0:00:14.158,0:00:15.655
Hi, everyone!

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I want to talk to you[br]about a new way of looking at the mind.

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What I call the extended mind is the idea

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that the technology we use[br]becomes part of our minds,

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extending our minds and indeed [br]ourselves into the world.

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We'll start with something[br]that might be a little bit more familiar:

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the extended body.

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We are used to the idea[br]that we can extend our bodies

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with technology.

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We know about prosthetic limbs.

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Here is the athlete Oscar Pistorius

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running on his prosthetic legs.

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You don't need prosthetic limbs [br]to extend your body.

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Blind people say that their canes[br]serve as an extension of their body.

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You know, it feels exactly[br]like a body from the inside,

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or in more mundane everyday experience,

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a car can feel like[br]an extension of your body,

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a bike, or indeed, a musical instrument.

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You saw a great illustration[br]of that a few minutes ago

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with Tjupurru with his didjeribone,[br]a real extension of his body.

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Well, so it is with the body,[br]so it is for the extended mind,

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where technology gets incorporated [br]into our human minds.

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You might think that to incorporate [br]technology into your mind

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you'd have to turn yourself into a cyborg.

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Something like that!

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A whole bunch of, you know,[br]of pipes and tubes inside your head,

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or at least you need a whole bunch[br]of fancy technology

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like this on your head,[br]

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but I actually think there's[br]a more ordinary kind of mind extension,

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which is happening to us[br]right now, all the time,

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as we move into the technological future.

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So take our friend the iPhone.

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I've had one of these now[br]for maybe three or four years,

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and it's basically started taking over

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a whole bunch[br]of the functions of my brain.

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(Laughter)

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Things my brain used to do[br]are now done by my iPhone.

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I mean, there's a million examples,

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take memory:

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How many people use their brains[br]to remember phone numbers anymore?

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Not me!

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You know, my iPhone does all the work.

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It used to be, the biological memory[br]used to carry the load,

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now the iPhone is carrying [br]the load for me,

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acting as my memory.

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The iPhone serves to control

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planning functions[br]that my brain used to do.

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Spatial navigation,

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offloaded from my brain into Google Maps.

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The iPhone even stores[br]as the repository of my desires.

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I've got a program on the iPhone

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that tells me my favorite dishes[br]at the local restaurant.

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I go there and just look it up[br]and say this, this, this.

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The iPhone is controlling [br]my desires for me.

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It even makes decisions for me.

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Here's the executive decision maker.

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Am I going to go speak[br]at that TED conference?

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Oh, definitely!

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You might say, "Okay, well,[br]this is all a big metaphor,

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and it's a little bit[br]like a mind in someways."

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But I think there's actually

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an interesting philosophical thesis here[br]that I want to defend,

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that in some sense the iPhone[br]is literally becoming part of your mind.

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Your mind is extending[br]from your brain into the world,

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so the iPhone is actually part of it.

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The iPhone hasn't been[br]implanted into your mind,

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but you might think it's as if it were in.

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Here's an iPhone implanted into your mind,

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it's as if it was implanted[br]into your mind,

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although it's actually[br]out there in the world.

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That's the extended mind thesis.

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So the iPhone's memory[br]is basically my memory.

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The iPhone’s planning or navigation

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is basically my planning and navigation[br]as if it had happened inside the brain.

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Now for me as a philosopher,[br]this is really interesting

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because one of the central[br]philosophical problems about the mind,

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maybe the central philosophical[br]problem about the mind,

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is what we call the mind-brain problem.

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How does the mind - your thinking[br]and your feeling - relate to your brain,

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this bunch of mushy neurons[br]you have inside your head?

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Is it something more[br]or is it something less?

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If you ask most people,[br]"Where is your mind?"

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they'd point and say,[br]"Well, it's somewhere in there."

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This extended mind thesis,

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I think it's some transformed[br]vision of the mind,

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but the mind is not just in the brain,

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it's partly in the world around us,

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in the environment that we interact with.

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Now, I don't know.

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You might think this is kind of crazy[br]or even totally mad.

