Weekly QuEST Discussion Topics, 13 Jan

Kabrisky Lecture 2023

QuEST (Qualia Exploitation of Sensing Technology)

13 Jan 2023

Every January the QuEST group uses the first meeting of the calendar year to present a ‘state of QuEST’ lecture in honor of a founding member of the QuEST group, Dr. Matthew “Special K” Kabrisky.  This lecture is designed to bring anyone up to speed on how we use terms and to communicate what we seek to accomplish.  Because of Cap travel the first meeting will be on the 13^th of Jan – the second Friday of the new year. 

• QuEST is an innovative analytical and software development approach to improve human-machine team decision quality over a wide range of stimuli, handling unexpected queries and contextual adaptation.   QuEST is focused on creating computer-based decision aids and also decision engines that may be embedded in a platform interacting with the world.  QuEST seeks to engineer solutions to provide the advantages commonly associated with intuitive reasoning, quick reflexive, and advantages  associated with “conscious” context sensitive thinking.
• QuEST also seeks to provide a mathematical framework to understand what can be known by a group of people and their computer-based decision aids about situations to facilitate prediction of when more or different people (different training) or more / different computer aids are necessary to make a particular decision.  Can a given situational complexity be represented acceptably by the representational capacity of the group of people and computer agents available.
• For 2023 we also will explore the idea that there is only one representation, how knowledge is structured and the processes that are used to create / maintain and access that knowledge, that is used by what are commonly called sys1 and sys2 cognition.  The idea of Sys1 and Sys2 are just a model of ways to think about different cognitive capabilities and challenges.  For this train of exploration we will posit that both use the same representation.  Consciousness is the process used by nature to create, maintain and exploit a vocabulary of cognition, the representation.  That representation can be used in multiple ways, using multiple processes that can be modeled as sys1 / sys2 cognition.  By studying consciousness, specifically the ‘what it is like’ to have a conscious experience we can get insight into the vocabulary of cognition, the representation, and thus gain insights applicable to the QuEST goal of creating modern decision aids.
• Consciousness can be studied by investigating the neuro basis for consciousness, the behavioral/functional attributes and/or the phenomenology of the conscious experience.  QuEST has been focused on examining the phenomenology of the conscious experience and using that information to advance the S3Q Theory of Consciousness.  This year we will also work to expand our understanding of the neuro basis for consciousness.

Dr. Matthew Kabrisky was an Air Force pioneer and innovator.  From Air Force aviator in the 1950s to professor, mentor, and researcher, his discoveries paved the way for many modern technological advancements.  He developed theories of how the human brain processes information to recognize visual objects. This work directly led to the innovation of implanted electrodes for those afflicted with diseases such as epilepsy and injuries that resulted in paralysis. He was the leading international expert on the physiological symptoms of space adaptation sickness, i.e., motion sickness.  His research led NASA to a better understanding and an approach to mitigate the effects of space environments on astronauts.  His research in the area of robust speech recognition laid critical foundations for fostering the development of DoD and private industry products ranging from voice activated controls in advanced tactical aircrafts, to aides for the disabled and handicapped and industrial process control. In the 1990s, he helped lead a team of engineers that developed the world’s most accurate breast cancer detection system.  This highly successful product has helped in the detection of thousands of breast cancers before they would have otherwise been detected. Dr. Kabrisky’s pioneering efforts paved the way for current innovations across the Nation, the Air Force and at the Air Force Institute of Technology.