The Extended Mind Relationship With Devices and Technology

The Extended Mind Relationship With Devices and Technology

Have devices and technology become part of our bodies and mind?

It was suggested that devices have become part of an extension outside of our bodies and minds. Clark and Chalmers (1998) denote Active externalism and advocates that the external environment plays a crucial role in driving our thought processes by creating a coupled system. If we remove the external part, behavioural competence will drop. Just like a fragment of the brain being removed. Note the word active, which is particularly significant and differentiates from Putnam (1975) and Burge (1979) of passive externalism. The distal nature of passive externalism does not drive cognition so it is therefore irrelevant.

Apple advertisements cater towards a materialistic, affective and emotional attachment to devices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA. This shows the shift in focus when it comes to the construction of new technology. In addition, human and technology have become ubiquitous as well as the processing of information now differs from the past.

Clark’s notion of the extended mind proposes a mutual relationship with technology and our minds. Mcluhan (2001) in understanding Media had a similar hypothesis to Clark as well, which in essence, complement each other but are both unique yet similar perspectives. Elmore (2014) a term coined nomophobia which is the fear of being without phone contact and produces anxiety. This supports the notion of the extended mind that external environment does affect our cognition. This spreads into Digital Media too with social media sites and the web. Harraway (1991) also likened us to cyborgs with digital technologies that can be associated with our body suggesting our connection with machine and technology too. Robert Logan (2013) in Mcluhan’s extended and the extended mind thesis identifies fourteen messages that support our relations with data, knowledge and information which therefore extend our minds.

However, there are numerous problems that come with this theory and for digital media. The theory stretches the limit of cognition too far implying that entirety of the internet is part of individual cognition (Adams and Aziwa, 2010) but also continues to divide biological part and non-biological part, thus this comes as a relabeling as suggested by William Ramsey (2010). If active externalism is true, then would this medium indicate a potential concern of control and surveillance over our cognition and minds?  Could this change the way we think and change our emotions? Could the accumulation of data through extension and technology eventually replace our whole cognition?

 Bibliography

Adams, F., & Aizawa, K. (2010). Defending the bounds of cognition. The extended mind. pp. 67-80.

Apple - iPhone 5s - TV Ad - Powerful. (2014). [video] Apple.

Burge, T. (1979). Individualism and the Mental. Midwest Stud Philos, 4(1), pp.73-121.

Clark, A. and Chalmers, D. (1998). The Extended Mind. Analysis, 58(1), pp.7-19.

Elmore, T. (2014). Nomophobia: A Rising Trend in Students. [online] Psychologytoday.com. Available at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/artificial-maturity/201409/nomophobia-rising-trend-in-students [Accessed 19 Oct. 2014].

Haraway, D. (1991).  A Cyborg Manifesto. [online]. Available at: http://www.egs.edu/faculty/donna-haraway/articles/donna-haraway-a-cyborg-manifesto/ [Accessed 20 October 2014].

Logan, R. (2013). McLuhan Extended and the Extended Mind Thesis (EMT). Pismo Awangardy Filozoficzno-Naukowej, [online]. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/3776248/McLuhan_Extended_and_the_Extended_Mind_Thesis_EMT  [Accessed 21 October 2014].

McLuhan, M. (2001). Understanding media. London: Routledge.

Putnam, H. (1975). Mind, language, and reality. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.

Ramsey, W. (2010). The Extended Mind Reviews Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. University of Notre Dame. [online]. Available at: https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24553-the-extended-mind/ [Accessed 20 October 2014].