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Breaking Barriers in Human Thought Extraction

Tttable1
Something has been really bugging me lately.   Why is it that we can get data into our heads faster than we can get it out?   By one back of the envelope calculation (drop me a note if you want to see the envelope) we can load humans with about 60 GBPS worth of data through the well engineered use of visualization systems.  And when done right the brain can process all that and bounce it off vast stores of saved memory in speeds that are much much faster.  But when it comes to getting that data and its results back out, we are stuck typing or speaking.  So, depending on how fast a person types or speaks, the data comes out at about 40 to 120 words per minute.

Why is this important?

In the analysis world, whether it is financial analysis or risk analysis or intelligence analysis or medical analysis, sometimes we humans must coordinate and collaborate to get to the right answer.  The default way we do that is through voice, of course.  So, you have multiple humans creating knowledge at the speed of thought and then trying to exchange it at a snail’s pace.  That has been a frustration of fast thinkers for ages.

After wrestling with this problem for a few years I think I know part of the answer.  We don’t need brain implants or advanced ESP skills to solve this one.  We need more widespread use of advanced human generated computer graphics devices.

I’m going to mention one in particular to illustrate the point:  The TouchTable.

I imagine most CTOs have at least heard of the Touch Table.  This was a capability developed by Applied Minds Inc to meet the requirements of a special group of users in the Defense Intelligence Agency.  Many exciting videos of the TouchTable exist on the Internet, with one of the most recent being one with TouchTable CEO Rocky Roccanova on a Wired Science episode.

Now back to my point.   What if every human who had to have elegant interactions or collaborations on advanced higher-order thoughts had a TouchTable and what if they were all linked together so info sharing could be facilitated by these devices?

Now the speed of getting data out of a human’s head and into another human’s head would be significantly changed.  Ideas and thoughts can be created visually and received by people through their fastest input pipe.   And since it is totally digital, humans can use TouchTable to collaborate around the globe.

When viewed this way, advanced devices like this TouchTable can really help break the bottleneck in getting thoughts out of then back into heads.

For more see: http://www.touchtable.com/site/

An Enterprise CTO’s View of Cyberspace: Cyberspace is our Interconnected IT

The Definition of Cyberspace:

Cyberspace is our Interconnected IT

I heard yet another definition of cyberspace today.  I won’t repeat it here, I’ll just say it was an academic’s definition and it was somewhat useful to the particular conversation we were having.  But it pointed to an enduring problem for those who try to study these concepts.  If everyone everywhere can create their own definition of cyberspace, then how can we study this field?
At the risk of clouding things even further, I’ll propose a solution.

The term cyberspace is primarily used in two ways:

1) As a metaphor and

2) As a description of the modern IT environment.

Depending on which of those two usages is required, there are two easy definitions.  They follow:

When used as a metaphor, the term cyberspace must convey the full complexity and elegance of a new environment that is man made but seems alive. When a definition is required for this usage, there is none better than that written by the man who coined the term. William Gibson wrote about it in 1984 in his book Neuromancer. He defined cyberspace as “A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation… A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity.”  For me that terms puts you in the frame of mind to creatively explore the realm of the possible and is still very much of use.

When the term is used in the context of real world actions and infrastructure, we can now use a very simple definition.  Cyberspace = The Information Technology in operation today (including hardware, software and data).

Said an even shorter/simpler way: Cyberspace is our interconnected information technology.

Is there any need for any other definition of the term “cyberspace”?

Cyberspace Is Our Interconnected Information Technology

For more on these topics see the CTOvision Guide to National Security Technology and

Robots are Coming! (soon, to an enterprise near you)

Some of the most famous robots I’ve had the pleasure to observe are UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).  These devices usually operate under human control, but most also come with the advanced circuitry that allows them to decide how to move from point to point through the air.  This is some really complex technology that requires the UAV to make and execute decisions on how to accomplish what its human master tells it to do.

UAVs are an interesting example, because their use is becoming more widespread.  They are not only for operation over battlefields.  They are now increasingly being used by law enforcement, firefighters, fishing fleets and academic researchers studying all sorts of atmospheric and geodetic effects.

But UAVs, like most other robots designed by and for large enterprises, are focused on accomplishing enterprise driven missions.  Robots designed and built for individual consumers are also arising and these will likely provide tremendous value not only for individuals but for enterprises.

For example, a great deal of robot research in Japan is focused on finding ways to help care for its aging population. Models are for sale now that are designed to keep elderly people entertained, stimulated and interacting with their environment. New designs are being fielded with advanced senses of smell and other sensors designed to evaluate a human’s health. Other robots in Japan can feed by spoon or assist the elderly in moving around. During a trip to Japan this summer I noticed more use of robotic contraptions/devices in places like parking lots and toll booths, but also robotic traffic control.  Several Japanese companies are selling versions of robots for security, including one that looks a lot like  RoboCop.

