Abstract
This white paper traces the intellectual and technical lineage of BESTNET—the Binational English & Spanish Telecommunications Network—conceived and founded by Armando A. Arias, Ph.D. at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla, CA.
This paper argues that BESTNET’s bilingual, networked collaboration environment catalyzed the active knowledge model paradigm later operationalized with METIS and related enterprise architecture toolchains, and that this paradigm ultimately enabled contemporary real-time, AI-assisted research on dementia. The paper maps three linked phases: (1) Networked collaboration (BESTNET, WBSI, DEC/ARPANET engineers), (2) Active modeling for institution-building (e.g., the AI design logic for California State University, Monterey Bay and 12 other universities), and (3) AI/ML translation of active models to brain science, exemplified by the Global Dementia Spectrum Project (GDSP) and the 2025 book AI: Global Solution for the Dementia Crisis. Throughout, we underscore Arias’s role as brainchild, founder, and visionary behind BESTNET and as a principal architect in the evolution from telecommunications networks to living, executable knowledge systems.
This paper argues that BESTNET’s bilingual, networked collaboration environment catalyzed the active knowledge model paradigm later operationalized with METIS and related enterprise architecture toolchains, and that this paradigm ultimately enabled contemporary real-time, AI-assisted research on dementia. The paper maps three linked phases: (1) Networked collaboration (BESTNET, WBSI, DEC/ARPANET engineers), (2) Active modeling for institution-building (e.g., the AI design logic for California State University, Monterey Bay and 12 other universities), and (3) AI/ML translation of active models to brain science, exemplified by the Global Dementia Spectrum Project (GDSP) and the 2025 book AI: Global Solution for the Dementia Crisis. Throughout, we underscore Arias’s role as brainchild, founder, and visionary behind BESTNET and as a principal architect in the evolution from telecommunications networks to living, executable knowledge systems.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 8 |
| State | Published - 2025 |