1,721,136 research outputs found
The Web-extended mind
Full text linkThe rapid growth and penetration of the Web raises important questions about its effects, not just on our social activities, but also on the nature of our cognitive and epistemic profiles. The extended mind hypothesis may be particularly well-suited to addressing these questions because it encourages us to think about the way in which much of our cognitive success is grounded in processing loops that factor in the contributions of our extra-neural social and technological environments. When applied to the specific socio-technical context of the Web, the extended mind hypothesis gives us the notion of the ‘Web-extended mind’, or the idea that the technological and informational elements of the Web can (at least sometimes) serve as part of the mechanistic substrate that realizes human mental states and processes. This paper attempts to explore the notion of the Web-extended mind. It first provides an overview of cognitive extension and the extended mind hypothesis, and it then goes on to discuss the possibility of Web-based forms of cognitive extension involving current or near-future technologies. It is argued that while current forms of the Web may not be particularly suited to the realization of Web-extended minds, new forms of user interaction technology as well as new approaches to information representation on the Web do provide promising new opportunities for Web-based forms of cognitive extension. Extended minds, however, are not solely the product of technological innovation. Cognitively-empowering forms of bio-technological union sometimes rely on the emergence of social practices and conventions that shape how a technology is used, as well as the specific (bio-)cognitive mechanisms that are available to support its effective exploitation. In particular, it is suggested that Web-extended minds may depend on forms of socio-technical co-evolution in which social forces and factors play just as an important role as do the processes of technology design and development
Understanding the Cognitive Impact of Emerging Web Technologies: A Research Focus Area for Embodied, Extended and Distributed Approaches to Cognition
No full textAlongside existing research into the social, political and economic impacts of the Web, there is also a need to explore the effects of the Web on our cognitive profile. This is particularly so as the range of interactive opportunities we have with the Web expands under the influence of a range of emerging technologies. Embodied, extended and distributed approaches to cognition are relevant to understanding the potential cognitive impact of these new technologies because of the emphasis they place on extra-neural and extra-corporeal factors in the shaping of our cognitive capabilities at both an individual and collective level. The current paper outlines a number of areas where embodied, extended and distributed approaches to cognition are useful in understanding the impact of emerging Web technologies on future forms of both human and machine intelligence
Shedding light on the extended mind: HoloLens, holograms, and internet-extended knowledge
No full textThe application of extended mind theory to the Internet and Web yields the possibility of Internet-extended knowledge—a form of extended knowledge that arises as a result of an individual's interactions with the online environment. The present paper seeks to advance our understanding of Internet-extended knowledge by describing the functionality of a real-world application, called the HoloArt app. In part, the goal of the paper is illustrative: it is intended to show how recent advances in mixed reality, cloud-computing, and machine intelligence might be combined so as to yield a putative case of Internet-extended knowledge. Beyond this, however, the paper is intended to support the philosophical effort to understand the notions of extended knowledge and the extended mind. In particular, the HoloArt app raises questions about the universality of some of the criteria that have been used to evaluate putative cases of cognitive extension. The upshot is a better appreciation of the way in which claims about extended knowledge and the extended mind might be affected by a consideration of technologically-advanced resources
Knowledge machines
No full textThe World Wide Web has had a notable impact on a variety of epistemically-relevant activities, many of which lie at the heart of the discipline of knowledge engineering. Systems like Wikipedia, for example, have altered our views regarding the acquisition of knowledge, while citizen science systems such as Galaxy Zoo have arguably transformed our approach to knowledge discovery. Other Web-based systems have highlighted the ways in which the human social environment can be used to support the development of intelligent systems, either by contributing to the provision of epistemic resources or by helping to shape the profile of machine learning. In the present paper, such systems are referred to as 'knowledge machines'. In addition to providing an overview of the knowledge machine concept, the present paper reviews a number of issues that are associated with the scientific and philosophical study of knowledge machines. These include the potential impact of knowledge machines on the theory and practice of knowledge engineering, the role of social participation in the realization of intelligent systems, and the role of standardized, semantically-enriched data formats in supporting the ad hoc assembly of special-purpose knowledge systems and knowledge processing pipelines
