  We will soon be surrounded by artificial systems capable of cognitive
performance rivaling or exceeding a human expert in specific domains of
discourse. However, these cogs need not be capable of full general artificial
intelligence nor able to function in a stand-alone manner. Instead, cogs and
humans will work together in collaboration each compensating for the weaknesses
of the other and together achieve synthetic expertise as an ensemble. This
paper reviews the nature of expertise, the Expertise Level to describe the
skills required of an expert, and knowledge stores required by an expert. By
collaboration, cogs augment human cognitive ability in a human/cog ensemble.
This paper introduces six Levels of Cognitive Augmentation to describe the
balance of cognitive processing in the human/cog ensemble. Because these cogs
will be available to the mass market via common devices and inexpensive
applications, they will lead to the Democratization of Expertise and a new
cognitive systems era promising to change how we live, work, and play. The
future will belong to those best able to communicate, coordinate, and
collaborate with cognitive systems.
