Man-Computer Symbiosis J.C.R. Licklider

What do we mean by symbiosis? cooperative living together in intimate association, or even close union, of two dissimilar organisms is called symbiosis

Man-computer symbiosis is somewhere between mechanically extended man and humanly extended machine.

Why would symbiosis be beneficial? Symbiosis should improve our ability to solve problems because: – Computers are great at solving pre-formulated problems. – Humans are good at formulating problems.

Do we really need symbiosis? Licklider analyzed how he spent his own research time and concluded the following: – We spend most of our time preparing to think. – We spend lots of time graphing, graphing, and re- graphing (and generally manipulating data). – Once we have the data in a reasonable form we can usually perform our thinking quickly.

What is mans part in the relationship? Identifying relevant background information Formulating problems Identifying relevant very-low-probability possibilities

What is the computers role? Converting hypotheses into testable models Simulating models Answering questions Manipulating data Displaying data

What are the prerequisites to symbiosis? Computers are too fast and too costly for any one man; need timesharing Memory is too expensive and bulky Memory will have to be organized for search The barrier between human and computer languages will need to be reduced Better input and output equipment is needed

Has symbiosis been achieved already? Some of Lickliders prerequisites have not yet been achieved, but have we already achieved symbiosis? Is there more to come? – NLP? – More natural input and output? Where does crowdsourcing fit in? What about data overload? Are we too connected?