AU/ACSC/LOWRY, C/AY18 AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY HUMAN NATIVE FORM: A SIMPLIFYING THEORY FOR THE INFORMATION AGE by C. Christian Lowry, Major, USAF A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF OPERATIONAL ARTS AND SCIENCES Advisor: Lt Col Peter Garretson, USAF Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama April 2018 DISTRIBUTION A. Approved for public release: distribution unlimited. AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 Disclaimer The views expressed in this academic research paper are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US government or the Department of Defense.
In accordance with Air Force Instruction 51-303, it is not copyrighted, but is the property of the United States government. 2 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 Abstract Human Native Form (HNF) is a simplifying theory. It posits that by importing data from non-sensory sources, and translating the data into information in a way our mind can intuitively, or natively, absorb and use, we decrease our cognitive load while gaining access to information not otherwise available. It turns data into a form of information that humans can consume.
HNF theory posits that people perceive the environment through their senses and process the sensations to produce useable information. This bypasses the need to translate data into information through cognition. HNF presents information instead of data, which reduces cognitive load and increases available working memory, while providing more information to the user; thus, allowing better informed decisions, and faster, more decisive actions. This paper documents the demonstration of a heads-up display (HUD) device for use by Special Operations Forces (SOF) to provide information according to the HNF approach.
It consists of three parts. The first part defines HNF information absorption and discusses the necessity for this unifying theory, creating a new taxonomy for the information age. The second part offers a thought-piece, supported by research, which envisions SOF operations in 2058. The final part provides an after-action report of a three-day hack-a-thon that built the SOF HUD, an augmented reality device from commercial, off-the-shelf technology for augmented reality.
3 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 Contents Disclaimer. Human Native Form Introduced:. Early Technology and Change: Human Scaled Production to an Industrial Age Model:. From an Industrial Age Model to Information Age Reality:.
Data is Different than Information:. 14 V: The Utility of Information vs. 17 VI: Too Much Data is Just Too Much:. The Human Brain and Human Native Form:.
23 IX: SOF Operations, 2058 A. 23 Appendix A: SOF HUD Hackathon After Action Report. 38 Appendix B: DAQRI Smart Glasses Spec Sheet. 45 Appendix C: Capt Brad Henicke’s Trip Report.
46 Appendix D: Independent Research Proposal: SOF HUD. 48 Appendix E: Event Photos. 52 4 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 Human Native Form Introduced Technology pervades every aspect of our existence, and yet it can isolate us from our environment, causing disconnects between people and their environment. These disconnects skew our perception of events and can make us less effective.
For example, GPS-guided moving maps in automobiles, and on cell phones, have become ubiquitous but they can divert attention from driving to map reading, and therefore, disconnect the driver from self-consciousness in driving. While technology promotes human progress, to serve people effectively, technology must be adapted to how humans function. By adapting technology to how humankind prefers to operate (mentally and biologically), we can correct this disconnect. Thus, a new way to manage technological/human inclusion is needed to replace industrial age thinking/models where humans accommodate technology rather than exploiting technology and scaling it to how humans most effectively function.
Human Native Form (HNF) accomplishes this. HNF is a simplifying theory. It posits that by importing data from non-sensory sources and translating the data into information in a way our mind can intuitively, or natively, absorb and use we decrease cognitive load and while gaining access to information that would not be available otherwise. It turns data into information that humans are built to consume.
HNF theory posits that humans perceive the environment through senses and process the sense natively, producing useable information. This bypasses the need to translate data into information through cognition. HNF presents information instead of data, which decreases cognitive load and increases available working memory while providing more information to the user; thus, allowing better informed decisions and faster, more decisive actions. HNF is a shift in thinking but at root a simple concept with even more simple application.
For example, a holographic blue line superimposed into your vision guiding you to a restaurant is 5 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 an elementary presentation of otherwise unavailable information into HNF. The blue line translates your present position and the restaurant’s location into a visual depiction of the most efficient route that requires little thought to follow. Even this simple use of HNF dramatically increases the amount of information we can process and act on by translating information from non-sensory sources into stimulus that human beings process naturally, or natively. Translating data into usable information by exploiting HNF dramatically increases our ability to think critically by reducing cognitive load, freeing working memory, and speeding up decisions.
In turn, faster decisions impart an asymmetric advantage to anyone because they can dictate the speed of any action and shape events forcing others to respond. Simply stated: HNF provides consumable information intuitively, eliminating many disconnects we currently experience with technology. HNF is a break from industrial age methodology and thinking. Therefore, it is best understood by first showing how the industrial age changed how humans approach technology and why that model needs to be changed.