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When my collaborator, Andy Clark, and I

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first put this thesis forward [br]back in the mid 1990s,

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we came across a bit of resistance then;

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a lot of people made objections.

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Back then, we didn't have iPhones.

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Our central example was a notebook.

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People writing stuff down in the notebook

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and using that as a memory.

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And indeed, you don't need high-tech

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to get the idea[br]of the extended mind going.

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The very first time[br]somebody counted on their fingers,

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that was a kind of mind extension.

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A kind of addition that could have[br]been taking place in your head

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is happening on your fingers,[br]but technology really amplifies

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this extension of our mind.

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And I think it's made the thesis [br]ring true for more people as well,

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because we experience[br]this actually happening to us.

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But still you might object[br]in various ways.

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This iPhone is just a tool,[br]it's not really part your mind.

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For it really to become part of your mind,[br]you'd have to implant it like this.

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To be in your mind it's got to be[br]on the inside of your skull.

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Or maybe, it can't be part of your mind:

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it's metal.

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Minds are biological.

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They involve a soul or something.

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Now, I think it's a tricky issue,

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but I think this kind[br]of reaction which you get

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involves a kind of a brain chauvinism.

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It's like a gender chauvinism,[br]or race chauvinism, or species chauvinism.

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What's so special about the brain?

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What's so special[br]about the inside of the brain,

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compared to the outside?

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For a start, it's like,

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if you've got stuff that's going on[br]on the inside of the brain,

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the same stuff could in principle go on[br]on the outside of the brain.

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We want to say [there's][br]no difference in principle

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as long as it's driving[br]the processes inside the brain,

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the action, the consciousness,

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in the same way [br]that would happen otherwise.

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There's no principle barrier[br]about the skull;

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that would be skull chauvinism.

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Likewise, metal versus biology.

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If the metal does the same job[br]the biology is doing,

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that would also count [br]as part of the mind.

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Otherwise it would be[br]biology, DNA chauvinism.

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So I think that objection can be rejected.

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You might think that -

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Somehow consciousness[br]is at the very center of the mind,

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and I've got some sympathy with this.

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Consciousness is[br]this deeply internal state.

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But I think what we're thinking,[br]what we're feeling

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right in the present moment [br]is at the core of the mind,

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but there's always[br]a whole lot to our minds

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which is outside our consciousness.

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What we think, our innermost desires,[br]our hopes, our fears,

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our personality traits,

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most of this is not passing through [br]your mind at any given moment.

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Any given moment is just[br]a tiny little snapshot.

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What makes you you[br]is a whole bunch of stuff

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which is outside your consciousness[br]available to affect us.

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So your memories are mostly[br]outside your consciousness.

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The view here is it doesn't matter

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whether it's stored somewhere deep[br]in your brain or out there in the world.

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If it's out there, accessible to you,[br]driving your state,

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then it counts as part of your mind.

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There is still a brain[br]at the core of all this.

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I'm not saying[br]the iPhone is itself a mind.

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You are still the mind with your brain[br]and your consciousness at the core.

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But the iPhone is part of it.

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It's kind of an extension, if you like.

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What was that?

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That's right, my iPhone begs to differ.

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It thinks it's the mind[br]and I'm the extension.

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(Laughter)

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So this thesis I think is not just -[br]it's a new way of looking at the world,

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a new way of looking at the mind.

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But I think it actually makes a difference[br]to some of our practices.

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In Alzheimer's disease,

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when people describe themselves[br]as losing their minds.

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And one thing we found works really well

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in handling people with Alzheimer[br]and slowing the decline

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is the use of mind extension technology.

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People use notes[br]in the environment, for example,

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to act as a kind of memory,[br]external memory, with labels everywhere.

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This really serves to slow down[br]the loss of mental function,

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keeping some aspect of their minds[br]out there in the world.

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There are issues about -

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It makes a difference to education.

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There are debates[br]about open book examinations

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and the use of calculators in exams.

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Well, if you take[br]the extended mind thesis,

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you ought to be testing[br]the whole extended self.

