DOCSLIB.ORG

Distributed Cognition in Classical Antiquity Reveals Diverse Notions of Distributed Cognition in the Early Greek and Roman Worlds

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Edited by Miranda Anderson, THE EDINBURGH HISTORY OF DISTRIBUTED COGNITION Douglas Cairns and THE EDINBURGH HISTORY OF DISTRIBUTED COGNITION Mark Sprevak ‘Once we look for it, distributed cognition is ubiquitous in classical antiquity. This book is a fascinating examination of the tools that made thinking easier and of the complex boundaries between the individual mind and the group.’ Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan Distributed Cognition in Classical Antiquity Reveals diverse notions of distributed cognition in the early Greek and Roman worlds This collection brings together eleven essays by international specialists in classical antiquity and provides a general and a period-specific introduction to distributed cognition and the cognitive humanities. The essays look at the ways in which cognition is explicitly or implicitly conceived of as distributed across brain, body and world in Greek and Roman technology, science and medicine, material culture, philosophy and literary studies. This exploratory work will be valuable across the humanities as it reveals the historical foundations of our theoretical and practical attempts to comprehend and optimise the distributed nature of human cognition. Miranda Anderson is a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Douglas Cairns is Professor of Classics in the University of Edinburgh. Mark Sprevak is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Distributed Cognition in Classical Antiquity Cover image: © János Kass, etching made for the illustration of Madách Imre’s Az ember tragédiája (Tragedy of Man), Egypt Cover design: Bekah Mackenzie and Stuart Dalziel Edited by Miranda Anderson, Douglas Cairns and Mark Sprevak 2 Distributed Cognition in Classical Antiquity Distributed Cognition in Classical Antiquity Edited by Miranda Anderson, Douglas Cairns and Mark Sprevak Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation Miranda Anderson, Douglas Cairns and Mark Sprevak, 2019 © the chapters their several authors, 2019 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12 Monotype Baskerville by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2974 0 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2976 4 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2977 1 (epub) The right of Miranda Anderson, Douglas Cairns and Mark Sprevak to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Illustrations v Series Preface vi 1. Distributed Cognition and the Humanities 1 Miranda Anderson, Michael Wheeler and Mark Sprevak 2. Distributed Cognition and the Classics 18 Douglas Cairns 3. Physical Sciences: Ptolemy’s Extended Mind 37 Courtney Roby 4. Distributed Cognition and the Diffusion of Information Technologies in the Roman World 57 Andrew M. Riggsby 5. Mask as Mind Tool: A Methodology of Material Engagement 71 Peter Meineck 6. Embodied, Extended and Distributed Cognition in Roman Technical Practice 92 William Michael Short 7. Roman-period Theatres as Distributed Cognitive Micro-ecologies 117 Diana Y. Ng 8. Cognition, Emotions and the Feeling Body in the Hippocratic Corpus 132 George Kazantzidis 9. Enactivism and Embodied Cognition in Stoicism and Plato’s Timaeus 150 Christopher Gill 10. Enargeia, Enactivism and the Ancient Readerly Imagination 169 Luuk Huitink iv contents 11. Group Minds in Classical Athens? Chorus and Dēmos as Case Studies of Collective Cognition 190 Felix Budelmann 12. One Soul in Two Bodies: Distributed Cognition and Ancient Greek Friendship 209 David Konstan 13. Distributed Cognition and its Discontents: A Dialogue across History and Artistic Genre 225 Thomas Habinek and Hector Reyes Notes on Contributors 240 Bibliography 243 Index 287 List of Illustrations Figure 6.1 Detail after an artist’s rendition of the Darius Vase (South Italian red-figure vase found at Canosa, Puglia, dating to about 340 to 320 bce, now housed at the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy). The seated calculator manipulates a mounted counting board while holding a writing tablet. 105 Figure 6.2 Schematic images metaphorically underlying Latin’s expressions of mental activity. 111 The plate section can be found between pages 70 and 71. Plate 1 Detail from the Pronomos Vase. Attic red-figured volute krater by the Pronomos Painter, c. 420–400 bce (Naples, NM 81673). Credit: akg- images/Album/Oronoz. Plate 2 Red-figure chous or oinochoe fragment, c. 430 bce. American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations (P. 32870). Plate 3 Raphael, School of Athens, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace. Photo credit: Erich Lessing/ART RESOURCE, New York. Plate 4 Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Numa Pompilius and the Nymph Egeria, Musée Condé, Chantilly. Photo credit: Harry Bréjat/RMN-Grand Palais (Domaine de Chantilly). Series Preface This book, like the series of which it is part, explores the notion that the mind is spread out across brain, body and world, for which we have adopted ‘distributed cognition’ as the most comprehensive term. Distributed cognition primarily draws evidence from philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics and neurosci- ence. Distributed cognition covers an intertwined group of theories, which include enactivism and embodied, embedded and extended cognition, and which are also together known as ‘4E cognition’. An overview and explanation of the various strands of distributed cognition are provided in the general introduction. Distributed cognition can be used as a methodology through which to pursue study of the humanities and is also evident in past practices and thought. Our series considers a wide range of works from classical antiquity to modernism in order to explore ways in which the humanities benefits from thinking of cognition as distributed via objects, language and social, technological and natural resources and environments, and to examine earlier notions that cognition is distributed. Theories of distributed cognition are transformative in terms of how we understand human nature and the humanities: they enable a different way of perceiving our interactions in the world, highlighting the significant role of texts and other cultural artefacts as part of a biologically based and environmentally grounded account of the mind. Theories of distributed cognition offer an opportunity to integrate the humanities and the sciences through an account that combines biologically and culturally situated aspects of the mind. The series illuminates the ways in which past ideas and practices of distributed cognition are historically and culturally inflected and highlights the cognitive significance of material, linguistic and other sociocul- tural developments. This evidence has the potential to feed back into cognitive sci- ence and philosophy of mind, casting new light on current definitions and debates. Each volume provides a general and a period-specific introduction. The general introduction, which is replicated across all four volumes, aims to orientate read- ers unfamiliar with this area of research. It provides an overview of the different approaches within distributed cognition and discussion of the value of a distributed cognitive approach to the humanities. The period-specific introductions provide a more detailed analysis of work in the cognitive humanities in the period covered series preface vii by the volume, before going on to reflect on how the essays in the volume advance understanding in the humanities via distributed cognition. The project from which this series emerged provided participants with an online seminar series by philosophers working on various aspects of distributed cogni- tion. These seminars are publicly available on the project’s website (http://www. hdc.ed.ac.uk/seminars). The seminars aim to help researchers in the humanities think about how ideas in distributed cognition could inform, and be informed by, their work. Four workshops were held in the summer of 2015 at the University of Edinburgh and were attended by nearly all the volume contributors. The work- shops brought participants together to collaborate in ways that contributed not just to the making of this series but to the development of this approach to the humanities. From the springboard of the seminar series, through the gathering together of scholars from across a range of disciplines and by ongoing interaction with the editorial team during the production of the final essays, the aim has been to provide a set of rigorous analyses of historical notions of distributed cognition. The series is deliberately exploratory: the areas covered by the essays are indica- tive of the benefits of the general approach of using distributed cognition to inform cultural interpretations. The first four volumes of the series concentrate primarily on Western Europe; however, we envisage further future volumes that will expand the scope of the series. If distributed cognition is understood as we contend,
Recommended publications
  • Distributed Cognition As the Basis for Adaptation and Homeostasis In

