The extended mind | David Chalmers | TEDxSydney
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0:14 - 0:16Hi, everyone!
-
0:16 - 0:21I want to talk to you
about a new way of looking at the mind. -
0:21 - 0:26What I call the extended mind is the idea
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0:26 - 0:32that the technology we use
becomes part of our minds, -
0:33 - 0:40extending our minds and indeed
ourselves into the world. -
0:40 - 0:44We'll start with something
that might be a little bit more familiar: -
0:44 - 0:47the extended body.
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0:48 - 0:51We are used to the idea
that we can extend our bodies -
0:51 - 0:53with technology.
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0:53 - 0:55We know about prosthetic limbs.
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0:56 - 0:59Here is the athlete Oscar Pistorius
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0:59 - 1:03running on his prosthetic legs.
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1:03 - 1:07You don't need prosthetic limbs
to extend your body. -
1:08 - 1:15Blind people say that their canes
serve as an extension of their body. -
1:16 - 1:19You know, it feels exactly
like a body from the inside, -
1:19 - 1:22or in more mundane everyday experience,
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1:22 - 1:26a car can feel like
an extension of your body, -
1:26 - 1:31a bike, or indeed, a musical instrument.
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1:31 - 1:33You saw a great illustration
of that a few minutes ago -
1:33 - 1:38with Tjupurru with his didjeribone,
a real extension of his body. -
1:38 - 1:44Well, so it is with the body,
so it is for the extended mind, -
1:44 - 1:49where technology gets incorporated
into our human minds. -
1:49 - 1:53You might think that to incorporate
technology into your mind -
1:53 - 1:56you'd have to turn yourself into a cyborg.
-
1:56 - 1:58Something like that!
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1:58 - 2:03A whole bunch of, you know,
of pipes and tubes inside your head, -
2:03 - 2:07or at least you need a whole bunch
of fancy technology -
2:07 - 2:09like this on your head,
-
2:09 - 2:15but I actually think there's
a more ordinary kind of mind extension, -
2:15 - 2:19which is happening to us
right now, all the time, -
2:19 - 2:22as we move into the technological future.
-
2:22 - 2:25So take our friend the iPhone.
-
2:27 - 2:31I've had one of these now
for maybe three or four years, -
2:31 - 2:34and it's basically started taking over
-
2:34 - 2:37a whole bunch
of the functions of my brain. -
2:37 - 2:38(Laughter)
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2:38 - 2:42Things my brain used to do
are now done by my iPhone. -
2:42 - 2:43I mean, there's a million examples,
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2:43 - 2:45take memory:
-
2:46 - 2:49How many people use their brains
to remember phone numbers anymore? -
2:49 - 2:50Not me!
-
2:50 - 2:53You know, my iPhone does all the work.
-
2:53 - 2:56It used to be, the biological memory
used to carry the load, -
2:56 - 2:59now the iPhone is carrying
the load for me, -
2:59 - 3:01acting as my memory.
-
3:01 - 3:03The iPhone serves to control
-
3:03 - 3:06planning functions
that my brain used to do. -
3:06 - 3:08Spatial navigation,
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3:08 - 3:11offloaded from my brain into Google Maps.
-
3:11 - 3:16The iPhone even stores
as the repository of my desires. -
3:16 - 3:19I've got a program on the iPhone
-
3:19 - 3:23that tells me my favorite dishes
at the local restaurant. -
3:23 - 3:26I go there and just look it up
and say this, this, this. -
3:26 - 3:29The iPhone is controlling
my desires for me. -
3:29 - 3:32It even makes decisions for me.
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3:32 - 3:35Here's the executive decision maker.
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3:35 - 3:37Am I going to go speak
at that TED conference? -
3:37 - 3:39Oh, definitely!
