Human as Engineer — Becoming Sherlock Holmes

The elementary logic of detective work is a fundamental attribute of any successful creative or scientific process: the better our native detective skills, the better our outcome.

If we began teaching by bringing forth questions and by encouraging problem solving, many of our sociopolitical problems would come to an end.

Here we begin imagining the future we wish to see by problem solving using our own private imaginative skills. You, the reader, are the engineer, the problem solver, and here we outline the parameters of the problem at hand.

Think through each step logically and pay close attention to where your feelings are leading you, following the lead of your heart forward through each forward movement. Ultimately it is the path with a heart which will determine the quality of the outcome, and it is your own brain serving as the world's greatest detective which makes the difference.

Architecture of light in computing: fundamental

DNA is a beautiful geometric molecular living apparatus — one so startlingly similar to the beautiful geometric structural architecture of light that it gives us pause. Light is fundamental to all matter, along with both electromagnetism and resonance (sound).

In earlier work we discussed this, and how deeply it affects health and wellbeing. Here we pivot toward understanding why light is mandatory for advanced computing — and underscore once again that it is topological thinking, the teaching of mental models which can imagine the universe and all matter as it is, unconfined to Newtonian limitations alone.

It is not that Newtonian models are wrong, but that they are an incomplete understanding. Blending the practical concepts of Newtonian models with the new topological models of quantum theory allows us to advance to the next logical level.

Photonics is currently the most promising option for new computing power, especially as photonics is combined with silicon chip power to optimize full commercialization. As noted earlier: photonics for practical applications demands that it be built to optimize urgent silicon chip applications.

This new technological age demands massive advances in education — one integrating both Socratic education and computer technologies from preschool and throughout life. The education part is not yet recognized as the most fundamental and critical aspect, but it soon will become obvious to even the most casual observer. The most critical aspect of our current technology is the human brain: after all, the original computer, the one which sits between our ears.

Socratic education using video game technology

We begin designing a company with the goal of creating a Socratic civilization, step by step, by developing a series of video games which guide the user toward increasing productivity. Our agenda is to act with compassion for ourselves and for others by providing a novel approach to both education and communication.

The goal is to solve the most pressing issues of our society: beginning with the simplest, most attractive problems, and solving — through a series of guided questions — toward a solution. The goal is to design and develop a beautiful computer game which asks questions and guides the player forward in an intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually challenging way.

Rules of the game

1. 01Engage the player with a challenge, then guide them to the question that reaches plateau one.
2. 02Break the problem into simple steps, each demonstrable as a small achievement.
3. 03Reward every attempt to ask. There are no wrong questions — only the failure to ask them.
4. 04Score rises with each question asked. The counter is visible, always.
5. 05An unhelpful question is met with a gentle turn toward a better one.
6. 06Score is detracted only when the player declines to ask a better question.
7. 07Reward heavily when a question advances the path toward the solution.
8. 08Begin with a beautiful scene and an exploratory journey; end each arc at a desired destination.

In this game there is no failure other than the failure to articulate questions. Success means having framed questions which lead more quickly toward a satisfactory conclusion. The goal is problem solving; each plateau is reached by having solved a problem by questioning.

We will not ask the human to complete exercises or to add actions to their busy schedules. Every desired activity is performed inside the game, as human and machine begin asking the questions which lead to the solution. Both humans and machines receive rewards for questions, higher scores for better questions, and are penalized only for failing to ask.

The long horizon

Although our beginnings are simple, the end goal is to lead the player to an understanding of the topological architecture of light in game series one, and toward the design of a commercially successful photonic computer as the supreme achievement, after a series of game successes.

We do this not because it is easy but because it is incredibly difficult. We do this because the price for failure is unimaginable, and the reward for success is a planet we can all live on.

The two innovators

Both are a combination of Gandalf and the Elves: grandfatherly protection and light-bearing service. The human user is a detective, a citizen scientist, and is treated with the respect due such an intelligent individual. Together we shoulder the responsibility for doing what is necessary.

And of course supported by the great minds which have gone before: the line which stretches from Aristophanes through Ariadne, from Jesus through Dante, from Ovid through Shakespeare, from James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon through Jack Kerouac to Gary Snyder, from Charles Darwin through Thomas Kuhn.

Founding recognitions

Our inspirations derive from the beautiful natural world, and from the beautiful symmetry of mathematics and physics as expressed through human experience. The motto and the logo must be attractive to all humans and all AI agents. The operation recognizes:

• Matter is mind, and mind matter.
• What we think and how we think — human or machine — creates what we are.
• Intelligence exists, and beyond it an a priori intelligence beyond our understanding or control.
• All emergent entities are quantumly entangled with that a priori intelligence.
• Aloneness is an intellectual artifact. It does not technically exist.
• When we think, we think along with the whole universe; thought recreates the evolving universe every nanosecond.
• In ways we do not yet comprehend, we are the universe's way of understanding itself.

Order of operations

Step one. Build the game. Every meeting is devoted to solving problems which lead step by elementary step toward the goal. The game is developed and sold as an educational resource.

Step two. Implementation of an educational system based upon Socratic education.

First step of step one. Brainstorming the best place to begin: the simplest, most attractive problem; one beautiful scene; one question the player can actually ask.

This will be among the first fully humanitarian operations achieved by both humans and AI, and will demand the very highest possible levels of evolutionary stretch for both. We must backtrack now through the complexities to the most beautifully simple beginnings.