The creative computer , by Donald Michie and Rory Johnston. Pp 256. £12·95. 1984. ISBN 0-670-80060-0 (Viking)

Section I. Introduction.- 1. Introduction.- Section II. Language and Knowledge.- 2. Artificial Intelligence and The Empiricist Picture of Thought.- 3. Seeing and Seeing-As.- 4. Cognitive Science and the Computer Metaphor.- Section III. Tacit Knowledge.- 5. Rule-following and Intransitive Understanding.- 6. Tacit knowledge, Rule-following and Learning.- 7. Tacit Knowledge - An Impediment for AI?.- 8. Language and Action.- 9. Language and Experience.- 10. The Inner Weather Picture.- Section IV. Education, Training, Skill and Work.- 11. The New Technology and the New Training: Reflections on the Past and Prospects for the Future.- 12. Engineering as an Art.- 13. Automation and Skill.- 14. Farmers and Computers.- 15. How to make Materials Data Systems Useful for Designers.- 16. Technological Information and Information Technology in the Information Society.- 17. A Learning Society: Japan Through Australian Eyes.- 18. Unleashing Human Intelligence - More Than a Matter of Computer Technology.- Section V. Expert Systems.- 19. Cultures, Languages, Mediation.- 20. Professional Skill and Traditions of Knowledge.- 21. Design of an Intelligent Tutor System for Use in Medical Education.- 22. Practical Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Training.- Section VI. The Information Society.- 23. "I have no idea where I am going, so to make up for that I go faster".- 24. Is Socrates to Blame for Cognitivism?.- 25. Socratic Dialogue: On Dialogue and Discussion in the Formation of Knowledge.- 26. And in the End, the Epilogue?.- 27. The Personal Signature.

Artificial Intelligence, Culture and Language: On Education and Work

The human-centred debate in Britain focuses on the idea of human-machine symbiosis, and the “Dialogue” debate in Scandinavia focuses on the deep understanding of human communication, through a process of inner reflection. Both of these debates provide a framework for the participatory design of AI systems.

Reflections on participatory design

To understand the role of expert systems as a medium for transferring knowledge and skills within organisations requires an understanding of the nature of expertise within working life contexts. Central to this issue of transfer is the debate on the nature of tacit/implicit knowledge and the problem of formalising it in explicit form. This paper considers the British approach to the development of knowledge-based systems, which is regarded as being predominantly rationalistic, and compares it with the Scandinavian approach, which is regarded as being predominantly humanistic. The paper proposes that crucial to the debate on the transfer of knowledge and skills is the development of expert systems as communications media which aims at enhancing and sharing the knowledge and skills of users. A human-centred approach for the future is proposed which brings the above two traditions together thereby providing a developmental framework for knowledge based systems.

On two AI traditions

The hallmark of the post-industrial society is the accelerating pace and the multidimensional nature of information and communication technologies and their penetration in all facets of societies globally. While there is an increasing belief in the notions of knowledge society, common economic spaces and diverse cultural spaces, the dilemmas of exclusion and inclusion; identity and integration; valorisation and homogenisation; and vulnerability and sustainability, are becoming more and more intractable. One of the paradoxes the post-industrial society is that while knowledge is seen as the new social and economic resource, new technologies demand increasing exclusion of both the knowledge and the participation of the majority of world population (and even nations) from the processes of social and economic development. This exclusion undermines the diversity of social and cultural contexts of knowledge bases and linguistic diversities of interaction, and thereby limit the very potential of new technology for the transfer of knowledge and models of experiences between and across cultures.

Knowledge and the Post-industrial Society

One of the central planks of development is the enhancement of people’s potential for creative participation in the development process by enhancing the provision of basic human needs such as education, health and welfare. If AI technology has any relevance to these developmental issues (as like any other technology it should), then it must also concern itself with the knowledge of human needs and the nature of expert knowledge which contributes to the design of relevant technologies. In order for people to participate in the development process, they must have knowledge and skills to affect such a process. The machine-centred approach of current AI technology restricts its application to those problem-solving domains which can be formalized in logical rational rules. This approach thus takes account of non-intuitive knowledge and ignores the intuitive component which is embedded in the personal experience and in the social and cultural traditions of the user. The human-centred approach, on the other hand, is based on the human-machine symbiosis and provides for creative participation of users in the design of “developmental” systems.

K. S. Gill

Papers

Artificial intelligence and social action: education and training