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3:41 - 3:44You might say, "Okay, well,
this is all a big metaphor, -
3:44 - 3:47and it's a little bit
like a mind in someways." -
3:47 - 3:48But I think there's actually
-
3:48 - 3:53an interesting philosophical thesis here
that I want to defend, -
3:53 - 3:58that in some sense the iPhone
is literally becoming part of your mind. -
3:58 - 4:00Your mind is extending
from your brain into the world, -
4:00 - 4:03so the iPhone is actually part of it.
-
4:03 - 4:06The iPhone hasn't been
implanted into your mind, -
4:06 - 4:08but you might think it's as if it were in.
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4:08 - 4:11Here's an iPhone implanted into your mind,
-
4:11 - 4:14it's as if it was implanted
into your mind, -
4:14 - 4:17although it's actually
out there in the world. -
4:17 - 4:19That's the extended mind thesis.
-
4:19 - 4:23So the iPhone's memory
is basically my memory. -
4:23 - 4:25The iPhone’s planning or navigation
-
4:25 - 4:29is basically my planning and navigation
as if it had happened inside the brain. -
4:30 - 4:33Now for me as a philosopher,
this is really interesting -
4:33 - 4:37because one of the central
philosophical problems about the mind, -
4:37 - 4:41maybe the central philosophical
problem about the mind, -
4:41 - 4:44is what we call the mind-brain problem.
-
4:44 - 4:49How does the mind - your thinking
and your feeling - relate to your brain, -
4:49 - 4:54this bunch of mushy neurons
you have inside your head? -
4:54 - 4:56Is it something more
or is it something less? -
4:56 - 4:58If you ask most people,
"Where is your mind?" -
4:58 - 5:01they'd point and say,
"Well, it's somewhere in there." -
5:01 - 5:03This extended mind thesis,
-
5:03 - 5:06I think it's some transformed
vision of the mind, -
5:06 - 5:08but the mind is not just in the brain,
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5:08 - 5:11it's partly in the world around us,
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5:11 - 5:14in the environment that we interact with.
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5:15 - 5:16Now, I don't know.
-
5:16 - 5:20You might think this is kind of crazy
or even totally mad. -
5:21 - 5:26When my collaborator, Andy Clark, and I
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5:26 - 5:30first put this thesis forward
back in the mid 1990s, -
5:30 - 5:33we came across a bit of resistance then;
-
5:33 - 5:36a lot of people made objections.
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5:36 - 5:39Back then, we didn't have iPhones.
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5:39 - 5:42Our central example was a notebook.
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5:42 - 5:44People writing stuff down in the notebook
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5:44 - 5:46and using that as a memory.
-
5:46 - 5:48And indeed, you don't need high-tech
-
5:48 - 5:53to get the idea
of the extended mind going. -
5:53 - 5:56The very first time
somebody counted on their fingers, -
5:57 - 5:59that was a kind of mind extension.
-
5:59 - 6:02A kind of addition that could have
been taking place in your head -
6:02 - 6:05is happening on your fingers,
but technology really amplifies -
6:05 - 6:07this extension of our mind.
-
6:07 - 6:12And I think it's made the thesis
ring true for more people as well, -
6:12 - 6:16because we experience
this actually happening to us. -
6:16 - 6:19But still you might object
in various ways. -
6:19 - 6:23This iPhone is just a tool,
it's not really part your mind. -
6:23 - 6:27For it really to become part of your mind,
you'd have to implant it like this. -
6:27 - 6:30To be in your mind it's got to be
on the inside of your skull. -
6:30 - 6:32Or maybe, it can't be part of your mind:
-
6:32 - 6:33it's metal.
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6:33 - 6:35Minds are biological.
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6:35 - 6:37They involve a soul or something.
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6:37 - 6:39Now, I think it's a tricky issue,
-
6:39 - 6:41but I think this kind
of reaction which you get -
6:41 - 6:47involves a kind of a brain chauvinism.
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6:47 - 6:52It's like a gender chauvinism,
or race chauvinism, or species chauvinism. -
6:52 - 6:54What's so special about the brain?
