Reading Excerpt: The Extended Mind
Added 2023-03-01 14:10:52 +0000 UTC“Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” So begins the academic paper that inspired Annie Murphy Paul’s book (and will probably churn it’s way into being a piece of mine someday, being as it is so exceptionally on brand). As Murphy Paul summarizes:
“Clark and Chalmers initially focused their analysis on the way technology can extend the mind - a proposal that quickly made the leap from risibly preposterous to self-evidently obvious, once their readers acquired smartphones and began offloading large chunks of their memories onto their new devices. (Fellow philosopher Ned Block likes to say that Clark and Chalmers’s thesis was false when it was written in 1998 but subsequently became true - perhaps in 2007, when Apple introduced the first iPhone).”
Prologue, xi, “The Extended Mind,” Annie Murphy Paul
In her book, she explores the ways that humans use their bodies, surroundings and relationships to think more deeply and expansively. As a creator with a notable bias towards verbal communication, I’m hoping to better understand the ways to engage a participant’s entire mind, and not just the one between their ears—but more so, to think into the ways that art (and responsive participatory art in particular) might serve as another means for extending the mind.
Let's get a sneak peek*, shall we?
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* sneak...listen? Not sure what the auditory equivalent of a peek is. Open to discussion.
** Note - thank you all for your patience with this Technically-Marchy February Content, as I had to step in for a friend in a tough spot yesterday. I'm trying to hold a more humane position with myself on deadlines, and ensuring I prioritize the things that matter most.
