Once again a superb posting by Vitorino Ramos on his blog. Heretofore I’d not been aware of the existence of hobo signs or the gum election, both of which nicely illustrate the various conceptual lenses associated with distributed cognition/knowledge. I’ll definitely be invoking these ideas. Good stuff! I also notice another posting about Brian Arthur’s El Farol Bar…
For those who have been following the work of Andy Clark – Natural-Born Cyborgs – and his latest – Supersizing the Mind – not mention Ray Kurzweil (and The Matrix) – should enjoy this article from Scientific American (November 2008, pp. 56-61). Not included here are two subsections that outline progress and propspects for neurotechnology (“How…
A very basic overview of embodied cognition in Science News. Why do so many researchers insist on cutifying or the Spielbergerization of robots?
Good news. Andy Clark’s eagerly awaited book Supersizing the Mind is now available. I notice that Clark and Chalmers’ “The Extended Mind” is reprinted here as well. Groovy Dali-esque cover! (Now that I actually have the book in my hands, I see that it is a Dali painting). Something to look forward to will be…
Joel Parthemore’s well considered review of Richard Shusterman’s A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics. The current fashion, in certain circles of cognitive science and philosophy of mind, is to talk up the importance of embodiment and enshrine it in lots of well-considered theories without grasping the irony of pursuing what is, on the surface at…
The special double issue of Mind and Behavior on Evolutionary Biology and the Central Problems of Cognitive Science is now available. Click for contents Click for abstracts
I’d like to bring your attention to what promises to be a fascinating experiment, the brain-child of Richard Brown who has one of the most entertaining and provocative philosophy blogs around. The on-line consciousness conference pretty much follows the conventional conference format though with some small amendments. The papers are anticipated to be much shorter than usual which…
Fans of the work of Andy Clark and in particular his views on cyborgs will be pleased to note that his writing about cyborgs is the focus of a special issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
There’s a nice article in Scientific American entitled “The Expert Mind: Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well.” What struck me was the excerpt below which seems to be grist for the connectionist mill in that the expert is not confronted…
Here’s a restrained and sensitive article from the Scotsman on Claude Wischik‘s work on Alzheimer’s disease. The tone of the article matches the low-key disposition and existential focus of Wischik. Speaking to an Alzheimic patient on a regular basis, I have often used synonyms for the metaphor of “tangles”: Wischik has spent 24 years studying the neurofibrillary ‘tangles’ that…
manwithoutqualities 