EMT and Complementarity
Mental states & cognitive functions have been
argued to extend beyond the skin of the organism
with biological and environmentally located
elements entering into a partnership that enables
flexible thinking and acting.
We defend a
complementarity
version of the
extended mind
according to which
externally located
resources and internal
biological elements
make a different but
complementary
causal contribution to
bringing about
intelligent behaviour
Extending our minds enhances our capacities and
allows us to transform and augment our cognitive
processes in a way that wouldn’t be possible without
incorporating the external resources into our cognitive
routines
Plasticity and Culture: the Magic Duo
This happens because of the plasticity of our
brains. Cortical Plasticity, we argue, is a
precondition for extended cognition
Our brains do not have a fixed functional
architecture, but are sculpted and given form
by the practices we repeatedly engage in
It is the activities we participate in the world that
determine which neural circuits get to survive in our
brains. Circuits that are often used during
development get reinforced, while those that lie
dormant are simply abandoned and their
connections die off.
Synaptic pruning therefore unfolds
according to the “use it or lose it” principle
As a result of repeated engagements in cultural tasks,
relevant brain pathways undergo substantial rewiring.
Cortical plasticity therefore allows us to self-engineer
our minds and our brains become geared to work in
partnership with external props.
SSDs and Plasticity Extended Cognition or Extended
We discuss sensory substitution devices
(SSDs) as an example of a tool that gets
incorporated into a cognitive routine in a way
that extends the mind
In sensory substitution, information
acquired with one sensory modality is used
to accomplish a task which is normally sub-
served by another sensory modality
The loss of a sensory input induces an invasion of the
deprived cortical area by inputs originating from other
modalities
The intermodal connections that arise result from a
phenomenon called cross-modal plasticity. The capacity of
the brain to form these inter-modal connections is exploited
by SSDs. When we actively use SSDs our plastic brains
factor them into the processing of perceptual information
SSDs thus exploit the
remarkable opportunism
afforded by neural plasticity
to give rise to augmented
processes of deep bio-
technological symbiosis
Mind Enhancing Tools?
Do SSDs merely replace one sensory modality with
another? Or are they delivering us a new form of
perceiving and experiencing?
In SSD perception, Crucially, this
sensorimotor cross-modal
contingencies(SMCs) perception differs
from vision, touch and from any kind we
audition are merged normally enjoy
together to form a
when we are not
robust and coherent using an SSD.
percept
We explain this acquired perception in terms of production of
novel law-like relations between actions and associated
changes in sensory input. Through these active couplings we
acquire a new sense, which might give rise to what could be
called a kind of “artificial synaesthesia”
SSDs augment our perception in a qualitative
way. These devices become mind enhancing
tools and therefore different but complementary
parts of our cognitive repertoire
Cognitive Systems ?
Can the use of SSDs be explained purely internally,
in terms of cross-modal mappings within the brain?
SSDs are causally necessary for augmented
perception but do they count as cogntiive?
A cognitive system may
have among its parts,
components that are
located in the external
environment. However it
doesn’t follow that the
contribution these
components are making
to the overall cognitive
system is a cognitive one
Can SSDs establish anything stronger than
causal necessity?
Slaying the Chimera
We argue that only active users can experience this
form of augmented perception. Inactive users just get
stimulation from the device but no cross-modal
mapping.
We have two mappings.
First mapping: Vision - >
Audition/Touch. Second
mapping: Audition/Touch - >
New Sensory Mode of Access.
Causal dependence suggests that
SSD perception is just the agent +
tool without agent and tool forming a
single system.
This is what we find in the case of
inactive user [where the agent and
tool are detached]. This isn't
however sufficient for cross-modal
mapping!
We only get cross-modal mapping when brain
and tool work in partnership together
We then have an active agent
+ tool working together to
deliver something new. What is
delivered is the mastery of
novel SMCs that yield a new
mode of access to the world. A
mode that provides the users
with a new sense.
This is a case of extended cognition,
not just an extended cognitive system.
The active user is the agent + tool working together as
an entangled system of cognitive analysis
If perceivers using SSDs count as extended
cognitive systems why the experiences they
enjoy shouldn’t be counted as extended
conscious experiences?