    Distributed Cognition As the Basis for Adaptation and Homeostasis In

    DISTRIBUTEDCOGNITIONASTHEBASISFORADAPTATION ANDHOMEOSTASISINROBOTS james henry stovold Doctor of Philosophy University of York Computer Science July 2016 ABSTRACT Many researchers approach the problem of building autonomous systems by looking to biology for inspiration. This has given rise to a wide-range of artificial systems mimicking their biological counterparts—artificial neural networks, artificial endocrine systems, and artificial musculoskeletal systems are prime examples. While these systems are succinct and work well in isolation, they can become cumbersome and complicated when combined to perform more complex tasks. Autonomous behaviour is one such complex task. This thesis considers autonomy as the complex behaviour it is, and proposes a bottom-up approach to developing autonomous beha- viour from cognition. This consists of investigating how cognition can provide new approaches to the current limitations of swarm systems, and using this as the basis for one type of autonomous behaviour: artificial homeostasis. Distributed cognition, a form of emergent cognition, is most often described in terms of the immune system and social insects. By taking inspiration from distributed cognition, this thesis details the development of novel algorithms for cognitive decision-making and emergent identity in leaderless, homogenous swarms. Artificial homeostasis is provided to a robot through an architecture that combines the cognitive decision-making algorithm with a simple associative memory. This architecture is used to demonstrate how a simple architecture can endow a robot with the capacity to adapt to an unseen environment, and use that information to proactively seek out what it needs from the environment in order to maintain its internal state. iii CONTENTS Abstract iii Table of Contents v List of Figures viii List of Tables xi List of Code Listings xii Acknowledgements xiii Declaration xv 1 introduction 1 1.1 Motivation .
  • Reexamining Enactivism

