New technologies as prosthesis of cognitive system

Semina Nr 15 Scientiarum 2016 s. 64–76 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15633/ss.1768 Anna Sarosiek New technologies as prosthesis of cognitive system In everyday life, each person uses a huge amount of tools. People, however, often do not realise this. The human cognitive system is a flexible mechanism – it is always ready for expansion. Hu‑ mans not only gain new skills, but also demonstrate outstanding ability to use every new tools. Rapidly developing technologies provide humans with access to new utensils. These modern arte‑ facts are often only the case or interface of technological develop‑ ments. Interestingly, however, tools become an extension of the human mind. Humans examine the world with the help of arte‑ facts. The artefacts allow them to interact with the surrounding reality. They also provide preprocessed data. All of this forms hu‑ man development. The flexible cognitive mechanisms are based on the preprocessed data. They make it possible for individuals to acquire new skills. These present artefacts are often only the case or interface that is hiding the complicated processing pro‑ gramme. It is interesting to see how they become an extension of the human mind: they get a type of prosthesis, through which humans examine the world. Artefacts allow humans to interact with the surrounding reality. Through the flexibility of cognitive mechanisms and based on the data provided by tools, humans gain new skills. Tools, thus, become an integral part of the hu‑ man cognitive system. There is no possibility of existing without them in the world. New technologies as prosthesis of cognitive system 65 This paper was largely inspired by the research on the extend‑ ed mind by Andy Clark. In particular, in the book Natural‑born cyborgs: Minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence1 Clark shows very quaint and encouraging research direction into the potential of the human cognitive system. 1. The data processing and the cognition The cognitive system is, in a broadest sense, a cognitive activity of the mind. It has a specific organisation and it allows to define the functions and the modes of an action. This makes it possible to study the cognitive system as an organised structure – a set of mecha‑ nisms. Cognitive system is gathering and storing the knowledge of the environment in order to use it later to an action. It uses mental representations for this purpose, which are shaped in the processes of cognition.2 Therefore, human cognitive system is an information processing system. Psychologists use the contemporary methodolo‑ gy in their research on the accurate measurements of the phenom‑ ena occurring during information processing by a living organism. They used, for this purpose, traditional psychological tests, chro‑ nometric research as well as psychophysiological and technologi‑ cally advanced tools for neuroimaging. Characterizing a cognitive system is possible through using the above methods and identify the following: which information is in‑ put data; which procedures are used for the data processing; which structures are involved during the process, and, finally; as a result of these actions, which cognitive mechanism arises.3 The problem solving is related to the information process and precedes the exe‑ cution of any task. This applies even to the simplest, and frequently 1 A. Clark, Natural‑born cyborgs. Minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence, New York 2004. 2 E. Nęcka, J. Orzechowski, B. Szymura, Psychologia poznawcza, Warszawa 2013. 3 L. Cosmides, J. Tooby, Cognitive adaptations for social exchange, “The Adapt‑ ed Mind” 1992, pp. 163–228. 66 Anna Sarosiek beyond the control of human, activities such as seeing or mobility. The complex and precise analysis of data is an essential part of the processes of thinking, reasoning, deduction and decision‑making. Operations of the cognitive system are based on neurobiological processes in the brain. They do not, however, take place either in the isolation of the experience of the body or without impacting the environment. According to the latest surveys, the condition of proper informa‑ tion treatment is the embodiment. This means that the activity of mind depends on the brain as well as on the functioning of the body in which it is placed. One of the functons of the body is to provide data, which is received through the sense organs from the external and the internal environment. Methods of the cognitive psycholo‑ gy allow exploring the transformation of stimuli by both the body and the human mind (as well as any other living organism). An‑ other assumption here is that the sensual body is used to data pro‑ cessing and the mind receives information which is partially pre‑ processed. Subsequently, the body exhibits a remarkable influence on mental processes. 2. Tools in the role of prosthesis in the cognitive system In the ancient times and in the present, human inventions modi‑ fied the way a man understands the world. The tools changed meth‑ ods of human functioning in his environment. They transformed and defined the perspective of the perception problems. Homo ha‑ bilis (handy man) started to use tools. This enabled him to hunt and gain meat. It is widely accepted to assume that this diet re‑ sulted in a rapid development of the human species. This example demonstrates that tools give new opportunities but they also put up new challenges. The man demanded them to be more efficient. Over time, new and strange external tools become an integral part of the human cognitive system as they enhanced problem solving. Technology supplemented the biological status of the man with the ability to create new connections between the mind and the uten‑ New technologies as prosthesis of cognitive system 67 sils. These links became new patterns of mutual and causal depen‑ dencies. Tasks can be performed differently than before by using artefacts. The execution of the action depended extremely on infor‑ mation preprocessed (at least partially) by the tool. Human intel‑ ligence developed by using the achievements of science. The tools provided coevolutionary feedback and, thus, newer forms of adapt‑ ing to the environment were formed. David J. Bolter argues that “product changes its producer.”4 The tool, such as prosthesis, becomes the cause of the modification of hu‑ man interaction with the environment. New tools provide the easi‑ er and more effective functioning. At the same time, previous oper‑ ating modes become time‑consuming, exhausting and bring much less profit. Moreover, the natural human abilities are replaced with more accurate and more accessible data from the tools. Often, they allow the examination of the surrounding environment in a way that was previously unavailable. Thus, instruments began to serve as the external prosthesis. Functioning without them becomes hard or uneconomical or simply exhausting. The modified human activ‑ ity rapidly displaces older models o (...truncated)