Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind Cognitive Technology is the study of the impact of technology on human cog- tion, the externalization of technology from the human mind, and the pragmatics of tools. It promotes the view that human beings should develop methods to p- dict, analyse, and optimize aspects of human-tool relationship in a manner that respects human wholeness. In particular the development of new tools such as virtual environments, new computer devices, and software tools has been too little concerned with the impacts these technologies will have on human cog- tive and social capacities. Our tools change what we are and how we relate to the world around us. They need to be developed in a manner that both extends human capabilities while ensuring an appropriate cognitive t between organism and instrument. The principal theme of the CT 2001 conference and volume is declared in its title: Instruments of Mind. Cognitive Technology is concerned with the interaction between two worlds: that of the mind and that of the machine. In science and engineering, this - teraction is often explored by posing the question: how can technology be best tailored to human cognition? But as the history of technological developments has consistently shown, cognition is also fashioned by technology. Technologies as diverse as writing, electricity generation, and the silicon chip all illustrate the profound and dynamic impact of technology upon ourselves and our conceptions of the world.

Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind Cognitive Technology is the study of the impact of technology on human cog- tion, the externalization of technology from the human mind, and the pragmatics of tools. It promotes the view that human beings should develop methods to p- dict, analyse, and optimize aspects of human-tool relationship in a manner that respects human wholeness. In particular the development of new tools such as virtual environments, new computer devices, and software tools has been too little concerned with the impacts these technologies will have on human cog- tive and social capacities. Our tools change what we are and how we relate to the world around us. They need to be developed in a manner that both extends human capabilities while ensuring an appropriate cognitive t between organism and instrument. The principal theme of the CT 2001 conference and volume is declared in its title: Instruments of Mind. Cognitive Technology is concerned with the interaction between two worlds: that of the mind and that of the machine. In science and engineering, this - teraction is often explored by posing the question: how can technology be best tailored to human cognition? But as the history of technological developments has consistently shown, cognition is also fashioned by technology. Technologies as diverse as writing, electricity generation, and the silicon chip all illustrate the profound and dynamic impact of technology upon ourselves and our conceptions of the world.

Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind Cognitive Technology is the study of the impact of technology on human cog- tion, the externalization of technology from the human mind, and the pragmatics of tools. It promotes the view that human beings should develop methods to p- dict, analyse, and optimize aspects of human-tool relationship in a manner that respects human wholeness. In particular the development of new tools such as virtual environments, new computer devices, and software tools has been too little concerned with the impacts these technologies will have on human cog- tive and social capacities. Our tools change what we are and how we relate to the world around us. They need to be developed in a manner that both extends human capabilities while ensuring an appropriate cognitive t between organism and instrument. The principal theme of the CT 2001 conference and volume is declared in its title: Instruments of Mind. Cognitive Technology is concerned with the interaction between two worlds: that of the mind and that of the machine. In science and engineering, this - teraction is often explored by posing the question: how can technology be best tailored to human cognition? But as the history of technological developments has consistently shown, cognition is also fashioned by technology. Technologies as diverse as writing, electricity generation, and the silicon chip all illustrate the profound and dynamic impact of technology upon ourselves and our conceptions of the world.

Rapidly growing cognitive technologies (such as word processors, web browsers, cell phones, and personal data assistants) aid learning, memory, and problem solving, and contribute to every part of modern life from interviewing crime witnesses to learning a foreign language to calling one’s mother. This collection of essays on cognitive technology examines the interaction between the human mind and the tools people create to enhance it, studying which technologies assist cognition the most and what features are most effective. It also considers the point at which the technological enhancement of human ability begins to restrict that very ability, such as the risk of some cognitive technologies impairing cognition or creating disadvantages for individuals or groups. This collection of 11 essays discusses the most recent psychological research in cognitive technology, showcasing the paradigms and theories that have driven the development of new cognitive technologies. It explores the impact of technology on cognitive psychology, the classroom, and social interaction and group problem solving. Topics covered include the distracting characteristics of new technologies (such as the effects of cell phone use on driving ability and of distracting advertisements on problem solving), the study of mass media through assessing memories for media experiences, the media’s role in advancing gender and racial prejudices, and the misuse of cognitive technology through identity theft and cyberterrorism. Each essay concludes with a bibliography.

