The Atomic Human
From Physical to Digital Feedback: Engineering Human Agency in the Age of AI
Neil D. Lawrence
Cambridge Consultants
Henry Ford’s Faster Horse
O M D P C F B V
H G J Q Z Y X K W
Embodiment Factors
| bits/min | billions | 2,000 |
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billion calculations/s |
~100 | a billion |
| embodiment | 20 minutes | 5 billion years |
New Flow of Information
Evolved Relationship
Evolved Relationship
Understanding Through Feedback and Intervention
NACA Langley
Physical and Digital Feedback
- Physical Feedback:
- Test pilots feel aircraft response
- Watt’s governor directly senses speed
- Immediate physical connection
- Digital Feedback:
- Abstract measurements
- Delayed response
- Hidden failure modes
When Feedback Fails
The Horizon Scandal
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When Feedback Fails
- Historical Examples:
- NACA test pilots: direct feedback
- Amelia Earhart: physical understanding
- Modern Failures:
- Horizon scandal: hidden errors
- Lorenzo system: disconnected feedback
- Lives ruined by lack of understanding
The Lorenzo Scandal
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Engineering Systems and Complexity
Mark II Colossus
Blake’s Newton
Separation of Concerns
Intellectual Debt
Technical debt is the inability to maintain your complex software system.
Intellectual debt is the inability to explain your software system.
Engineering Complexity and Understanding
- Apollo guidance: 145,000 lines of code
- Modern car: over 100 million lines
- Understanding vs Volume
- Program alarms and deep knowledge
The Challenges of Modern Systems
Intellectual Debt
Technical Debt
- Compare with technical debt.
- Highlighted by Sculley et al. (2015).
Technical Consequence
- Classical systems design assumes decomposability.
- Data-driven systems interfere with decomponsability.
Bits and Atoms
- The gap between the game and reality.
- The need for extrapolation over interpolation.
Artificial vs Natural Systems
- Consider natural intelligence, or natural systems
- Contrast between an artificial system and an natural system.
- The key difference between the two is that artificial systems are designed whereas natural systems are evolved.
Natural Systems are Evolved
Survival of the fittest
?
Natural Systems are Evolved
Survival of the fittest
Herbet Spencer, 1864
Natural Systems are Evolved
Non-survival of the non-fit
Mistake we Make
- Equate fitness for objective function.
- Assume static environment and known objective.
Engineering Consultation in the Age of AI
- Key considerations:
- Human-system interaction
- Embedded assumptions
- Agency vs Automation
- Explainability vs Efficiency
The Path Forward
The MONIAC
Donald MacKay
Fire Control Systems
Behind the Eye
Later in the 1940’s, when I was doing my Ph.D. work, there was much talk of the brain as a computer and of the early digital computers that were just making the headlines as “electronic brains.” As an analogue computer man I felt strongly convinced that the brain, whatever it was, was not a digital computer. I didn’t think it was an analogue computer either in the conventional sense.
Human Analogue Machine
Human Analogue Machine
A human-analogue machine is a machine that has created a feature space that is analagous to the “feature space” our brain uses to reason.
The latest generation of LLMs are exhibiting this charateristic, giving them ability to converse.
Heider and Simmel (1944)
Counterfeit People
- Perils of this include counterfeit people.
- Daniel Dennett has described the challenges these bring in an article in The Atlantic.
Psychological Representation of the Machine
But if correctly done, the machine can be appropriately “psychologically represented”
This might allow us to deal with the challenge of intellectual debt where we create machines we cannot explain.
In practice …
LLMs are already being used for robot planning Huang et al. (2023)
Ambiguities are reduced when the machine has had large scale access to human cultural understanding.
Inner Monologue
HAM
Networked Interactions
The Atomic Human in Engineering
- Human-Machine Interface:
- Apollo’s careful design balance
- HAMs as convergent evolution
- Digital systems need human agency
- Engineering Future:
- Tools not replacements
- Institutional accountability
- Understanding capabilities AND limitations
Thanks!
book: The Atomic Human
twitter: @lawrennd
The Atomic Human pages Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) 10–12 , Bauby, Jean Dominique 9–11, 18, 90, 99-101, 133, 186, 212–218, 234, 240, 251–257, 318, 368–369, embodiment factor 13, 29, 35, 79, 87, 105, 197, 216-217, 249, 269, 353, 369, Gilruth, Bob 190-192, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) 163–168, feedback loops 117-119, 122-130, 132-133, 140, 145, 152, 177, 180-181, 183-184, 206, 228, 231, 256-257, 263-264, 265, 329, Horizon scandal 371, feedback failure 163-168, 189-196, 211-213, 334-336, 340, 342-343, 365-366, Colossus (computer) 76–79, 91, 103, 108, 124, 130, 142–143, 149, 173–176, 199, 231–232, 251, 264, 267, 290, 380, Blake, William Newton 121–123, Blake, William Newton 121–123, 258, 260, 283, 284, 301, 306, separation of concerns 84-85, 103, 109, 199, 284, 371, engineering complexity 198-204, 342-343, 365-366, intellectual debt 84, 85, 349, 365, intellectual debt 84-85, 349, 365, 376, natural vs artificial systems 102-103, consultation challenges 340-341, 348-349, 351-352, 363-366, 369-370, MONIAC 232-233, 266, 343, MacKay, Donald, Behind the Eye 268-270, 316, psychological representation 326–329, 344–345, 353, 361, 367, human-analogue machine 343–5, 346–7, 358–9, 365–8, human-analogue machine (HAMs) 343-347, 359-359, 365-368, conclusions 340-341, 344, 346-347, 358-359, 365-370.
podcast: The Talking Machines
newspaper: Guardian Profile Page
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