• Project 10: Network-Enabled Problem Solving
• Project 12: Network-Enabled Shared Understanding

In this BPP (BP09) the focus of the research in this area will be in the area of network enabled cognition, therefore the name Network Enabled Cognition will also be used to refer to this technical area.

The advent of modern information and communication networks heralds a number of opportunities for cognitive transformation and enhancement. On the one hand, such networks serve to augment our familiar patterns of information access, knowledge transfer and social influence. But there is also a sense in which the impact of modern networks on cognition is truly transformative. As we move towards an era of ubiquitous network-mediated information access, the processing loops that drive our thoughts and actions will surely become increasingly sensitized to the possibility of new forms of biotechnological integration and merger that enhance our individual and collective problem-solving profiles.

TA4 is an attempt to explore the contribution of networks to agent cognition at both the individual and collective (social) levels. The two projects that comprise TA4 attempt to explore the ways in which the informational and technological elements of a large-scale network environment play representationally- and computationally-significant roles in shaping the profile of cognitive processing.

Project 10 seeks to understand the ways in which networks enhance cognition by coordinating and orchestrating the processing activities of human and synthetic agent communities. Project 12, in contrast, seeks to understand the ways in which networks can be used to promote and enhance shared understanding in coalition contexts. This uses a combination of semantically enriched formalisms and context-sensitive information processing3.

Together, the two projects will inform our understanding of the power and potential of network environments with regard to our traditional notions of cognitive and epistemic (knowledge-guided) competence. Each project addresses important and fundamental questions, and each is geared to deliver scientific and technical outcomes that directly or indirectly impact the way in which military agencies use networks for the purpose of realizing military objectives.

At one level, the research in TA4 is consistent with a large body of research that seeks to explore the way in which cognition is enhanced by elements of the broader social and technological environment. At another level, however, the research in TA4 is deeply discontinuous with previous research. It seeks to explore the possibility that networks are not just important factors in enhancing cognition; they may also form part of the very fabric from which our cognitive competencies are created. If correct, such a vision will challenge our traditional notions of cognitive agency, and it will open up a new way of conceptualizing our relationship to the wider web of socio-cultural and technological resources in which so much of human thought and reason is now situated.

TA4 is deeply connected to the objectives of TAs 1, 2 and 3. How synthetic agents can integrate with humans, and how humans cognition is augmented by networks depends critically on the nature of the physical networks, their security characteristics and the extent to which they extend perceptual and sensor capabilities. These TAs must deliver services and content that supports our collaborative teams whether synthetic or human.

Project 10 – Network Enabled Problem Solving

The technical objective of this project is to determine how the network enables human teams to solve problems. The focus is on human capabilities and performance during mission planning and execution. Mission participants are expected to include both military and civilian personnel from multiple networked nations and organizations. Mission success depends on their ability to plan and execute together in stressful situations despite differences in goals, objectives, policies, procedures, resources, infrastructure, language, customs, training, and culture. The project’s objectives are to investigate ways to understand the problems mission participants must solve with minimal explanation from humans, anticipate potential miscommunications due to differences in participants’ backgrounds, and intervene in ways that are useful and acceptable to people. All three of these objectives require grounding in empirical investigations to inform the research and to validate the results.

Project 12 – Network Enabled Shared Understanding

The notion of ‘shared understanding’ in coalition contexts is an important focus of attention in our attempt to understand the role of contemporary networks in shaping, guiding and influencing cognition (at both the individual and collective levels). At the collective level, networks provide the means by which agents are able to communicate exchange and manipulate information in order to coordinate their collective actions in the service of joint or common goals. At the individual level, contemporary network systems are potentially poised to play a transformative role in our notions of cognitive and epistemic (knowledge-guided) competence. As we move towards an era of ubiquitous network-mediated information access, the processing loops that drive our thoughts and actions will surely become increasingly sensitized to the possibility of deep and potent forms of biotechnological integration, forms of integration that increasingly blur the (already fragile) boundary between the cognitive agent and her wider social and technological environment. The guiding vision, then, is one of networks playing a dual (i.e. individual vs. collective) role in shaping, augmenting and (sometimes) undermining cognitive processing.

Footnotes3 ITA BPP07 had a project 11 which is dropped in the current BPP09. However, to maintain continuity, we continue to use Project 12 label from BPP07, instead of renaming it. This simplifies references to past and future statistics and publications.