A conceptual framework for using modern technology to give direct aid to an individual in comprehending complex situations, isolating significant factors, and solving problems.
Four fundamental classes of augmentation means that extend human capabilities beyond innate limitations. Click on any node to explore its function and relationships.
Physical objects designed to provide for human comfort, for the manipulation of things or materials, and for the manipulation of symbols. These are the tangible interfaces between human intent and environmental change.
Understanding how information flows through the human system and how augmentation means transform limited capabilities into complex problem-solving power.
The individual does not use his information and processing to grapple directly with complex situations. The situation is generally too complex to yield directly to his motor actions, and always too complex to yield comprehensions from direct sensory inspection.
An aborigine with all our basic sensory-mental-motor capabilities, but without our background of indirect knowledge, cannot organize the proper actions to drive a car, request a library book, or compose a letter.
Our culture has evolved means to organize the little things we can do with our basic capabilities so that we can derive comprehension from truly complex situations and accomplish problem-solving.
A trained human being together with his artifacts, language, and methodology—integrated with computers and computer-controlled information devices.
Explore how different augmentation means affect the human system's ability to handle complexity. Toggle layers to see the transformation.
The explicit new system we contemplate.
The explicit new system involves computers, and computer-controlled information-storage, information-handling, and information-display devices. These artifacts extend the human motor channels beyond biological limitations, enabling manipulation of symbols at speeds and scales impossible through direct physical action.
Language is the way the individual parcels out the picture of his world into concepts that his mind uses to model that world, and the symbols he attaches to those concepts for conscious manipulation. Augmented language systems allow for more complex conceptual models and faster symbolic reasoning.
The methods, procedures, and strategies with which an individual organizes his goal-centered activity. Augmented methodology provides structured approaches to complexity, breaking impossible problems into manageable sequences of operations.
The conditioning needed to bring skills in using artifacts, language, and methodology to the point where they are operationally effective. Without training, the most powerful augmentation means remain inaccessible. Training transforms potential capability into actual performance.
"The entire effect of an individual on the world stems essentially from what he can transmit to the world through his limited motor channels."