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If a calculator or a computer[br]is going to be with you,

0:10:04.700,0:10:08.005
coupled with you,[br]reliably available in the future,

0:10:08.005,0:10:09.914
it is part of your extended self,

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and you ought to be testing[br]the whole extended self.

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Here's a case of extended perception.

0:10:18.975,0:10:24.986
A blind person who starts[br]using his iPhone as a vision tool.

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This is the color identification program,

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Color ID.

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You can download it.

0:10:30.708,0:10:32.258
It basically reads out colors.

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You point it at something[br]and it reads it out.

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He said he used this to see[br]a sunset for the first time.

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He held it up and it said,[br]"Red, orange, yellow, azure, crimson."

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He was moved to tears.

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It felt like he was seeing[br]the sunset for the first time

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using this as an extended[br]vision mechanism,

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extended perception mechanism.

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And as wearable computing becomes[br]more and more ubiquitous in our lives,

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this is just going, I think,[br]to become more and more common.

0:10:59.233,0:11:03.754
Here we've got glasses that compute stuff[br]for us through extended perception.

0:11:03.754,0:11:07.695
There's also the socially extended mind.

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We all know when other people[br]become extensions of your mind.

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We all know long-term couples

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where one person acts[br]as another person's memory.

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You know, reminding them[br]things at the right time,

0:11:21.833,0:11:24.150
or when they finish[br]each other's sentences

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or speak as a single[br]individual in a conversation.

0:11:28.754,0:11:31.509
In effect, what's happening now[br]is one person is becoming

0:11:31.509,0:11:36.103
part of, an extension of[br]another person's mind or vice versa.

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I'll be in my mind if -

0:11:38.650,0:11:40.810
I'll be in your mind if you'll be in mine.

0:11:40.810,0:11:43.074
I think Bob Dylan said that.

0:11:43.884,0:11:49.821
Also, social networking[br]is really amplifying this.

0:11:50.361,0:11:55.884
So, when I was preparing[br]this talk about a month ago,

0:11:55.884,0:11:59.588
I sent a note out to Facebook.

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"I've got to give a 15 minute TED Talk[br]in Sydney next month,

0:12:03.930,0:12:05.731
on the extended mind.

0:12:05.892,0:12:08.937
Any ideas on how to approach it?"

0:12:08.937,0:12:10.919
And I got a whole lot of responses,

0:12:10.919,0:12:13.955
some pretty useful responses[br]from this social network,

0:12:13.955,0:12:16.945
which is kind of surrounding us,[br]becoming part of our extended mind.

0:12:16.945,0:12:20.222
There were more, and there were more,[br]and there were more,

0:12:20.222,0:12:21.232
(Laughter)

0:12:21.232,0:12:24.796
including of a whole bunch of useful[br]suggestions, I stole a bunch of them.

0:12:25.383,0:12:26.738
Not least of them, this one,

0:12:26.738,0:12:28.848
"Exciting, maybe you could[br]work Facebook in?"

0:12:28.848,0:12:29.860
(Laughter)

0:12:29.860,0:12:34.324
Or, "Well you could start by mentioning[br]you crowdsourced the whole talk ..."

0:12:34.324,0:12:37.413
Thanks guys, that was handy.

0:12:37.413,0:12:43.701
Now there are some downsides and dangers[br]to this whole extended mind thesis.

0:12:43.701,0:12:46.043
And one is that as our minds[br]move into the world,

0:12:46.043,0:12:48.373
we become more vulnerable to their loss

0:12:48.373,0:12:50.996
than when they are protected[br]on the inside of the skull.

0:12:50.996,0:12:57.670
This is already something familiar[br]from things like the floods in Queensland

0:12:57.670,0:13:00.613
or there are bushfires in Victoria.

0:13:00.613,0:13:04.850
We often talk about the greatest tragedy[br]being that people lose their memories.

0:13:06.390,0:13:08.655
Their houses and their[br]possessions and so on

0:13:08.655,0:13:10.334
have basically become part of them.

0:13:10.334,0:13:14.344
The loss of them really feels[br]like the loss of one's self.

