Esprits non-humains: cognition animale, artificielle ou autre
Cognitio 2011
Colloque jeunes chercheurs en sciences cognitives
Montréal, les 3, 4, et 5 juillet 2011.
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Hybrid minds
Rachid Belkouch
Abstract:
The pervasiveness of technology in our daily lives, carried by miniaturization and wireless communication technologies, blur the boundaries between human and technology. Evolution of the human mind has been driven by the use of external mind tools : language, writing, and now digital storage (Donald 1991). Human have crafted tools to augment their mental capacity since ancient times (Tversky 2001), and the human mind has always been ready to grow with external technological devices (Clark 2003). Nowadays, technologies become so integrated into our daily lives that we hardly notice them.
The cyborg (cybernetic organism) is the archetypal representation of the man-machine symbiosis (Licklider 1960), the merging of human and machine (Haraway 1991), which exogenous components extend the organism in order to adapt (Clark 2003). Internet can be seen as the super organism, a symbiotic environment for the cybernetic organism, always in need of connections.
Is the technology-contaminated, information bombarded and fragmented mind, menaced by "death by information overload" (Hemp 2009)? or dehumanization, as our mind tools void the necessity of biologic mind organs, making us ready to collapse without our technological exoskeleton (Benasayag 2009) ? Cyberculture explore the cyborg's dilemma in obsessional and relentless representations (Gibson's cyberpunk novels, Stelarc's art, Cronenberg's movies,...)
Or it is just a temporary scaffolding until the completion human-technology convergence, the next mind iteration, Mind 3.0 ?
The answer could be as hybrid as we are: humans develop distinctive adaptation mechanisms to technology, as technology artefacts are subject to humanization, as their purpose is to serve as human extensions.
The cyborg (cybernetic organism) is the archetypal representation of the man-machine symbiosis (Licklider 1960), the merging of human and machine (Haraway 1991), which exogenous components extend the organism in order to adapt (Clark 2003). Internet can be seen as the super organism, a symbiotic environment for the cybernetic organism, always in need of connections.
Is the technology-contaminated, information bombarded and fragmented mind, menaced by "death by information overload" (Hemp 2009)? or dehumanization, as our mind tools void the necessity of biologic mind organs, making us ready to collapse without our technological exoskeleton (Benasayag 2009) ? Cyberculture explore the cyborg's dilemma in obsessional and relentless representations (Gibson's cyberpunk novels, Stelarc's art, Cronenberg's movies,...)
Or it is just a temporary scaffolding until the completion human-technology convergence, the next mind iteration, Mind 3.0 ?
The answer could be as hybrid as we are: humans develop distinctive adaptation mechanisms to technology, as technology artefacts are subject to humanization, as their purpose is to serve as human extensions.