Programming cognitive

Abstract

The widespread access to computing-enabled devices and the World Wide Web has, in a sense, liberated the ordinary user from reliance on technically-savvy experts. To complete this emancipation, a new way of interacting with, and controlling the behavior of, computing-enabled devices is needed. This position paper argues for the adoption of cognitive programming as the paradigm for this user-machine interaction, whereby the machine is no longer viewed as a tool at the disposal of the user, but as an assistant capable of being supervised and guided by the user in a natural and continual manner, and able to acquire and employ common sense to help the user in the completion of everyday tasks. We argue that despite the many challenges that the proposed paradigm presents, recent advances in several key areas of Artificial Intelligence, along with lessons learned from work in Psychology, give reasons for optimism.