0:13:14.344,0:13:17.785
And as more of one's mind gets extended,[br]the more there is vulnerability.

0:13:17.785,0:13:20.442
Just say somebody steals my iPhone.

0:13:20.442,0:13:23.212
[IF YOU CAN READ THIS,[br]SOMEBODY STOLE MY iPHONE]

0:13:23.212,0:13:26.532
(Laughter)

0:13:26.532,0:13:32.278
You might think that's a form of theft[br]and they should be punished for this.

0:13:32.278,0:13:34.916
But if I'm right, that should[br]actually be reconceived

0:13:34.916,0:13:37.562
as a really vicious form of assault.

0:13:37.562,0:13:41.999
Like getting into my brain[br]and messing with my neurons.

0:13:41.999,0:13:46.156
And that really does kind of capture[br]the attitude I have to my iPhone.

0:13:47.396,0:13:50.002
You might worry this is going[br]to turn us into robots.

0:13:50.002,0:13:52.918
Remember the guy from Lost in Space?

0:13:52.918,0:13:55.228
"Danger," Will Robinson!

0:13:55.228,0:13:56.718
But I think we have to remember

0:13:56.718,0:14:00.101
we still always have consciousness[br]at the middle of this, and judgement,

0:14:00.101,0:14:05.608
and the extension of our minds doesn't[br]abrogate us from using our judgement.

0:14:05.608,0:14:09.010
With better and better technology,[br]which becomes more and more flexible,

0:14:09.010,0:14:13.222
there's the hope that the interplay[br]of judgement and technology

0:14:13.222,0:14:15.221
might move us forward in interesting ways.

0:14:15.221,0:14:17.590
So, I actually think then, to conclude,

0:14:17.590,0:14:22.503
this extended mind thesis offers us [br]some hope of an optimistic worldview.

0:14:23.090,0:14:25.114
People say, "Is Google making us stupid?"

0:14:25.114,0:14:28.060
This is a debate which has been[br]out there in the media.

0:14:28.060,0:14:31.024
Well, if I'm right[br]about the extended mind thesis,

0:14:31.024,0:14:34.595
there's a sense in which[br]Google is actually making us smarter.

0:14:34.595,0:14:36.495
Google is getting inside our minds.

0:14:36.495,0:14:39.110
And I don't know about you,[br]but I heard someone saying,

0:14:39.110,0:14:42.220
"When I sit down and Google,[br]I feel like my IQ goes up 30 points."

0:14:42.220,0:14:43.303
(Laughter)

0:14:43.303,0:14:48.693
It's like all that knowledge -[br]and they say knowledge is power of a kind,

0:14:48.693,0:14:52.354
so it leads to a kind of[br]potential democratization, too,

0:14:52.354,0:14:54.421
of the powers of the mind.

0:14:54.421,0:14:58.194
As technology becomes cheaper[br]and available to more, and more advanced,

0:14:58.194,0:14:59.500
it's going to spread.

0:14:59.500,0:15:01.690
Phones are already spreading.

0:15:01.690,0:15:02.866
Google is spreading.

0:15:02.866,0:15:05.004
With time, this becomes[br]available to everyone.

0:15:05.004,0:15:06.777
In a way I think what's going on here

0:15:06.777,0:15:09.102
is a trend which is[br]in the very early stages

0:15:09.102,0:15:12.256
of turning us into[br]superheroes of the mind.

0:15:12.256,0:15:15.732
Technology is gradually[br]giving us these superpowers,

0:15:15.732,0:15:19.423
turning us into cognitive[br]super geniuses, if you like,

0:15:19.423,0:15:22.206
and it is going to go more[br]and more this way in the future.

0:15:22.206,0:15:27.928
The question is, will we use[br]these powers for good or for evil?

0:15:28.338,0:15:34.676
That's the gift of the extended mind[br]and the challenge it presents

0:15:34.676,0:15:37.158
as we move into our extended future.

0:15:37.158,0:15:38.648
Thank you very much.

0:15:38.648,0:15:42.278
(Applause)