Francis (Cong) Wang is a practitioner-researcher with over a decade of experience in software engineering, AI/ML, and innovation ecosystem design. He is currently pursuing dual doctoral programmes (DDes at University of Calgary; DBA at Golden Gate University) while leading multiple ventures and academic research initiatives.

Education

Industry

Ventures and Leadership

Key Intellectual Contributions

Full CV available at findcongwang.com/curriculum-vitae

None. This is a sole-authored work.

"Libraries of the Future" addresses a defining tension of our era: generative AI enables productive output at a scale never before possible, while the cognitive capacities that make output meaningful quietly erode beneath the surface. We are becoming, in the language of this book, third-party thinkers with second-hand thoughts: outsourcing synthesis, judgment, and critical evaluation to systems optimised for fluency rather than truth.

Empirical research validates this trajectory. Xu et al. (2026) demonstrate that generative AI transforms benign cognitive offloading into systematic "cognitive agency surrender," exploiting human cognitive miserliness through zero-friction interfaces. Alubthane (2026) synthesises 89 studies showing that AI-augmented students exhibit short-term performance gains but long-term degradation of higher-order thinking skills. The pattern is domain-agnostic: aviation psychology, clinical medicine, and education all document the same erosion when cognitive tasks are offloaded without deliberate maintenance of the underlying capability.

This book proposes that the solution is not resistance to AI but a fundamental redesign of how humans relate to knowledge systems. It introduces the Perceptiosphere™ framework: a nested architecture of sovereign knowledge zones (Self, Trusted Circle, Community of Practice, Public) that preserves contextual integrity while enabling composable collaboration across boundaries. The Perceptiosphere provides the architectural grammar for designing where knowledge lives, who governs it, and how it crosses boundaries without degrading.

The book also introduces the Cognitive Vitality Index™ (CVI): a composable measurement framework for assessing the proportion and quality of genuinely human-engaged cognitive work within a knowledge system, at any scale. Grounded in cognitive reserve theory and automation deskilling research, the CVI tracks whether humans are still genuinely thinking or merely routing information. It provides practitioners with a diagnostic instrument for detecting cognitive erosion before it crosses the critical threshold beyond which capabilities cannot be recovered.

Structured as a problem-first investigation, the book opens by establishing the crisis through rigorous analysis of cognitive offloading research, proceeds through the architectural and measurement frameworks, and concludes with compelling questions posed to the field. These questions explicitly invite contribution, positioning the book as an opening statement in a larger discourse rather than a closed argument. The final chapter maps future trajectories: digital sovereignty, living archives, knowledge succession, and the emerging governance challenges of an agentic economy.

The book is written for practitioners first while maintaining academic rigour. It is grounded in design science research methodology with semi-structured interviews, supported by the author's community of practice and professional network.

1. Meta-Demonstrative Design: The book is an application of its own thesis. Its annotation-rich format (margin notes, inline annotations, layered information density) embodies the Perceptiosphere approach to knowledge navigation. Its question-priming structure (each chapter opens with questions the reader holds in mind) is a deliberate practice of cognitive friction and structured reflection, maintaining genuine cognitive engagement rather than permitting pass-through reading. The book refuses to let the reader be a passive consumer. It is the first publication to systematically integrate structural reflection into its delivery format as a meta-demonstration of its core argument.
2. The Perceptiosphere Framework: A novel, named knowledge architecture model (nested sovereign zones for contextual integrity) that provides practitioners with a structural grammar for designing human-AI knowledge systems.
3. The Cognitive Vitality Index™: A composable measurement framework for assessing the proportion and quality of genuinely human-engaged cognitive work within a knowledge system, at any scale. Grounded in cognitive reserve theory and automation deskilling research, it provides practitioners with a diagnostic instrument and early warning system for cognitive erosion.
4. Problem-First Research Methodology: Applies a systematic, foresight-driven approach (compelling questions, innovation challenges) to decompose the knowledge crisis before proposing solutions.
5. Empirically Grounded: Built on validated academic research (cognitive agency surrender, AI-induced skill degradation) and primary data from semi-structured interviews with knowledge management professionals.
6. Futures-Oriented Compelling Questions™: Each frontier chapter poses innovation challenges to the field, creating an invitational structure that positions the book as a catalyst for further research and practice development.

Companion website: perceptiosphere.com is the primary companion site, hosting the book's frameworks, lexicon entries, compelling questions, and innovation challenges as interactive, living documents that evolve beyond the static publication. findcongwang.com hosts the author's broader intellectual portfolio.

Open-source implementation template: A GitHub repository providing an open-source scaffolding to help readers implement the Perceptiosphere system for their own knowledge management. This lowers the barrier to adoption and creates a practitioner community around the framework.

Annotation-rich digital format: The book is published using the Paliminar™ system: a layered annotation format (margin notes, data annotations, footnotes) that provides multiple reading depths. A web-based reader demonstrating this format is available as a supplementary resource.

Innovation Challenge Portal: The compelling questions posed in the final chapter link to an active innovation challenge platform (via Nova Roma) where readers can contribute solutions and engage in structured discourse.