If I’ve gotten your curiosity up, Wikipedia has a good overview of the state of robotics.  That entry is well worth a review by any enterprise IT professional, because the coming rise of robots is going to have a huge impact on our future requirements.

For example, enterprises everywhere will need IT systems that can handle increases in sensor data from robots (yes robots are coming, but so is Big Data!).  And most enterprises will need new tools to help plan the optimal use and placement of robotic sensors and other robots.  And most enterprises will need help desks staffed with people who know how to troubleshoot robots (or maybe robots can staff the help desk?).  Enterprises that work with sensitive data will need to establish policies on which robots will be allowed into their spaces since every one can collect information.

And then there is robot repair.

To underscore the need for robot repair, I’ll close with a personal anecdote.  I saw Asimo at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  He is so cool!  He can walk, talk, play soccer, dance, and handle a wide range of items.  He can recognize his environment and respond to it.  It was great to meet Asimo first hand.   During his stage performance, his human handler explained many of the feats the Honda engineering team accomplished in building Asimo.  We were all impressed.  The last big stunt Asimo was to perform for us was to run in a huge circle around the stage.  This, we were told, required many onboard calculations  to be done because of the advanced calculus required.  Asimo would need to think through the size of the stage, the placement of obstacles, his own planned speed and how to turn a little at a time to make a big circle.  So, we were told, Asimo would pause for 30 seconds to make those calculations.   Well he paused.  And paused.  And paused.  Two minutes later we were told that little Asimo had totally locked up.  He needed a reboot.  The show was over.

That made me immediately realize two things.  For one, I was able to deduce what operating system little Asimo runs.  For two, it made me realize that many of the things we have seen about robots in bad science fiction might one day come true.  There can be glitches and ghosts in the machine that may result in unpredictable behavior.  So we enterprise technologists will always need ways to re-exert our control over robots.  That must be a meta-requirement.

Related Reading

Good and Evil in the Future of Cyberspace

michaelPredictions of the future of technology are increasingly starting to sound like science fiction.   Depending on your point of view that can be good or bad.  As for me, I’m an optimist, and I know we humans will find a way to ensure technology serves our best interests.

But a sad fact of the human condition is that bad people will likely be with us long into the future.  And sometimes good people can be tempted to do bad things, so we really need to engineer solutions that keep the bad guys from benefiting from technology and keep those who can sometimes be tempted from giving in to their darker side.

To engineer secure systems for the future we need to continually assess where we are and what the near term future holds for our technologies.  Here is a couple short predictions that could be useful in this discussion.

First, a definition: Cyberspace is our interconnected information technology.

  • Remote power is here today and will soon be widely distributed.  This will allow small power consumption devices (like keyboards, mice, bluetooth headsets, hearing aides, small sensors) to be provided power by RF energy.
  • Power generation from motion is almost ready for prime time.  This will allow devices to gain energy from vibrations, like the vibrations in a bridge when a car passes over it, or the vibrations in a wall of a building when the wind blows past it, or the vibrations caused by a person’s movement through the day.
  • Communication capability (bandwidth) between fixed facilities will increase 1000 fold over the next five years.
  • Storage, especially flash storage technologies, is decreasing in price so much we can afford to store data anywhere on almost anything.
  • Chips are being designed in ways that actually beat the old Moore’s Law projections.  This is being done by placing many cores on one chip.  Very high data rate capabilities are being connected directly to the cores on these chips.
  • RFID is becoming so widespread we can place devices on everything that allows devices to report back what they are and what they are for and where they have been.
  • All these capabilities are being networked together, including increasingly direct device to device connections via capabilities provided by enhanced protocols (especially IPv6).
  • Consumer devices, especially consumer communication devices, are becoming increasingly capable.  What used to be called a cell phone is now a phone/video recorder/video editor/entertainment/mobile office device with location aware data (GPS).
  • Cloud Computing and the rise of web2.0 and web enabled service delivery is a trend as powerful as any force of nature.  Increasingly we will get our computational power from the grid.

There are many other elements of the future relevant to security discussions, but the projections above lead to some interesting conclusions on their own.   So lets think through some of the impacts of the above.