-
6:54 - 6:56What's so special
about the inside of the brain, -
6:56 - 6:58compared to the outside?
-
6:59 - 7:00For a start, it's like,
-
7:00 - 7:03if you've got stuff that's going on
on the inside of the brain, -
7:03 - 7:07the same stuff could in principle go on
on the outside of the brain. -
7:07 - 7:10We want to say [there's]
no difference in principle -
7:10 - 7:13as long as it's driving
the processes inside the brain, -
7:13 - 7:15the action, the consciousness,
-
7:15 - 7:17in the same way
that would happen otherwise. -
7:17 - 7:20There's no principle barrier
about the skull; -
7:20 - 7:22that would be skull chauvinism.
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7:22 - 7:26Likewise, metal versus biology.
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7:26 - 7:29If the metal does the same job
the biology is doing, -
7:29 - 7:32that would also count
as part of the mind. -
7:32 - 7:35Otherwise it would be
biology, DNA chauvinism. -
7:36 - 7:40So I think that objection can be rejected.
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7:40 - 7:43You might think that -
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7:45 - 7:48Somehow consciousness
is at the very center of the mind, -
7:48 - 7:50and I've got some sympathy with this.
-
7:50 - 7:55Consciousness is
this deeply internal state. -
7:55 - 7:57But I think what we're thinking,
what we're feeling -
7:57 - 8:00right in the present moment
is at the core of the mind, -
8:00 - 8:02but there's always
a whole lot to our minds -
8:02 - 8:05which is outside our consciousness.
-
8:05 - 8:11What we think, our innermost desires,
our hopes, our fears, -
8:11 - 8:12our personality traits,
-
8:12 - 8:15most of this is not passing through
your mind at any given moment. -
8:15 - 8:18Any given moment is just
a tiny little snapshot. -
8:18 - 8:20What makes you you
is a whole bunch of stuff -
8:20 - 8:23which is outside your consciousness
available to affect us. -
8:23 - 8:26So your memories are mostly
outside your consciousness. -
8:26 - 8:28The view here is it doesn't matter
-
8:28 - 8:31whether it's stored somewhere deep
in your brain or out there in the world. -
8:31 - 8:35If it's out there, accessible to you,
driving your state, -
8:35 - 8:39then it counts as part of your mind.
-
8:39 - 8:42There is still a brain
at the core of all this. -
8:42 - 8:44I'm not saying
the iPhone is itself a mind. -
8:44 - 8:47You are still the mind with your brain
and your consciousness at the core. -
8:47 - 8:49But the iPhone is part of it.
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8:49 - 8:52It's kind of an extension, if you like.
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8:52 - 8:54What was that?
-
8:54 - 8:56That's right, my iPhone begs to differ.
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8:56 - 8:58It thinks it's the mind
and I'm the extension. -
8:58 - 9:00(Laughter)
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9:02 - 9:06So this thesis I think is not just -
it's a new way of looking at the world, -
9:06 - 9:08a new way of looking at the mind.
-
9:08 - 9:13But I think it actually makes a difference
to some of our practices. -
9:15 - 9:17In Alzheimer's disease,
-
9:17 - 9:21when people describe themselves
as losing their minds. -
9:21 - 9:24And one thing we found works really well
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9:24 - 9:28in handling people with Alzheimer
and slowing the decline -
9:28 - 9:31is the use of mind extension technology.
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9:31 - 9:34People use notes
in the environment, for example, -
9:34 - 9:37to act as a kind of memory,
external memory, with labels everywhere. -
9:37 - 9:42This really serves to slow down
the loss of mental function, -
9:42 - 9:47keeping some aspect of their minds
out there in the world. -
9:47 - 9:49There are issues about -
-
9:49 - 9:51It makes a difference to education.
-
9:51 - 9:55There are debates
about open book examinations -
9:55 - 9:57and the use of calculators in exams.
