Complex Operational Decision Making in Networked Systems of Humans and Machines: A Multidisciplinary Approach

摘要

Over the past 2 decades, comput ing and communications networks have made it possible for decision makers to access enormous amounts of information. Entire libraries are available for searching, mult iple streams of sensed data may be tapped, and collections of other network users can in many cases be accessed readily. Machine learning and natural language processing have advanced to the point where they can often provide basic pre-processing of diverse types of data. Computational support in the form of large-scale data collection and analysis, visualization, etc. has been readily incorporated into some human decision making processes. For example, computation is in the control processes for all manner of processing plants (chemical processing, nuclear power generation and petroleum refining), infrastructure (electric grid and telecommunications), manufacturing (chip fabrication and large scale baking plants), assembly (electronics and automotive robotic assembly), transactions (credit card and banking) and the military (management of theater operations). However, the ease with which humans have already integrated computational systems into decision making ranging from ordinary to critical, from simple to complex, belies a deeper truth: this area of inquiry is still in its infancy relative to where multi-disciplinary research could take it over the next generation. This state of affairs has generated an environment that is ripe for a rethinking of human-computer collaboration in the context of complex decision making.