    Reexamining Enactivism

    Aporia vol. 23 no. 1—2013 Reexamining Enactivism GREGORY BLAKEMORE n Action in Perception and “Experience without the Head,” Alva Noë argues that what is perceived emerges as one actively moves about in Ithe environment. Moreover, the role of action is directly relevant for perceptual content, as it is enacted into existence. Noë’s goal is to devel- op an account of perceptual experience that supports an externalism in which perceptual experience does not need to be explained in terms of the brain, but includes external processes (Block, 2005; Hurley, 1998; Noë, 2004). He refers to this account as the “sensorimotor account of percep- tion” (2004). More specifically for Noë, sensorimotor contingencies lead to an acquisition of sensorimotor knowledge. Sensorimotor knowledge is an intuitive knowledge that underwrites a perceiver’s understanding of how movement affects changes in sensation (O’Regan and Noë, Visual; Noë, 2004). Noë admits that he lacks a clear articulation of the precise nature of sensorimotor contingencies,1 which undercuts the adequacy of his model. Sensorimotor contingencies and sensorimotor knowledge require a causal 1 Noë acknowledges: “On the theory presented here, to have a sensation is to exercise one’s mas- tery of the relevant sensorimotor contingencies and in this sense to be ‘attuned’ to the ways in which one’s movements will affect the character of input. We characterize attunement as a form of practical knowledge. These terms are vague and may be somewhat confusing” (O’Regan and Noë, Synthese, 84). Gregory Blakemore is pursuing a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Portland State Uni- versity. His areas of interest include philosophy of mind and 19th and 20th century continental philosophy.
  • GB-Human Computation Handbook

    GB-Human Computation Handbook

    From Human Computation to the Global Brain: the self-organization of distributed intelligence Francis Heylighen Global Brain Institute Vrije Universiteit Brussel Introduction The present chapter wishes to investigate the wider context of human computation, viewing it as merely one approach within the broad domain of distributed human-computer symbiosis. The multifarious developments in the “social” Internet have shown the great potential of large-scale col- laborative systems that involve both people and the various information and communication technologies (ICT) that process, store and distribute data. Here, I wish to explore this development in the broadest sense, as the self-organization of a distributed intelligence system at the planetary level—a phenomenon that has been called the “global brain”. To get there, I will first define and illustrate the fundamental concept of distributed intelligence. Then I will review how such an intelligent net- work emerges and grows through a combination of self-organization and design. Finally, I will sketch some potential applications of the anticipated global brain. Human-computer complementarity The rationale for human computation is that people have certain intrinsic skills that are difficult to reproduce in computer programs. A computation system that requires those skills must therefore include people as informa- tion-processing agents. Thus, in human computation, people and comput- ers are supposed to work together synergetically, the one complementing the other. The reason for this complementarity lies in the fact that humans and com- puters process information in very different ways. Computers excel at ac- curately storing and retrieving discrete items, such as numbers or strings of characters.
  • Supported Collaborative Learning at the Workplace

