THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 13:29:09 -0700
03 00050 61 05052302
Dr. Jeff Conklin
CogNexus Institute
304 Arbutus Drive
Edgewater, MD 21037
.. Confidential
Subject:
Cognitive Overhead and Presencing
Dear Jeff,
Recently, a
student requested assistance
on a school project to explain cognitive
overhead, evidently upon referral by you, shown in the record on 050517.
..
Don't know if my work can help him, but made
reference to NWO,
which includes examples, and some discussion of metrics, as he
requested. Incidentally, metrics for cognition in a management,
or knowledge setting present interesting issues.
..
I think in an odd way, "cognitive overhead" relates to an earlier
request received a few months ago. On 050322 Andrew Campbell at
Oxford asked for analysis of "Presencing." Review found minimal
common ground between
SDS and presencing,
except Senge seems to view Presencing as supporting
"commitment," and God knows getting the "overhead" done to
augment cognition takes
commitment.
..
In any case, Andrew's inquiry led to consideration of placing KM,
project management, cognitive overhead, organizational memory,
Com Metrics, intelligence support, et al, in a broader context of
transformation from information to a culture of knowledge. Thus,
commitment to perform overhead tasks might be a useful thing.
Indeed, one might say that religion imbues people at large with
commitment to perform the "overhead" that holds the center of
civilization.
..
Working these ideas into NWO requires finding a place for
meditation, and by extension prayer and religion, in a theory of
knowledge based on cognitive science.
..
If time permits, comments would be appreciated on the explanation of
meditation
- about 10 para down to the para that begins
"Thinking through writing...
..
Also, comments on the explanation of
cognitive overhead
would be most
appreciated, about 10 para down to "How then to make the transition..."