Technology Design
Technology development over the centuries has often been motivated by man’s desire to enlarge his understanding of the environment and his capability for modifying it. Our ability to understand the environment is a function of the cognitive patterns by which we organize experience. Our ability to alter the environment – to bring states of affairs under our control – depends on the utilities and probablities that our actions convey. But there are inherent limitations to human cognition and inherent limitations to the efficacy of human effort. Well-designed technology can compensate for these limitations.
The work of patterns is fundamental to cognition and effective action. It accounts for our understanding of states of affairs and for the efficacy of our actions to modify states of affairs. When any problematic state of affairs has been resolved, it is because elements and relations previously absent or overlooked have been acquired and organized into a facilitating pattern. Intentionality and effort have had efficacy – the pattern has enabled the transfer of utilities and probabilities that produce the desired outcome.
Our technologies, described briefly below, have a design logic reflecting these principles.
Technologies
Digital Reserves is a portfolio of business technologies and related intellectual property. Our assets include interests in products, solutions, software licenses, and spectrum licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission. The analytical foundation of the portfolio is our Pragmatica ontology. The ontology provides the logic for the technical architecture of the assets, the composition of the assets within the portfolio, and the economic analysis of risk and expected return.
The groups most affected by complex environments are upper-level managers and executive teams. Their strategic, transactional, and governance responsibilities require a strong aptitude for comprehending states of affairs in which many interrelated variables are in play, multiple perspectives are relevant, and diverse stake-holder interests must be harmonized; an aptitude for analyses that generate strong explanatory power and strong projective accuracy; and the ability to construct plans that track the causal realities of the environment, coherently align functional areas of the enterprise, and transmit the efficacy needed to achieve targeted outcomes.
The Digital Reserves technologies are designed to help firms leverage their capabilities against the disordering influences of complex environments. They enlarge Explanation, Projection, and Measurement; enlarge the capability of firms to monitor and defend against influences that threaten stability and yield, and strongly transmit the utilities and probabilities necessary for affirmatively advancing firms’ interests notwithstanding conditions in the environment.