    Supported Collaborative Learning at the Workplace

    Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series Sean P. Goggins Isa Jahnke Volker Wulf Editors Computer- Supported Collaborative Learning at the Workplace CSCL@Work Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning at the Workplace COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SERIES Series Editors: Christopher Hoadley, New York University, New York, USA Naomi Miyake, Chukyo University, Aichi, Japan Editorial Board: Michael Baker, CNRS & Université Lumière Lyon, France Carl Bereiter, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Yrjö Engeström, University of Helsinki, Finland Gerhard Fischer, University of Colorado, U.S.A. H. Ulrich Hoppe, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany Timothy Koschmann, Southern Illinois University, U.S.A. Claire O’Malley, University of Nottingham, U.K. Roy Pea, SRI International, U.S.A. Clotilde Pontecorovo, University ‘La Sapienza’, Italy Jeremy Roschelle, SRI International, U.S.A. Daniel Suthers, University of Hawaii, U.S.A. The Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Book Series is for people working in the CSCL fi eld. The scope of the series extends to ‘collaborative learning’ in its broadest sense; the term is used for situations ranging from two individuals performing a task together, during a short period of time, to groups of 200 students following the same course and interacting via electronic mail. This variety also concerns the computational tools used in learning: elaborated graphical whiteboards support peer interaction, while more rudimentary textbased discussion forums are used for large group interaction. The series will integrate issues related to CSCL such as collaborative problem solving, collaborative learning without computers, negotiation patterns outside collaborative tasks, and many other relevant topics. It will also cover computational issues such as models, algorithms or architectures which support innovative functions relevant to CSCL systems.
  • Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines

    Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines

    Human Enhancement and Technologies Our Merger with Machines Human • Woodrow Barfield and Blodgett-Ford Sayoko Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines Edited by Woodrow Barfield and Sayoko Blodgett-Ford Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Philosophies www.mdpi.com/journal/philosophies Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines Editors Woodrow Barfield Sayoko Blodgett-Ford MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin Editors Woodrow Barfield Sayoko Blodgett-Ford Visiting Professor, University of Turin Boston College Law School Affiliate, Whitaker Institute, NUI, Galway USA Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/philosophies/special issues/human enhancement technologies). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Volume Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-0365-0904-4 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-0365-0905-1 (PDF) Cover image courtesy of N. M. Ford. © 2021 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.
  • Rethinking Situated and Embodied Social Psychology

    Rethinking Situated and Embodied Social Psychology

    TAP0010.1177/0959354315585661Theory & PsychologyPouw and Looren de Jong 585661research-article2015 Article Theory & Psychology 2015, Vol. 25(4) 411 –433 Rethinking situated and © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: embodied social psychology sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0959354315585661 tap.sagepub.com Wim T. J. L. Pouw VU University Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands and University of Wollongong, Australia Huib Looren de Jong VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract This article aims to explore the scope of a Situated and Embodied Social Psychology (ESP). At first sight, social cognition seems embodied cognition par excellence. Social cognition is first and foremost a supra-individual, interactive, and dynamic process (Semin & Smith, 2013). Radical approaches in Situated/Embodied Cognitive Science (Enactivism) claim that social cognition consists in an emergent pattern of interaction between a continuously coupled organism and the (social) environment; it rejects representationalist accounts of cognition (Hutto & Myin, 2013). However, mainstream ESP (Barsalou, 1999, 2008) still takes a rather representation-friendly approach that construes embodiment in terms of specific bodily formatted representations used (activated) in social cognition. We argue that mainstream ESP suffers from vestiges of theoretical solipsism, which may be resolved by going beyond internalistic spirit that haunts mainstream ESP today. Keywords ecological psychology, enactivism, Perceptual Symbol Systems, Situated Embodied Cognitive Science, social psychology During the past few decades, Situated and Embodied Cognitive Science (hereinafter Situated/Embodied Cognition) has become increasingly influential in psychology and philosophy of mind. Briefly, it holds that the mind is inherently determined and struc- tured by the body and the environment, or in a more radical version, that the mind extends over the body and the environment (for overviews see Clark, 2008; Shapiro, 2011).
  • Mind, Body, Motion, Matter Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives Edited by Mary Helen Mcmurran and Alison Conway MIND, BODY, MOTION, MATTER

    Mind, Body, Motion, Matter Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives Edited by Mary Helen Mcmurran and Alison Conway MIND, BODY, MOTION, MATTER