SEMIOTIKS Science & Technology Roadmap Part II: System Architecture Specification
No full textThis document describes the system architecture developed for the SEMIOTIKS Technical Demonstrator System (TDS). It was produced following a comprehensive mid-term review of the SEMIOTIKS initiative and it forms one of two (roadmap) reports that detail the research and development goals for the remainder of the project. The current report focuses on the technological components comprising the SEMIOTIKS TDS. It describes the function of the various components and outlines their interactions with other components
Planet Braitenberg: experiments in virtual psychology
No full textBraitenberg vehicles are simple robotic platforms, equipped with rudimentary sensor and motor components. Such vehicles have typically featured as part of thought experiments that are intended to show how complex behaviours are apt to emerge from the interaction of inner control mechanisms with aspects of bodily structure and features of the wider (extra-agential) environment. The present paper describes a framework for creating Braitenberg-like vehicles, which is built on top of a widely used and freely available game engine, namely, the Unity game engine. The framework can be used to study the behaviour of virtual vehicles within a multiplicity of virtual environments. All aspects of the vehicle's design, as well as the wider virtual environment in which the vehicle is situated, can be modified during the design phase, as well as at runtime. The result is a general-purpose simulation capability that is intended to provide the foundation for studies in so-called computational situated cognition—a field of study whose primary objective is to support the computational modelling of cognitive processes associated with the physically-embodied, environmentally-embedded, and materially-extended mind
Extended Memory, the Extended Mind, and the Nature of Technology-Mediated Memory Enhancement
No full textHuman memory is a key focus of scientific and theoretical attention within a range of disciplines, and it is also an important target of efforts that seek to improve aspects of human cognitive function. The phenomenon of memory is also something that has been seen as a key test for theories of distributed, situated and extended cognition, not least because memory seems to take us out of the current situation and put us in psychological contact with a set of previously experienced state-of-affairs. In addition to the challenge posed to extended cognition accounts, memory also raises interesting issues when it comes to the potential impact of certain new techniques and technologies, all of which seem poised to exert some effect on our mnemonic functioning. For example, the increasing availability of life-logging technologies, coupled with the increasing use of the Web as a storage medium for personal data, raises important questions about the potential of the Web to ‘enhance’ our mnemonic capabilities. The aims of this particular paper are threefold. The first aim is to review the literature relating to cognitive extension and the extended mind and to illustrate how these ideas are relevant to the case of memory. A second aim is to consider the value of an extended cognition account in thinking about memory phenomena. The focus here is on the role played by external (non-biological) physical and social resources in shaping our mnemonic capabilities. A third and final aim for the paper is to consider a variety of issues related to the design of memory technologies. Important areas of discussion here include the extent to which memory technologies should aim to support the accurate recall of previously experienced information, as well as the role of biology in guiding the design of memory technologies
Building extended minds
No full textThe mind–technology problem refers to issues that lie at the intersection of technology development and the philosophy of mind. In the present paper, I explore one aspect of the mind–technology problem, namely, the role of technologies in supporting the emergence of extended minds. I approach this issue from an engineering perspective, suggesting that the project to build extended minds yields insights into a number of philosophical problems. These include our understanding of the criteria for cognitive extension and the way the borders/boundaries of extended cognitive mechanisms are delineated
SEMIOTIKS Science & Technology Roadmap Part I: Task Decomposition and Project Timeline
No full textThis document describes the work packages, task structure, project outputs and research staff associated with the SEMIOTIKS initiative. It was produced following a comprehensive mid-term review of the SEMIOTIKS initiative and it forms one of two (roadmap) reports that detail the research and development goals for the remainder of the project. The current report focuses on the temporal organization of research tasks within the project, and it is therefore suitable for project management and project planning activities
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