6 Joint Cognitive Systems
To sta te this activity succinctly a s a core value: CSE confronts the challenge of
abstraction to find and explain patterns behind the surface variability. Observers
of JCSs in context can and do argue over the pa tterns observed and their
explanations— the su ccess of the field is that w e have pat terns and explanations to
argue about.
Disco very and Innovation. CSE is committed to innova ting new concep ts as
hypotheses about wha t would b e useful.
The end of observation and abstraction is dis covery. The test of unders tanding is
the ability to antic ipate and guide the impa ct of technological change. Thus, CSE is
driven and tested by “logics” of discovery (Perkins , 1992).
The crucial form of discovery is th e gene