    Mind, Body, Motion, Matter Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives edited by Mary Helen McMurran and Alison Conway MIND, BODY, MOTION, MATTER Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives Mind, Body, Motion, Matter Eighteenth-Century British and French Literary Perspectives EDITED BY MARY HELEN MCMURRAN AND ALISON CONWAY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2016 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4426-5011-4 (cloth) Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. ___________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Mind, body, motion, matter : eighteenth-century British and French literary perspectives / edited by Mary Helen McMurran and Alison Conway. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-5011-4 (cloth) 1. English literature – 18th century – History and criticism. 2. French literature – 18th century – History and criticism. 3. Philosophy in literature. 4. Materialism in literature. 5. Vitalism in literature. 6. Aesthetics in literature. I. Conway, Alison Margaret, editor II. McMurran, Mary Helen, 1962–, author, editor PR448.P5M55 2016 820.9'384 C2015-908168-8 ___________________________________________________________________ CC-BY-NC-ND This work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivative License. For permission to publish commercial versions please
  • Distributed Cognitions GENERAL EDITORS: ROY PEA Psychological and Educational JOHN SEELY BROWN Considerations

    Distributed Cognitions GENERAL EDITORS: ROY PEA Psychological and Educational JOHN SEELY BROWN Considerations

    Learning in doing: Social, cognitive, and computational perspectives Distributed cognitions GENERAL EDITORS: ROY PEA Psychological and educational JOHN SEELY BROWN considerations The construction zone: Working for cognitive change in school Denis Newman, Peg Grrfin, and Michael Cole Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine Edited by interaction Lucy Suchman GAVRIEL SALOMON Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation University of Ha$, Israel Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger Street mathematics and school mathematics Terezinha Nunes, Anahria Dim Schliemann, and David William Carraher Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context Seth Chaiklin andJean Lave (editors) I943 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pin Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RI' 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA Contents 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia 0 Cambridge Universify Press 1993 First phlished 1993 Printed in the United States of America Library of Conqcsr Catalo@n~-in-PublicdionData Disaibuted cognitions : psychological and educational considerations I / edited by Gavriel Salomon. List of contribufon page vii I p. cm. - (Learning in doing) Includes index. Series foreword ix ISBN 0-521-41406-7 (hard) xi 1. Cognition and culture. 2. Knowledge, Sociology of. 3. Cognition - Social aspects. 4. Learning. Psychology of - Social aswcts. I. Salomon. Gavriel. 11. Series. 1 A cultural-historical approach to distributed 92-41220 cognition CIP MICHAEL COLE AND YRJO ENGESTR~M A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. 2 Practices of distributed intelligence and designs for education ISBN 0-521-41406-7 hardback ROY D. PEA 3 Person-plus: a distributed view of thinking and learning D.
  • The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a Conceptual Framework

    The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a Conceptual Framework

    submitted for Proceedings of Collective Intentionality IV, Siena (Italy), to be published as a special issue of Cognitive Systems Research The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a conceptual framework Francis HEYLIGHEN, Margeret HEATH and Frank VAN OVERWALLE Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium {fheyligh, mheath, fjvoverw}@vub.ac.be ABSTRACT: We propose a first step in the development of an integrated theory of the emergence of distributed cognition/extended mind. Distributed cognition is seen as the confluence of collective intelligence and “situatedness”, or the extension of cognitive processes into the physical environment. The framework is based on five fundamental assumptions: 1) groups of agents self-organize to form a differentiated, coordinated system, adapted to its environment, 2) the system co-opts external media for internal propagation of information, 3) the resulting distributed cognitive system can be modelled as a learning, connectionist network, 4) information in the network is transmitted selectively, 5) novel knowledge emerges through non-linear, recurrent interactions. The implication for collective intentionality is that such a self-organizing agent collective can develop “mental content” that is not reducible to individual cognitions. Extended Mind: collective intelligence and distributed cognition From a cybernetic perspective [Heylighen & Joslyn, 2001], a cognitive system cannot be understood as a discrete collection of beliefs, procedures, and/or modules. Cognition is a continuously evolving process which relates present perceptions via internal states to potential further perceptions and actions. It thus allows an agent to anticipate what may happen, adapt to changes in its environment, and moreover effect changes upon its environment [Kirsch & Maglio, 1994].
  • The Extended Mind

