Augmented Cognition in Human–system Interaction

The fig tree is pollinated only by the insect Blastophaga grossorun. The larva of the insect lives in the ovary of the fig tree, and there it gets its food. The tree and the insect are thus heavily interdependent: the tree cannot reproduce without the insect; the insect cannot eat without the tree; together, they constitute not only a viable but a productive and thriving partnership. This cooperative “living together in intimate association, or even close union, of two dissimilar organisms” is called symbiosis. . . . “Man-computer symbiosis” is a subclass of man-machine systems. There are many man-machine systems. At present, however, there are no man-computer symbioses. . . . The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today. (Licklider, 1960, pp. 4–5) Although this was written over 40 years ago, Licklider’s vision fully characterizes the current status of interactive computing and contemporary aspirations for its future. Historically, visionaries such as Licklider (1960) and Engelbart (1963) suggested that human–computer symbiosis should augment human intelligence and extend human cognitive abilities. Yet such intelligence augmentation has so far proved elusive for interactive system developers. There is a burgeoning paradigm shift in interactive computing that has the potential to realize these visionary projections; it is called augmented cognition. Augmented cognition is a constellation of desires, concepts and goals aimed at maximizing human cognitive abilities through the unification of humans and computational systems (Schmorrow and McBride, 2004). As Licklider (1960) suggested, human brains and computing machines should be coupled together very tightly. The essence of augmented cognition is to achieve such coupling by leveraging the latest in powerful imaging techniques that enable mapping of