  • Bad actors who want to exploit systems will increasingly not have to worry about them being powered off.  They will be on all the time.
  • Many paths into devices will be available for unauthorized users to exploit.  And if they are compromised by people or code that intend on generating denial of service attacks, huge amounts of bandwidth will exist for them to attack from.
  • When a bad actor gets through defenses into data stores, they will likely find a wide range of data to exploit, since it is becoming so easy and low cost for us to store everything.
  • Having things networked together means it can be easier to penetrate a target by finding one weak link that is connected to the infrastructure.
  • Areas of people’s lives they once thought private, especially their cell phones and the data on their cell phones, are increasingly becoming attractive targets to hackers.

What is needed in an environment like this?  I can’t pretend to know all the solutions but here are a few points I support:

  • Enhanced firewalls and intrusion detection devices.
  • Better configuration control, for all devices.  When a device is out of configuration is must be brought back into compliance immediately.
  • Better laws and treaties concerning cyberspace.
  • Better training and education for all (I mean ALL) humans connected to the grid.
  • Better, continuous upgraded anti-virus solutions.
  • Enhanced, easier to use encryption.
  • Enhanced, more secure identity and authorization technologies.

 

Intellectual Rigor and Cyber Conflict

I’m a member (and one of the founders/board members of) The Cyber Conflict Studies Association (CCSA).  This is a not for profit group organized to promote and lead a diversified research and intellectual development agenda to advance knowledge in the cyber conflict field.

CCSA members are committed to furthering academic programs related to several elements of this discipline.   Our goals include:

  • Providing a venue for academic dialog and study of economic, policy and other strategic issues surrounding the threat of cyber conflict;
  • Providing a resource for national security decision-makers in the federal government;
  • Providing cross-functional venues where cyber conflict issues can de discussed among professionals from academia, government, industry, etc.;
  • Providing an outlet for the publication of professional articles, position papers and a journal;
  • Helping to frame and promote national policy concerning all aspects of cyber conflict;
  • Cooperating with other organizations and institutions involved with other aspects of national security affairs to serve as a resource for them on cyber conflict issues.

The CCSA is not looking to become a huge organization. But we are looking for the right academics who believe in the need to enhance this field of study.  For more information please see the CCSA website at http://cyberconflict.org

We track these and many related issues in our CyberWar site. 

Also see:

For more on these topics see the CTOvision Guide to National Security Technology and

Jonathan Schwartz’s views on CTOs

Of all Jonathan’s posts, all of which I really enjoy, one recently one struck me as particularly insightful:

Link: Jonathan Schwartz’s Weblog.

“I found myself talking to a group of media company CEO’s. I asked a simple question, “do you have a general counsel reporting to you?” The answer was universally, yes.

I do, too. Mike and his team are central to the evolution of Sun (as I’ve said, we are nothing less, or more, than an intellectual property company – it’s hard navigating those waters without a great legal team).

But then I asked a harder question: “Do you have a chief technology officer reporting to you?”

I do, and I talk to Greg at least every day. He plays a central role at Sun. Central as in nervous system. He’s involved in every major strategic decision I make (and a ton of minor ones, too).

But in response to my question, the answers from the group were more dismissive than substantive – most did not. And in my view, if you have a general counsel reporting to you, and not a CTO, you’re saying legal advice is more important to you than technology counsel. Which seems backward for a media company. Why?”

Thanks Jonathan, for spelling out so clearly why the CTO role is becoming more and more critical to the future of the enterprise and to society overall.  You also underscore for all of us why Greg must have the greatest CTO gig on earth.  He has a great boss.

 

Related Reading

Marc Andreessen on the Future of Technology and Implications for Government Service to Citizens

CTOs, Global Cyberwar and Our Collective Future

The Role of the CTO: Four Models for Success

 

Top 10 CTO Principles

Consider a principle as a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct.

I believe there are basic generalizations accepted by all leading CTOs and therefore these CTO principles can be studied and learned. I have my own list that I’ve applied at several organizations and will expand on them in future posts.  But my real point here is to underscore that by study of the principles of CTOs we can look for deeper insights into our profession.

For my enterprise, the principles I’ve always used are:

  • Our systems and architectures will always be mission focused
  • Our enterprise must be flexible and adaptable
  • Our technical team will constantly upgrade their skills and knowledge
  • Our technology plan will be broadly communicated/understood
  • We unify enterprise architecture, governance and engineering efforts
  • We embrace the ideal of a single enterprise-wide SOA
  • We embrace and embody the concept of “mission assurance”
  • We will divest ourselves of efforts which do not support the mission
  • We err to the simple over complex
  • Disciplined collaboration is critical to our success

I’ll expand on each of those over time.

 

Also See:

The Principles of Enterprise Technology

Twelve Principles of DoD Cyber Conflict

Cyber Security and Corporate Governance: The five principles every corporate director should embody

Jonathan Schwartz’s views on CTOs

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