Human-Machine Symbiosis

Poincare anticipated the frustration of an important group of would-be computer users when he said, "The question is not, 'What is the answer?' The question is, 'What is the question?'"
J.C.R Licklider

“Symbiontic devices will change the way we make decisions, learn, remember, and regulate our mood.”
Pattie Maes

“One possibility—something that may be crazy by today’s standards but will not be so crazy by future standards—is that many people will choose to become part AI.”
Ilya Sutskever (Text sourced from www.technologyreview.com)

Consciousness expansion in human beings is going to become an absolute necessity, because we are summoning out of the woodwork of cybernetic technology machines that are going to require superintelligent humans to direct and have discourse with them.
Terence McKenna (Text sourced from https://www.organism.earth/library/document/linear-societies-nonlinear-drugs)

J.C.R. Licklider's paper “Man-Computer Symbiosis”, often considered a foundational work in human-computer interaction, argues that the future of computing lies in a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. He envisions that computers will not just be tools, but collaborative partners that amplify human capabilities. The paper also anticipates the development of a global network, hinting at what we now know as the Internet.

Licklider foresaw a world where computers would be able to understand and interpret human language, making the interaction more natural and intuitive. Although speech synthesis and natural language processing were only starting out in the 1960s, he had the vision that these technologies would become key components of the human-computer symbiosis. For humans, the role was clear: to “set the goals, formulate the hypotheses, determine the criteria, and perform the evaluations.”. For computers, their role was to “do the routinizable work that must be done to prepare the way for insights and decisions in technical and scientific thinking”. They would essentially become 'intellectual amplifiers' that would extend human capabilities. In this envisioned symbiosis, both entities amplify each other's strengths while compensating for each other's weaknesses.

Fast forward to 2023, and it's as if we're living in the world Licklider envisioned. We've got a global network connecting us all, smartphones in nearly every pocket and large language models enabling natural, dialogue-based interactions. These advancements are not just technological feats; they might be the beginning of the realization of this old dream. It is therefore an opportune moment to revisit Licklider's original paper and ask: Now that we start having the technology, will this bring about the symbiotic relationship he foresaw? Are we truly leveraging this partnership to amplify human capabilities, or are there aspects still unexplored?

The true essence of this symbiosis isn't merely in the capabilities that technology brings, but in the transformative power it can unlock within us—amplifying our creativity, expanding our understanding, and elevating our pursuit of meaningful objectives.