An evolving dictionary of Intelligent Automation
When I was actively involved as a researcher, it was a running joke (and also a truism) that scholarly distinction wasn’t earned through originality, but through the invention of new terms to describe old things. The same is most certainly true when it comes to…
Wellness Day
I WROTE A SONG 🎶🎸 Friday was a ‘Wellness Day’ at Pegasystems. What I love about these days is that you don’t feel like you’re missing anything (because everyone is off) AND it’s unlikely that your family also has the day off, which means it’s…
You’re Going to Die: A Children’s Story
By Timothy Furstnau (2000). Film by Dennis Palazzolo and narrated by Vito Acconci. One day, you’re going to die. Your life will just end, right then and there. You will be no more. It probably won’t be pretty like in the movies or in fairytales.…
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
I am re-reading Max Weber’s classic sociological work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.” The main thesis (as I remember it from grad school) is that the Enlightenment represented a splintering of Worldview such that traditionally shared belief systems about God, humans, and…
The best and worst career advice I ever received
Sometimes advice that is the most rewarding in the short term is also the most punishing in the long run.
The sentience of Google’s LaMDA AI has been grossly exaggerated
On Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Virtue It is highly unlikely that Google’s LaMDA AI chat it has become sentient, which is to say ‘self-aware.’ What is more likely the case is that it simply represents a sophisticated simulation. But how would we know for certain?…
Bots don’t care if you live or die
The best approaches to automation don’t automate everything. Where processes are automated, exceptions are bound to happen. And when those exceptions happen it’s important that humans are able to address them…especially when the life and death of humans are concerned. When too much is automated,…
How American musket manufacturing paved the way for low-code software development
The early days of computing relied on mechanical devices. From the abacus through to Charles Babbage’s engines, these devices — much like the modern computer — were developed to increase the speed with which individuals could perform calculations in support of commercial (accounting, insurance), scientific…
Hyperautomation is necessary to human survival
As a result of digitization (converting analogue to digital information) and digitalization (deploying processes that make use of digital information) congnitive load has INCREASED, not decreased. The speed that information travels today means that just being able to keep up is a competitive advantage. But…
‘Faking it’ is passé
The idea of ‘faking it till you make it’ is passé. A fad of the past decade that has seen devastating results at the same time as it has seen growing numbers of immatators. Fakers may grow fast, but they don’t last. And they leave…
Timothy Harfield 