So, how much attention did you pay to everything you did that led to you reading this blog today? The work that was needed only to open the computer, tablet or phone, press the power button, open the web browser, and click on links to get to this place? Or did you think about everything you needed to do to get to work this morning, or if you are a student, to school? How you woke up, made your bed, opened the fridge, made your coffee, got dressed? Can you see all the details? Or did it go by without you thinking much about it?
Medical research into cognitive theories sometimes uses something called the weak central coherence theory to explain the difficulties in functioning normally for people with disabilities because they see all details around them. The theory is debated but we can bring some of the ideas into conversations about the Networked Society.
Coming back to your morning, you probably did most of the things above without thinking of what you did. Everything was automated. When looking at the future, we need systems around us that can help us make decisions automatically without us thinking much on how. This is especially important in an area in which we focus a lot of effort at Ericsson, the transport industry. It is called knowledge management.
To explain this idea, we introduced a demo at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona of a model train running some automated tasks. This demo is now in the hands of my colleagues and I at the Ericsson Studio, where we talk even more about it.
(Side note: someone once said that boys never get older than twelve years old, it’s just the toys that gets more expensive. In this case, they are right. I have not played with a model train since my teens. But I love this one. And our visitors do too. Those tiny machines bring everyone back to childhood, and the person that came up with the idea of using a model train for a demo should be awarded with a big cake).
Well, hrm, back to reality. Transportation systems today are increasingly complex. They are full of sensors, smart devices and steered/managed by different services running on both local and remote cloud-connected devices. In the future more and more sensors and devices are going to be added to such systems for even more advanced control and operation. The problem is that managing this amount of sensors and devices will be extremely complex without machine-facilitated decision support.
If we want to prevent weak central coherence theory from affecting the industry and society of the future, we need to apply knowledge management. The Networked Society cannot function without it.
And if you want to see our train in action and hear more about knowledge management, you can check out this video:
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