Socrates Digital(TM) for Learning and Problem Solving

There is a tremendous need for computer scientists, data scientists, and software developers to learn how to develop Socratic problem-solving applications. While the amount of data and information processing has been accelerating, our ability to learn and problem-solve with that data has fallen behind. Meanwhile, problems have become too complex to solve in the workplace without a concerted effort to follow a problem-solving process. This problem-solving process must be able to deal with big and disparate data. Furthermore, it must solve problems that do not have a "rule" to apply in solving them. Moreover, it must deal with ambiguity and help humans use informed judgment to build on previous steps and create new understanding. Computer-based Socratic problem-solving systems answer this need for a problem-solving process using big and disparate data. Furthermore, computer scientists, data scientists, and software developers need the knowledge to develop these systems.


Socrates Digital for Learning and Problem Solving presents the rationale for developing a Socratic problem-solving application. It describes how a computer-based Socratic problem-solving system called Socrates Digital can keep problem-solvers on track, document the outcome of a problem-solving session, and share those results with problem-solvers and larger audiences. In addition, Socrates Digital assists problem-solvers in combining evidence about their quality of reasoning for individual problem-solving steps and their overall confidence in the solution. Socrates Digital also captures, manages, and distributes this knowledge across organizations to improve problem-solving. This book also presents how to build a Socrates Digital system by detailing the four phases of design and development: understand, explore, materialize, and realize. The details include flow charts and pseudo-code for readers to implement Socrates Digital in a general-purpose programming language. The completion of the design and development process results in a Socrates Digital system that leverages artificial intelligence services from providers that include Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Amazon. In addition, an appendix provides a demonstration of a no-code implementation of Socrates Digital in Microsoft Power Virtual Agent.