The first part of this paper discusses early, human centered technology and methods and how industrial age methods forced humans to adapt to technology and changed human culture. This is not a condemnation of technology or the industrial age, far from it. It is merely an acknowledgement that early technology required more from man than it does today. While technology is much more complex, it is also much more interactive and intuitive to use.
Thus, a brief look at how the industrial age formed our culture and the implications for an early information age society still struggling with industrial age culture and antecedents begins the paper. Next, we look at the transition from the industrialization age to the industrial age using agriculture as the example. I posit that technology is enabling the information age, but human society remains linked to the industrial age because of cultural inertia. I then discuss the raw material of the industrial age, data, to draw a distinction between data and information and move 6 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 on to discussing the implications of too much data and the need for a unifying principle that allows data to be processed into information and then presented in a native format for humans.
Finally, I end the paper with a thought piece on how HNF might shape warfare in the near future. I have also, attached, as an appendix, the after-action report on a hack-a-thon where programmers and military subject matter experts developed the initial demonstrator of the SOF HUD. Early Technology and Change: Human Scaled Production to an Industrial Age Model: To frame the case for adopting HNF, we must understand its antecedent: industrial age thinking and systems. To facilitate this understanding a short treatment of pre-industrialization and industrialization is required.
Once we frame those we can then look at what we mean specifically by post industrialization or information age systems and thinking. One of the key characteristics that separates human beings from other species is our ability to modify our environment in ways that benefits us. We create tools to accomplish this. We have surrounded ourselves with useful technology throughout our history; this has not changed.
What changed is the complexity and pervasiveness of technology and how we integrate it into our daily existence. Before the industrial revolution, technologies were simple by necessity and thus elegant; they solved problems on a human scale. To illustrate what is meant by solving on a human scale consider the problem of elevation and inclines as obstacles to movement. Simple technology in the form of stairs, ramps and ladders surmounted this problem.
By using these devices humans could build in places that were formerly difficult, or impossible to use. The ancient architectural wonder of Machu Picchu in Peru would never have been built without the use of humble ladders or stairs. These technological solutions are so much a part of our experience that it is strange to even think of them as technology or solutions to a problem. Clothes are another technology that we tend to take for granted, but without them life would not be possible in many of the climates humans occupy and thrive in.
Technology in this age focused 7 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 their scope on immediate needs and often dealt with changing the environment to suit human activity. This is a constituent difference in human development; we change our environment more than we adapt to it. This forms one of the guiding principles of HNF: Technology should be adapted or created around human needs and how we prefer to exist. HNF holds technology should not require special training to use.
Early pre-industrial age technologies are in marked contrast with industrial age technology that did not require humans to adapt. Stairs use is intuitive and enhances our ability to walk up inclines, while clothes augment our ability to regulate body temperature. The industrial age built on earlier technologies and shifted focus from accommodating human activity to production in support of human consumption. For example, producing textiles enables more efficient manufacture of clothing making them more available for the consumer and was, thus, a huge driver in ushering in the industrial age.
Before production was focused in large factories, weaving was a cottage industry. Wives and children, typically, would process raw materials to make cloth for family use. While there were notable centers of fine cloth production (i. Flanders and England) most cloth was homespun and humble.
As men designed machines powered by water or steam, the textile industry grew in output and importance, and entrepreneurs built factories. The demand for textiles created a need for efficiencies to increase production scale. Complex machines enabled production by at every stage of production. Technology was developed to plant seeds, harvest crops, separate usable fiber from waste, spin it to yarn or thread, and to finally weave it into cloth.
These machines greatly speeded up production of cloth but because of technological limitations required humans to accommodate machinery. Labor was also industrialized during this period to accommodate these new technologies. A brief look at child labor demonstrates this point. Prior to the industrialization of the economy child labor was primarily confined to family farms and businesses.
This was due to the so-called 8 AU/ASCS/Lowry, C./AY18 “Yeoman Ideal”—families were a unit where children and adults alike shared in either prosperity or privation, thus labor was a family endeavor and considered education and necessary vocational training for the families’ continued livelihood.1 This was reinforced in the US by westward settlement and pioneer families until the 1890s when maifest destiny was realized and Americans populated the entire continent. 2 In addition to family labor, pre-industrialized trades depended on apprenticing and indentured servitude. Rather than being a source of social woe, apprenticing increased oppurtunities for social mobility. Childern were apprenticed to a skilled master who taught them their trade and sponsored them as they started out on their own as part of the skilled labor class.3 This system ensured both labor to skilled workers and an increase in skilled labor.
The industrial revolution changed this. The nature of labor changed dramaticly when industrialization began supplanting traditional means of production. Expanded production in factories demanded labor, and during the transition from traditional skilled production to factory production children and women were readily available because of displacement from traditional occupations.