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In the age of AI, an important question emerges: What role does deep research skill play when AI can process vast amounts of information? The answer reveals something profound about what it means to be a scholar. This guide centers on developing research judgment, the capacity to:
  • Recognize what questions are worth pursuing
  • Spot gaps that matter, beyond gaps that simply exist
  • Build intuition about what makes knowledge trustworthy
  • Make conscious choices about when and how to engage with AI
AI can process information at massive scale. We bring the judgment about what it means and what’s worth pursuing.

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The Memex: A New Cognitive Environment

The name of this project, “Research Memex,” is a tribute to Vannevar Bush’s 1945 concept of the “memex,” a device that would serve as an extension of human memory and a place to connect ideas. This project offers a modern interpretation of that vision. We’re building a new cognitive environment where the researcher and the AI work as partners. This approach opens up a more sophisticated understanding of human-AI collaboration, one that goes beyond simple binaries.

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The Goal: Building Our Capabilities

By engaging with this approach, we develop:

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A Cognitive Framework

  • Understanding research as a form of disciplined inquiry
  • Recognizing how AI fits within scholarly thinking
  • Templates for different types of literature synthesis

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Technical Fluency

  • Navigating AI with confidence and critical awareness
  • Designing workflows that amplify our capacity through conscious partnership
  • Troubleshooting common issues and adapting to new approaches

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Critical Awareness

  • Distinguishing between AI-assisted thinking and thinking delegated to AI
  • Recognizing the limitations and potential harms of different approaches
  • Making informed decisions about when and how to engage with AI

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The Deeper Purpose

We’re developing the expertise to:
  • Judge whether an AI-generated analysis captures what’s truly important
  • Recognize when AI misses nuances that matter in our fields
  • Provide the human context that transforms information into knowledge
  • Make the ultimate decisions about what knowledge is worth creating
AI amplifies our capacity while we maintain our agency.

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Ready to Begin?

The goal is to automate the mechanical so we can focus on the meaningful. This is the new paradigm of conscious scholarship.
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