    The Extended Mind

    2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences New frontiers for Crowdsourcing: the Extended Mind Roger M. Whitaker, Martin Chorley, Stuart M. Allen School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University 5 The Parade, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK {r.m.whitaker, m.j.chorley, s.m.allen}@cs.cardiff.ac.uk Abstract well-established form of collective intelligence, that has emerged through a number of successful commericial We introduce the concept of extended mind crowd- platforms and become a viable way to conduct survey- sourcing (EMC) which capitalises on the way in which based research [2]. humans naturally extend their cognition into the envi- As technology is developing, new opportunities and ronment, using external objects such as smartphones applications for crowdsourcing are emerging. In par- and applications to augment their mental capacity. ticular discovery of collective human behaviour and This phenomenon means that human computation is inherent culture is becoming possible. Recent exam- embedded in data and devices, representing a new way ples include the characterisation of international eat- through which human cognition can be accessed for col- ing habits [3], the grand vision of the FuturICT initia- lective discoveries. We relate EMC to existing socio- tive [4] and discovery of correlations between personal- logical and psychological concepts and argue that it lies ity and decisions in the places that we visit [5]. These at the intersection of human computation, social com- developments are occurring hand-in-hand with the pro- puting and crowdsourcing. gression of technologies capable of capturing more and EMC is a way in which new problems and discov- more of our individual activity and cognition.
  • Sensorimotor Theory and Enactivism

    Sensorimotor Theory and Enactivism

    This paper is published in TOPOI (2015). The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11245-015-9338-z Sensorimotor theory and enactivism Jan Degenaar 1,2 & J. Kevin O’Regan 1 1 Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Université Paris Descartes, France. 28 Rue des Saints-Pères, 750006 Paris, France. 2 Department of Philosophy, University of Antwerp, Belgium. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]. Abstract. The sensorimotor theory of perceptual consciousness offers a form of enactivism in that it stresses patterns of interaction instead of any alleged internal representations of the environment. But how does it relate to forms of enactivism stressing the continuity between life and mind (and more particularly autopoiesis, autonomy, and valence)? We shall distinguish sensorimotor enactivism, which stresses perceptual capacities themselves, from autopoietic enactivism, which claims an essential connection between experience and autopoietic processes or associated background capacities. We show how autopoiesis, autonomous agency, and affective dimensions of experience may fit into sensorimotor enactivism, and we identify differences between this interpretation and autopoietic enactivism. By taking artificial consciousness as a case in point, we further sharpen the distinction between sensorimotor enactivism and autopoietic enactivism. We argue that sensorimotor enactivism forms a strong default position for an enactive account of perceptual consciousness. Keywords. Consciousness; sensorimotor theory; enactivism; autopoiesis; artificial consciousness 1. Sensorimotor theory Enactive approaches to consciousness emphasize patterns of interaction, and active engagement, instead of any alleged internal representations of the environment. But there are various forms of enactivism, raising questions about their interrelations. While some enactive accounts may be complementary and differ mainly in emphasis, others may manifest outright conflicting conceptions of consciousness.
  • Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Journal.Finfar.Org

    Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Journal.Finfar.Org

    ISSN: 2342-2009 Fafnir vol 1, iss 2, pages 23–40 Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research journal.finfar.org Intuitive Technologies. Models of Posthuman Subjectivity in Simon Ings' Hot Head and Hotwire Kaisa Kortekallio Abstract: This article analyzes two novels by the British writer Simon Ings, Hot Head (1992) and Hotwire (1995), from perspectives provided by second-order systems theory, philosophy of neuroscience and posthumanist philosophy. In Ings' cyberpunk fiction, the use of a particular novum, a programmable cerebral tissue called “datafat”, enables elaborate experimentation on different theories of mind and matter. Due to this experimentation, Ings’ work is able to convey a conception of cognition as an emergent effect produced in material processes that are both human and non-human. Ings’ work asserts the human subject as a complex system in a complex technological ecology and, consequentially, presents us with a model for subjectivity that might be called “posthuman”. Keywords: Simon Ings, Hot Head, Hotwire, posthuman subjectivity, posthumanism, philosophy of neuroscience in literature, complex systems in literature Biography and contact info: Kaisa Kortekallio is a doctoral student in the Doctoral Programme for Philosophy, Arts and Society at the University of Helsinki. Kortekallio holds a Master’s degree in General Literature. “I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That excites me. That makes me want to grab people on the street and say: ‘Have you HEARD THIS?” – astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in a talk given at the Beyond Belief Conference, 2006 There is profound reconfiguration going on in scientifically oriented minds – reconfiguration of the models of human existence and practice.