programs were calendars that recorded events and appointments, contact lists, eBooks, a notepad and a camera. Smartphones evolved directly from the integration of a PDA with a cellphone. Smartphones added a variety of useful features including email access, text messaging, a web browser and the Global Positioning System hardware used by map applications. But a Personal Artificial Intelligence will not be like a PDA, or even a smartphone. The evolution from a smartphone to a PAI will require giant leaps of technology.

To understand the next steps in the development of a PAI, let’s discuss a few attractive features. A properly trained PAI will be able to recognize your mood and interpret your situation. To do this it will use stereo audio and visual inputs, and perhaps even gas odor detectors. It will be capable of using these sensors in the same manner as a human. For instance, it will be able to read your facial expressions, body language, and identify stress in your voice. It will sense and understand sleeping patterns, and moods, well enough to know when you’d rather not be disturbed by its communication features. When it prevents communication it will be capable of explaining the specific reasons to those trying to reach you. Of course it will also understand emergency messages and will be able to convey their urgency. Sensors will monitor your physical health, warning you if your body’s internal functions need medical attention. It will be able to decide when emergency assistance is required and make the call when needed. If a loved one dies it will offer to send flowers, make travel arrangements, and extend comforting words. All without being asked. None of these features are difficult, or beyond the reach of current technology. Many already exist. With that in mind we must ask ourselves again, what is AI and what is required to make this PAI a reality? The answer is twofold, synthesis and understanding.

To perceive human reality, an AI’s software will synthesize the input of its sensors, and database of knowledge, to build a physical worldview. This worldview will update from instant to instant, and will be similar in quality to that perceived by a person. Of course this view will include enhancements. These include data like acceleration, angular momentum, humidity, temperature, altitude and exact world coordinates. However, to make sense of the environment around it, the AI needs understanding.

Understanding, perhaps, is the most challenging aspect of creating an Artificial Intelligence. Information can be gathered, synthesized and stored; but the key to intelligence is in interpreting its meaning. This will enable the AI to react in useful, and significant, ways. Large strides have already been taken on the road of this technology. Voice command recognition has improved drastically in the last few years. Face and object recognition are also in common use.

The concepts outlined here suggest the following enhanced definitions. Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a computer to synthesize, understand, and react to a human’s worldview. A Personal Artificial Intelligence is a portable AI that has bonded to a single individual. Though challenging, the potential benefits of a PAI, that can fulfill these definitions, shine a bright light on the road to developing this technology.

Imagine starting your car and your PAI asks you if you would like to stop anywhere before it drives you to work. On the drive home your PAI tells you its remote sensors indicate you are low on milk. At the grocery store your PAI uploads your shopping list and orders your favorite coffee. While an intelligent shopping cart gathers your products, you discuss concert plans with your PAI. The possibilities are endless, exciting and very real.

At heart I am an experimenter.

2011-10-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

If you would like to follow me on this Android robot adventure, you are welcome. But you must not forget I am, in the end, an experimenter. As such I make mistakes and often choose the wrong direction. When I do I will freely admit it, seek advise if needed (perhaps yours) and fix the problems the best I can. Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes and I can learn from yours. I love experimenting. And collaborating.

Fast Foward

2011-10-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

30 years after I built my COSMAC ELF, I bought my first Android phone. The T-Mobile G1. I had gone to Fry's Electronics, with my birthday gift card, with the intention of buying a Windows phone. I wanted it to replace my Microsoft Zune, Motorola Razor, and Palm Zire-72 PDA. The guys in the store talked me into buying the G1 with Android 1.2 installed. It was not able to meet my goal of replacing all the devices in my pocket and backpack but, in the end, I have not been sorry I bought it. I recently replaced my G1 with a T-Mobile My-Touch 4G slide. The G1 is now the center of my next project, an Android driven Robot.

The COSMAC ELF and Me

2011-10-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

In the late 1970's I was working for a small cable television station, cable Channel 11 in Pharr, Texas, when I realized I could build my own computer. I had been following articles in Kilobaud Microcomputing, Byte, and Popular Electronics magazines with great interest. For sometime I studied a series of construction articles for a home brew computer designed around an early microprocessor, the RCA 1802. The articles, written by Joseph Weisbecker and published in Popular Electronics beginning in August, 1976, were titled "Build the COSMAC ELF", parts 1 through 4. But starting such a project seemed formidable until one day my boss, John Toland, owner, operator, and chief engineer of Canal ONCE, purchased the RCA Studio II, an early video game console, from Radio Shack. John and I were fascinated with it's design and immediately disassembled it. There we found, in the center of it all, an RCA 1802. At around $69.00 it was a steep purchase for me, but I did not hesitate to buy my own.