Our species has been a maker and user of tools for over two million years, but "cognitive technology" began with language. Cognition is thinking, and thinking has been "distributed" for at least the two hundred millennia that we have been using speech to interact and collaborate, allowing us to do collectively far more than any of us could have done individually. The invention of writing six millennia ago and print six centuries ago has distributed cognition still more widely and quickly, among people as well as their texts. But in recent decades something radically new has been happening: Advanced cognitive technologies, especially computers and the Worldwide Web, are beginning to redistribute cognition in unprecedented ways, not only among people and static texts, but among people and dynamical machines. This not only makes possible new forms of human collaboration, but new forms of cognition. This book examines the nature and prospects of distributed cognition, providing a conceptual framework for understanding it, and showcasing case studies of its development. This volume was originally published as a Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition (14:2, 2006).

In this book the editors have gathered a number of contributions by persons who have been working on problems of Cognitive Technology (CT). The present collection initiates explorations of the human mind via the technologies the mind produces. These explorations take as their point of departure the question What happens when humans produce new technologies? Two interdependent perspectives from which such a production can be approached are adopted: • How and why constructs that have their origins in human mental life are embodied in physical environments when people fabricate their habitat, even to the point of those constructs becoming that very habitat • How and why these fabricated habitats affect, and feed back into, human mental life. The aim of the CT research programme is to determine, in general, which technologies, and in particular, which interactive computer-based technologies, are humane with respect to the cognitive development and evolutionary adaptation of their end users. But what does it really mean to be humane in a technological world? To shed light on this central issue other pertinent questions are raised, e.g. • Why are human minds externalised, i.e., what purpose does the process of externalisation serve? • What can we learn about the human mind by studying how it externalises itself? • How does the use of externalised mental constructs (the objects we call 'tools') change people fundamentally? • To what extent does human interaction with technology serve as an amplification of human cognition, and to what extent does it lead to a atrophy of the human mind? The book calls for a reflection on what a tool is. Strong parallels between CT and environmentalism are drawn: both are seen as trends having originated in our need to understand how we manipulate, by means of the tools we have created, our natural habitat consisting of, on the one hand, the cognitive environment which generates thought and determines action, and on the other hand, the physical environment in which thought and action are realised. Both trends endeavour to protect the human habitat from the unwanted or uncontrolled impact of technology, and are ultimately concerned with the ethics and aesthetics of tool design and tool use. Among the topics selected by the contributors to the book, the following themes emerge (the list is not exhaustive): using technology to empower the cognitively impaired; the ethics versus aesthetics of technology; the externalisation of emotive and affective life and its special dialectic ('mirror') effects; creativity enhancement: cognitive space, problem tractability; externalisation of sensory life and mental imagery; the engineering and modelling aspects of externalised life; externalised communication channels and inner dialogue; externalised learning protocols; relevance analysis as a theoretical framework for cognitive technology.

This edited book deepens the engagement between 21st century philosophy of mind and the emerging technologies which are transforming our environment. Many new technologies appear to have important implications for the human mind, the nature of our cognition, our sense of identity and even perhaps what we think human beings are. They prompt questions such as: Would an uploaded mind be 'me'? Does our reliance on smart phones, or wearable gadgets enhance or diminish the human mind? and: How does our deep reliance upon ambient artificial intelligence change the shape of the human mind? Readers will discover the best philosophical analysis of what current and near future 21st technology means for the metaphysics of mind. Important questions are addressed on matters relating to the extended mind and the distributed self. Expert authors explore the role that the ubiquitous smart phone might have in creating new forms of self-knowledge. They consider machine consciousness, brain enhancement and smart ambient technology, and what they can tell us about phenomenal consciousness. While ideas of artificial general intelligence, cognitive enhancements and the smart environment are widely commented on, serious analysis of their philosophical implications is only getting started. These contributions from top scholars are therefore very timely, and are of particular relevance to students and scholars of the philosophy of mind, philosophy of technology, computer science and psychology.