Thinking Outside the Box at the IHMC

  • Authors:
  • Scott Hamilton

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • Computer
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 4.10

Visualization

Abstract

A decade ago, artificial intelligence research came under fire for being overhyped. Several projects now being conducted at The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida, may stimulate an AI renaissance. The author analyzes IHMC's human-centered computing approach to research and demonstrates how this approach embraces an interrelated collection of practical AI applications. IHMC applies technology to next-generation interfaces, knowledge modeling and sharing, intelligent agents, data mining, and extending human cognition. Scientists and researchers from diverse fields like computer science and engineering, medicine and cognitive psychology, statistics and mathematics, and the social sciences and philosophy are studying the complex phenomenon of human cognition. They aim to develop cognitive prostheses for augmenting our human capabilities and supplementing our human limitations. The IHMC's founders believed that the traditional academic architectonic by which universities divide knowledge reflected a focus on specialization that harmed cutting-edge research. The author describes how the interwoven research projects reflect the institute's interdisciplinary vision.