Info 202 Fall 2011

Several years ago, Wired magazine
did a story on a program built in Poland in the years after the fall of
Communism there.  The article can be found here, http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPag....



The article goes into detail about how a little known Polish researcher is
attempting to revolutionize the way we learn and store information.  In
distilled form, Piotr Wozniak, through his program SuperMemo is attempting to
perfect human memory with the assistance of computers.  His goal is to
allow for the retention of millions of facts in such a way as to be able to
retrieve this knowledge as desired.



His method involves an intense regimen of memory retention at critical
junctures.  What Wozniak and other researchers have discovered is that
memory in human minds is never truly lost except under catastrophic conditions,
and thus is open to retrieval under certain conditions.  These conditions
can be drastically improved through assistance from a computer program which
alerts you to the moment right before you are to forget that piece of
information.  As a result, you retain that information in an easily
retrievable form for much longer, but still not forever.  A generic chart
of the memory retention idea is shown below.

This chart shows how the memory technique in question works.



This program and the learning theory behind it present some interesting
challenges and possibilities for those studying Information Systems.  In
this case, Wozniak uses a computer program to enhance his own memory. 
While the information that is entered is organized in a fashion which will
allow him to remember things he wants to remember when he needs to do so, the
overall goal is to store this information in his brain rather than in an
accessible system.  While this is an aspirational goal, and Wozniak lays
out an intriguing recipe for genius: "You must clarify your goals, gain
knowledge through spaced repetition,

preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption,

and never resist sleep when tired." While this is an unbearable task for
many individuals, the results of his project, especially with regards to the
learning of languages is very impressive.



Technology like this will play an increasingly important role in the world as
mankind and computers move closer and closer together.  Just as
"crowd sourcing" technology allows us the chance to solve problems
computers cannot seem to even scratch, so this technology may allow us a chance
to solve intricate sorting and retrieval problems in the future.