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9:57 - 9:59Well, if you take
the extended mind thesis, -
9:59 - 10:02you ought to be testing
the whole extended self. -
10:02 - 10:05If a calculator or a computer
is going to be with you, -
10:05 - 10:08coupled with you,
reliably available in the future, -
10:08 - 10:10it is part of your extended self,
-
10:10 - 10:14and you ought to be testing
the whole extended self. -
10:15 - 10:18Here's a case of extended perception.
-
10:19 - 10:25A blind person who starts
using his iPhone as a vision tool. -
10:25 - 10:28This is the color identification program,
-
10:28 - 10:29Color ID.
-
10:29 - 10:31You can download it.
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10:31 - 10:32It basically reads out colors.
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10:32 - 10:34You point it at something
and it reads it out. -
10:34 - 10:39He said he used this to see
a sunset for the first time. -
10:39 - 10:44He held it up and it said,
"Red, orange, yellow, azure, crimson." -
10:44 - 10:46He was moved to tears.
-
10:46 - 10:49It felt like he was seeing
the sunset for the first time -
10:49 - 10:51using this as an extended
vision mechanism, -
10:51 - 10:52extended perception mechanism.
-
10:52 - 10:56And as wearable computing becomes
more and more ubiquitous in our lives, -
10:56 - 10:59this is just going, I think,
to become more and more common. -
10:59 - 11:04Here we've got glasses that compute stuff
for us through extended perception. -
11:04 - 11:08There's also the socially extended mind.
-
11:08 - 11:12We all know when other people
become extensions of your mind. -
11:12 - 11:14We all know long-term couples
-
11:14 - 11:19where one person acts
as another person's memory. -
11:19 - 11:22You know, reminding them
things at the right time, -
11:22 - 11:24or when they finish
each other's sentences -
11:24 - 11:29or speak as a single
individual in a conversation. -
11:29 - 11:32In effect, what's happening now
is one person is becoming -
11:32 - 11:36part of, an extension of
another person's mind or vice versa. -
11:37 - 11:38I'll be in my mind if -
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11:39 - 11:41I'll be in your mind if you'll be in mine.
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11:41 - 11:43I think Bob Dylan said that.
-
11:44 - 11:50Also, social networking
is really amplifying this. -
11:50 - 11:56So, when I was preparing
this talk about a month ago, -
11:56 - 12:00I sent a note out to Facebook.
-
12:00 - 12:04"I've got to give a 15 minute TED Talk
in Sydney next month, -
12:04 - 12:06on the extended mind.
-
12:06 - 12:09Any ideas on how to approach it?"
-
12:09 - 12:11And I got a whole lot of responses,
-
12:11 - 12:14some pretty useful responses
from this social network, -
12:14 - 12:17which is kind of surrounding us,
becoming part of our extended mind. -
12:17 - 12:20There were more, and there were more,
and there were more, -
12:20 - 12:21(Laughter)
-
12:21 - 12:25including of a whole bunch of useful
suggestions, I stole a bunch of them. -
12:25 - 12:27Not least of them, this one,
-
12:27 - 12:29"Exciting, maybe you could
work Facebook in?" -
12:29 - 12:30(Laughter)
-
12:30 - 12:34Or, "Well you could start by mentioning
you crowdsourced the whole talk ..." -
12:34 - 12:37Thanks guys, that was handy.
-
12:37 - 12:44Now there are some downsides and dangers
to this whole extended mind thesis. -
12:44 - 12:46And one is that as our minds
move into the world, -
12:46 - 12:48we become more vulnerable to their loss
-
12:48 - 12:51than when they are protected
on the inside of the skull. -
12:51 - 12:58This is already something familiar
from things like the floods in Queensland -
12:58 - 13:01or there are bushfires in Victoria.
-
13:01 - 13:05We often talk about the greatest tragedy
being that people lose their memories. -
13:06 - 13:09Their houses and their
possessions and so on -
13:09 - 13:10have basically become part of them.
