Archive for the ‘skin bag’ tag
R&L 8: Cyborgs
Respond by Tuesday!
- Are we natural born cyborgs? Is the mind extended? Are our technological devices part of our (soft) selves?
- Does Clark’s revision of the old mind-body problem solve any of the Cartesian worries we encountered at the beginning of the semester? If so, which ones? If not, why not?
- Which examples in the text did you find especially convincing? Which ones were unconvincing? How does this hurt Clark’s argument?
- What similarities do you see between Clark and Gehlen? What are the differences between these two views?
- Clark boils down our interactions with technology to two fundamental dimensions: the transparency of the interface and the resulting expansion of our capacities. Are there any other ways in which technology might affect our cognitive abilities?
- Clark says the human brain is unique in its plasticity and opportunism. Is he right, or is there some other source of uniqueness? If so, does this fall into the Cartesian problem of dualism?
- Clark downplays the importance of the barrier between biology and technology. Is this barrier important? Why or why not?
- Clark says that language itself is an example of an external prop that not only extends our cognitive capacities but restructures the way we think about the world. Is language an example of an external tool?