John S. Quarterman asks the questions: ``Will the U.S. continue to
contain more than half of the Internet? Will one company make all
the software?''[
1]. One could also ask related questions
like ``Will one university or educational organization
fabricate the future by manufacturing consensus of ideas and ideals?''.
That the U.S. government, together with a single
company, might control the world's information flow
and software, and thus indirectly,
the world's thoughts, ideas, etc., is a troubling thought to many.
One possible solution to this problem
is in the tradition of science, and thus the notion of
disclosure and open peer review, as a basis for
allowing anyone the option of acquiring, and thus advancing
the world's knowledge base. A further construct called
``Humanistic Intelligence (HI)'', motivated by the
philosophy of science, is proposed. HI provides a new synergy between humans
and machines that seeks to involve the human rather than
having computers emulate human thought or replace humans.
Particular goals of HI are human involvement at the individual
level, and providing individuals with tools to challenge
society's pre-conceived notions of human-computer relationships.
An emphasis in this article is on computational frameworks surrounding
``visual intelligence'' devices, such as video cameras interfaced
to computer systems.
