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Professor Andy Clark on Natural-born Cyborgs

Ubiquity, Volume 2008 Issue July | BY Andy Clark 

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Full citation in the ACM Digital Library

Bio of Dr. Clark: Dr. Andy Clark is a professor of philosophy and chair in logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Previously, he taught at Washington University at St. Louis and the University of Sussex in England. Clark is one of the founding members of the Contact collaborative research project, whose aim is to investigate the role environment plays in shaping the nature of conscious experience. Dr. Andy Clark research interests include philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, including robotics, artificial life, embodied cognition, and mind, technology and culture. Dr. Clark's papers and books deal with the philosophy of mind and he is considered a leading scientist in mind extension. He has also written extensively on connectionism, robotics, and the role and nature of mental representation.


Ubiquity would like to share Andy Clark's article, published at http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/clark/clark_index.html.
[Source: It is earlier published at the Edge Foundation, Inc. ( www.edge.org)]

Editorial comments by Arun Tripathi:

Andy Clark's book Natural Born Cyborgs, chronicles the rise of cognitive technologies. The book consists of eight chapters covering, roughly, six distinct areas of emerging cognitive technologies, an introduction, and a brief meditation on the promise of a 'post-human' future.

Prof. Andy Clark in his visionary book "Natural-Born Cyborgs" argues that mind expanding technologies come in a surprising variety of forms. They include the best of our old technologies: pen, paper, the pocket watch, the artist's sketchpad, and the old-time mathematician's slide rule. They include all the potent, portable machinery linking the user to an increasingly responsive world wide web. Very soon, they will include the gradual smartening-up and interconnection of the many everyday objects that populate our homes and offices.

Evan Selinger and Timothy Engstroem paper "On Naturally Embodied Cyborgs: Identities, Metaphors, and Models" examines a "specific appeal to philosophical anthropology -"Andy Clark-- and the role it plays in shaping his account of our fundamental cyborg humanity." By focusing on the theme of (human) embodiment, authors also inquire into how phenomenology might benefit from Clark's account as well as how Clark's account might benefit from further engagement with phenomenology of human embodiment. Selinger and Engstroem essay "explore inter- and intra-disciplinary questions that highlight the contribution the philosophy of technology can make to our understanding of embodiment and philosophical anthropology." [See here Selinger, Evan. On Naturally Embodied Cyborgs: Identities, Metaphors, and Models (with Tim Engstroem). Janus Head 9, 2 (2007): 553-584. (Andy Clark's reply, Negotiating Embodiment: A Reply to Selinger and Engstroem, appears in Janus Head 9, 2 (2007): 595-587.)]

Bio of Dr. Clark:

Dr. Andy Clark is a Professor of Philosophy and Chair in Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Prior to that he had taught at the Universities of Glasgow, Sussex, Washington (St Louis), where he was Director of the Philosophy, Neuroscience, Psychology Program, and Indiana. Previously, he taught at Washington University at St. Louis and the University of Sussex in England. Clark is one of the founding members of the Contact collaborative research project whose aim is to investigate the role environment plays in shaping the nature of conscious experience. Dr. Andy Clark research interests include philosophy of mind, artificial Intelligence, including robotics, artificial life, embodied cognition, and mind, technology and culture. Dr. Clark's papers and books deal with the philosophy of mind and he is considered a leading scientist in mind extension. He has also written extensively on connectionism, robotics, and the role and nature of mental representation.

See Professor Clark Publications at http://www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk/staff/clark/publications.html



Source: Ubiquity Volume 9, Issue 27 (July 8 - 14, 2008)



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