If we truly want to create a future where humans and machines work together seamlessly, we need to find ways to bridge the gap between them. Now, this can be done in 2 ways, making humans machines (which I believe is just not possible unless we ask gods to intervene). Now, the second, more humane way to do it is by making machines more human. By giving machines the ability to perceive, interpret, and act in the world, we can empower them to truly augment human capabilities and help us overcome our limitations.

Let’s divide the path of human machine integration. We see there can be these 4 different segments overall, 1) Humans, 2) Perception segment, 3) Interaction segment, and 4) The technical brain or OS.

Humans

This entire concept of human-machine integration is fundamentally human-centric. It's about creating technologies that serve and support humans, rather than the other way around. The goal is to create a seamless connection between humans and machines that feels natural and intuitive, rather than artificial or forced. This means designing technologies that prioritize the human experience above all else.

This concept requires us to keep human needs at the forefront of our minds as we design and build systems. We need to be able to modify and adapt the system to meet these needs in a wide range of situations. We also need to ensure that the system is sophisticated enough to handle unexpected inputs and unexpected scenarios so that it can continue to serve human needs even in challenging circumstances.

Perception (Digital & Physical)

One of the key components of human-machine integration is how the machine perceives the world, both digitally and physically. The challenge of gathering all the relevant digital data from different sources is lengthy & significant, but it is deterministic. The key is that the information being analyzed is fundamentally the same, regardless of the digital source. By digital data, we mean texts, emails, websites, software, and other data.

Physical data is critical to human-machine integration, and how we interpret that data is just as important as the data itself. This includes the ability to recognize and understand subtle changes in facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal cues. Machines will also need to develop an understanding of the context and significance of these cues in different situations. We need machines that can understand the complexity and nuances of the human experience so that they can effectively interact with us and support us in our daily lives.

As per the research, we, humans, perceive over 80% of our environment via visual input. Somewhere around 10-12% via audio, and the rest of the information with our smell, touch, and taste-related senses. We can infer that naturally machines would require more visual and audio input to perceive any situation.

Ambient computing devices can play a key role in providing the necessary data for machine perception. By being constantly present in our environment, these devices can collect and transmit data in an unobtrusive way, making them an ideal source of information for machine learning and AI systems.

More of this is discussed here and here

Interaction & Interfaces

The interface is still a critical element of any technological system, even in the era of ambient computing and AI. While the role of the interface may shift to become more of a feedback mechanism, it still provides an essential means of communication and personalization for users. Additionally, it can help to ensure that the information provided by intelligent systems is clear, accessible, and actionable.💡 Historically, the role of any interface was to help users feed information which enabled customization, and provide feedback.

We'll need to develop new interaction models that are more fluid and context-sensitive, allowing us to access machine intelligence without disrupting our current tasks. While traditional computing devices will still play a role, we may see a shift towards more distributed and ambient interfaces that are integrated into our environment.

Technical Brain | OS

Technical brain, or OS majorly revolves central processing power of any entity in the human-machine computing architecture. Imagine a 'brain' that powers the entire human-machine system, providing the computational power and access to data that enables the system to function. This 'brain' also incorporates AI capabilities, allowing it to understand context and provide meaningful insights. It's a centralized system that works in the background, analyzing data and providing support to humans as needed. In effect, it's an invisible but essential component of the human-machine ecosystem which is perceiving the data, building the context, and taking action.

The intelligence it possesses comes from several areas → 1) war-chest of data from your life in order to act on your behalf. 2) Knowledge of utilizing the information in order to complete a task. 3) Prediction of tasks before intent based on data. 4) Ability to identify humans via minimal input from interfaces. Now, this AI brain’s data must be residing with the person.

We will be discussing it more in our upcoming note.