The “Cognitive-First” Generation
It was 15 years and 3 days ago that Steve Jobs put 5GB of music in his pocket with a device smaller than a pack of cigarettes. How quickly things change. the iPod’s thumb wheel feels quaint as we fast forward 6 years to September 2007 when iPod Touch ushered in a confused Touch First Generation of toddlers swiping newspapers and magazines to no effect. And while that’s barely 1/2 generation ago, those toddlers were already surpassed by a Voice First Generation coming of age with Siri (October 2011). And if you listen carefully now just 1/5 generation since, you’ll hear the cheerful giggles of a Cognitive First Generation being born.
Whether those giggles herald Kurzweil’s singularity or if a Moore’s law for technology adopting Generations exists, we likely have only 2 years (1/10 of a generation) to understand Cognitive before the next Generation arrives. We know cognitive technology’s impact will be far broader than touch, apps, and voice. Those changed only how we interact with our mobile devices while cognitive transforms how all our devices interact with us. This is all widely discussed though, and since this is my first post, I’ll be brief.
Over the next two year, I plan to explore how this Cognitive Generation will be empowered (and monitored) by emerging machine learning, AI, and cognitive computing technologies . I’ll develop code and analyze data using open source and commercial toolkits. I’ll play with new hardware as its released (demo device from Sony’s Future Lab N arriving soon). And we’ll philosophize on topics where cognitive resonance (falling in love with your virtual assistant) must guard against cognitive dissonance (your virtual assistant actually being a type of weaponized lover controlled by an enemy of your state).
