3 Books By Andy Clark

Supersizing The Mind

PSU BD418.3.C532 2008 Oxford University Press

Too much "Scholar X says" for easy reading, but some good ideas from those scholars, which Clark amplifies. I skimmed, but would spend a week with this book if I had a week to spare.

Clark argues that if an external physical object performs a function that could conceivably be implemented as brain matter, it is effectively part of the EXTENDED mind. If Anne has a fully functioning memory, and Otto has a defective brain memory but a diary/book that he uses the same way, then his external and her internal memories are can be considered components of their respective minds.

Contrast to BRAINBOUND: human cognition depends directly on neural activity alone.

• p030 May 2004 Wired "Fear and Loathing on the Human-Machine Frontier" Bruce Sterling fears robot peripherals for the old. Clark claims this is a misconcieved vision of humans as "locked-in agents"

• p033 Australian performer Stelarc with third robot hand, controlled by abdominal and leg muscle twitches. Has become "transparent equipment".

• Monkey with electrodes and robot arm, back and tongue imagers for the blind.

• p071 epistemic actions: modifying the environment to extract information, i.e., opening the fridge to help plan dinner

• p102 epistemic artifacts: diaries, compasses

• p103 Sterelny perception operates in an environment of active sabotage by other agents

• p103 change blindness and magic tricks

Brainfarts:

• Politics and extended cognition. Individuals who control their immediate environment have better control of their cognition, minimizing sabotage by others. They control their own cogs, rather than be manipulated into cogs in a corporate or state machine. Downside: is littering a lazy way to mark the environment and leave a cognitive trail?

Penn Jilette is a magician, and exploits change blindness. He is also a libertarian, a political anti-magician.

Personal bicycles are tuned to the rider. Portland/Nike's orange "shared" bikes have some interesting technology, but are "one size fits all"; while that means that they all feel the same, they are not as optimal as a personal bike. So there a political statement here: "you are an interchangable cog", and those who don't fit the bikes are disadvantaged.

Music - Does the beat of tapping toes and other rhythmic body movements exploit mechanical resonances? Are musician preferences for particular piano actions because their skills require them? Can the piano-actions be precisely electromechanically mimicked? Can the adaptive piano-actions be used to train musicians, or make a great musician out of a merely adequate one?

Natural Born Cyborgs

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Microcognition

PSU BF311.C54 1989

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