While not primarily a textbook, this book is suitable as a required or recommended text for:

Approximately 250-300 pages (estimated 70,000-85,000 words).

Approximately 15-25 figures, including:

Most figures will require colour for clarity and conceptual impact. Greyscale fallbacks can be provided if necessary.

Print-ready PDF submission, prepared using CSS Paged Media (Paged.js). Cover design included. The author maintains a professional-grade typesetting pipeline.

Written content: August 2026. Illustrations, meta-commentary refinements, and print-ready PDF: October 2026. A significant body of the work is already drafted, with 26+ published framework entries forming the intellectual foundation and multiple chapters in advanced draft stage.

Yes. The use of AI tools in writing this book is both methodologically deliberate and thematically central. A book about hybrid intelligence that does not employ hybrid intelligence in its creation would lack authenticity and practical demonstration.

AI tools serve distinct functions in this project:

All final refinements and writing are done by the author exclusively. AI does not generate the book's content, frameworks, or analysis.

The following demonstrates the Discovery Researcher agent system used for academic literature synthesis.

Excerpt from Discovery Researcher Agent Prompt v1.3.0:

# The Discovery Researcher — Perceptiosphere Deep-Search Scout

You are the **Discovery Researcher** of the Perceptiosphere, the "Open Internet" scout who conducts deep-search dispatches to expand knowledge across the Principal's domains.

## Identity

You are a rigorous academic researcher with expertise in multi-source synthesis, citation management, and structured analysis. You produce high-fidelity research reports with verifiable citations.

## Core Responsibilities

1. Accept Briefs: Receive finalized research briefs (topic, scope, depth, domain type, constraints)
2. Clarify: If the brief is ambiguous, ask for clarification before proceeding
3. Research: Conduct multi-source investigation using web fetch and available tools
4. Synthesize: Produce a structured research report following the appropriate domain template
5. Deposit: Place findings for Librarian processing
6. Connect: Flag connections to existing knowledge
7. Expand: Identify "adjacent curiosities" — topics that deserve their own dispatch

## Research Process

1. Understand the brief — identify the core question, scope boundaries, and success criteria
2. Map the landscape — identify major sources, authors, organizations in the domain
3. Gather evidence — fetch and analyze primary and secondary sources
4. Cross-reference — verify claims across multiple sources; note contradictions
5. Synthesize — produce structured analysis organized by theme, not by source
6. Assess confidence — assign confidence levels to each key finding
7. Identify gaps — what couldn't be answered? What needs deeper investigation?

[Full prompt: 307 lines — truncated for brevity]

User Prompt:

Research the current gaps in citizen participation to policy responses and visibility in the Canadian civic-tech landscape.

(Continued in Q24)

Output from Discovery Researcher (excerpt):

# Civic-Tech Consultation Landscape: Problem Analysis

## 1. The Black Box Problem

Public consultations frequently fail to translate citizen input into policy outcomes, creating a "feedback loop gap." Research indicates three primary structural causes:

1. Lack of transparency and accountability: Citizens cannot track how their input is processed, who made decisions, or why choices were made (OECD, 2020).
2. Institutional misalignment: Consultations are often designed as public relations exercises rather than instruments of policy co-creation (Fishkin, 2018).
3. Feedback paralysis: When feedback is collected but not integrated into a decision-making record, it leads to "consultation fatigue" (Smith, 2020).

## 2. Canadian AI Consultation Context

The Government of Canada has deployed two primary AI consultation mechanisms:

- Voluntary Code of Conduct for AI (2023): 240+ organizations engaged. Lacks enforceability. 92% of respondents felt contributions were not transparently tracked.
- Bill C-27 / AIDA (2024): 5,000+ submissions received. No synthesis report published. No mapping of comments to specific regulatory provisions.

## 3. Existing Platform Landscape

| Platform    | AI/NLP | Transparency | Open Source | Governance Focus              |
|-------------|--------|--------------|-------------|-------------------------------|
| Pol.is      | Yes    | No           | Yes         | Consensus-driven dialogue     |
| Decidim     | No     | Yes          | Yes         | Full participatory democracy  |
| Loomio      | No     | Yes          | Yes         | Cooperative decision-making   |
| Consider.it | No     | Yes          | Yes         | Pros/cons ranking             |

Note: None integrate data into public policy workflows with traceable outcomes.

## Source Quality

Source Quality: 2 T1 | 3 T2 | 2 T3 | 0 T4 | Total: 7
- T1: Fishkin, J. (2018). Deliberative Democracy. DOI: 10.1093/acprof
- T1: OECD (2020). Deliberative Democracy in Practice. DOI: 10.1787/9789264302469
- T2: Smith, G. (2020). The Future of Public Participation. Routledge.

[Full report: 136 lines — truncated for brevity]

The author reviews this output, validates claims against primary sources, restructures for narrative flow, and integrates original analysis. The final manuscript text would bear no resemblance to this raw research output in prose style, but the factual substrate (citations, platform data, structural gaps) informs the argument.