-
13:10 - 13:14The loss of them really feels
like the loss of one's self. -
13:14 - 13:18And as more of one's mind gets extended,
the more there is vulnerability. -
13:18 - 13:20Just say somebody steals my iPhone.
-
13:20 - 13:23[IF YOU CAN READ THIS,
SOMEBODY STOLE MY iPHONE] -
13:23 - 13:27(Laughter)
-
13:27 - 13:32You might think that's a form of theft
and they should be punished for this. -
13:32 - 13:35But if I'm right, that should
actually be reconceived -
13:35 - 13:38as a really vicious form of assault.
-
13:38 - 13:42Like getting into my brain
and messing with my neurons. -
13:42 - 13:46And that really does kind of capture
the attitude I have to my iPhone. -
13:47 - 13:50You might worry this is going
to turn us into robots. -
13:50 - 13:53Remember the guy from Lost in Space?
-
13:53 - 13:55"Danger," Will Robinson!
-
13:55 - 13:57But I think we have to remember
-
13:57 - 14:00we still always have consciousness
at the middle of this, and judgement, -
14:00 - 14:06and the extension of our minds doesn't
abrogate us from using our judgement. -
14:06 - 14:09With better and better technology,
which becomes more and more flexible, -
14:09 - 14:13there's the hope that the interplay
of judgement and technology -
14:13 - 14:15might move us forward in interesting ways.
-
14:15 - 14:18So, I actually think then, to conclude,
-
14:18 - 14:23this extended mind thesis offers us
some hope of an optimistic worldview. -
14:23 - 14:25People say, "Is Google making us stupid?"
-
14:25 - 14:28This is a debate which has been
out there in the media. -
14:28 - 14:31Well, if I'm right
about the extended mind thesis, -
14:31 - 14:35there's a sense in which
Google is actually making us smarter. -
14:35 - 14:36Google is getting inside our minds.
-
14:36 - 14:39And I don't know about you,
but I heard someone saying, -
14:39 - 14:42"When I sit down and Google,
I feel like my IQ goes up 30 points." -
14:42 - 14:43(Laughter)
-
14:43 - 14:49It's like all that knowledge -
and they say knowledge is power of a kind, -
14:49 - 14:52so it leads to a kind of
potential democratization, too, -
14:52 - 14:54of the powers of the mind.
-
14:54 - 14:58As technology becomes cheaper
and available to more, and more advanced, -
14:58 - 15:00it's going to spread.
-
15:00 - 15:02Phones are already spreading.
-
15:02 - 15:03Google is spreading.
-
15:03 - 15:05With time, this becomes
available to everyone. -
15:05 - 15:07In a way I think what's going on here
-
15:07 - 15:09is a trend which is
in the very early stages -
15:09 - 15:12of turning us into
superheroes of the mind. -
15:12 - 15:16Technology is gradually
giving us these superpowers, -
15:16 - 15:19turning us into cognitive
super geniuses, if you like, -
15:19 - 15:22and it is going to go more
and more this way in the future. -
15:22 - 15:28The question is, will we use
these powers for good or for evil? -
15:28 - 15:35That's the gift of the extended mind
and the challenge it presents -
15:35 - 15:37as we move into our extended future.
-
15:37 - 15:39Thank you very much.
-
15:39 - 15:42(Applause)
- Title:
- The extended mind | David Chalmers | TEDxSydney
- Description:
-
The human brain uses tools which help it function more effectively, such as technology devices like the iPhone and even other people, mostly for memory utilities. And these are the extensions of the mind.
David Chalmers is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University. Chalmers is interested in the relationship between mind, brain and reality. He is best known for formulating the "hard problem" of consciousness and for his arguments against materialism. His 1996 book The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory was highly successful with both popular and academic audiences. In 2010 he gave the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford. These will shortly be published as his book Constructing the World . He also works on language, metaphysics, and artificial intelligence.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 15:53
Peter van de Ven approved English subtitles for The extended mind | David Chalmers | TEDxSydney | ||
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