Sisyphus in your iPod

The 2004 HBO movie Something the Lord Made, chronicles the unlikely partnership that developed between a white John Hopkins surgeon and a black carpenter in 1930s Nashville.  The carpenter, Vivian Thomas, develops the skills and knowledge to become a skilled surgical technician so that he and the doctor take on the impossible – infant heart surgery in 1944.  In one scene, the surgeon – Alfred Blalock, asks Vivian to stand at his shoulder and walk him through the very delicate and risky procedure of putting an arterial shunt in a “blue baby’s” heart to bypass the obstructed aorta.  This is acted out with the carpenter standing on a stool whispering instructions into the surgeon’s ear.

As I watched this scene I thought of the helpdesk at Royster-Clark. We will occasionally have someone call our helpdesk for assistance and then perform the procedure flawlessly on their own.  It’s just human nature to want that safety net in case something bizarre happens.  I’m not sure if it’s to spread the blame if something goes wrong, or to make sure it’s done right?

Ok, so how do we get this to help us out in Ag?  For this to happen we need four things to come together; artificial intelligence, portable audio/visual (iPod), recognition software and predictive software.  The first three have been covered here and in other columns in detail so I will spend some time on the fourth item – predictive software. 

There is a technology called Ajax (Adaptive JavaScript And XML) that is being used at a number of web sites to do exactly what we are looking for – predict.  This technology differs from what we do now in a very fundamental way.  Currently when you are interacting with the computer, one of you is waiting.  Think of it as playing catch with your son – while you wind up and get that knuckle ball just right, your son is just standing there waiting for the ball to arrive.  It’s a synchronous event – the second person can’t start until the first person is done his task.

Now enter Ajax.  This technology, or rather set of technologies, allows for things to happen asynchronously.  The server in an Ajax world is always trying to figure out where you’re going next and then fetching that data in advance so it’s ready when you need it. I know it sounds like magic, but take a look at Google Suggest (http://labs.google.com/suggest) as an example.  As you type a word or phrase, Suggest will fill-out the phrase it thinks you’re trying to type.  At Google Maps, Ajax is used to predict what map view you will most likely want to see next and then serves it up ready for display.  This is based on what geography borders the current map and what movements you made last time.

So with all of this technology, let’s head out into the field and see what we can do.  As you walk through the field, you describe whose field it is, and what you are observing about the crop and the climate.  Your handy iPod – let’s call it AgPod – takes your speech and translates it into language that it can understand (binary) then accesses all of the records for the field along with your observations the last time you were in the field.  With this in hand, AgPod searches the knowledge base and figures out that you are less than 24 hours away from a serious leaf mold problem.    So it stages that information for immediate access.   But being the unobtrusive device it is, AgPod waits for you to ask for help.   If you figure it out and tell AgPod about it, it will store the information and let you go on your way.  If you ask for help, you may find yourself in a dialogue much like the following:

You – “What do you think is going on here”?

AgPod – “Do you think the problem might be the early stages of leaf mold”?

You – “Could be.  Why do you suggest that?”

AgPod – “This field has a history of mold. The temperature and humidity have been right for this to develop, and it matches what you’ve been observing”

You – “How will I know for sure?”

AgPod – “It will be happening first down by the creek. Go take a look there first”.

Image the wisdom of Sisyphus (sis `uh fuss) sitting on your shoulder.  Since Greek mythology is such an integral part of Agriculture I’m sure you recall that Sisyphus was a character in Greek mythology that upset the gods with his extraordinary wisdom.  As punishment, he was sentenced to be blinded and charged with forever rolling a giant boulder up a mountain, only to have it inevitably roll back down the mountain.  Some days in Ag are just like that – blind and pushing a boulder up a hill.