Andy Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 (age 67–68) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Stirling |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Institutions | University of Sussex University of Edinburgh Glasgow University Washington University in St. Louis Indiana University, Bloomington |
| Main interests | Philosophy of mind |
| Notable ideas | Extended mind |
Andy Clark,FBA (born 1957) is aBritishphilosopher who is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at theUniversity of Sussex. Prior to this, he was a professor ofphilosophy andChair inLogic andMetaphysics at theUniversity of Edinburgh inScotland, director of theCognitive Science Program atIndiana University inBloomington, Indiana and previously taught atWashington University in St. Louis, Missouri. 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 ofconscious experience.[1] Clark's papers and books deal with thephilosophy of mind and he is considered a leading scholar[citation needed][2] on the subject ofmind extension. He has also written extensively onconnectionism,robotics and the role and nature ofmental representation.[3]
Clark's work explores a number of disparate but interrelated themes. Many of these themes run against establishedwisdom incognitive processing and representation. According to traditional computational accounts, the function of themind is understood as the process of creating, storing, and updating internal representations of the world, on the basis of which other processes andactions may take place. Representations are updated to correspond with an environment in accordance with the function, goal-state, or desire of the system in question at any given time. Thus, for example, learning a new route through a maze-like building would be mirrored in a change in the representation of that building. Action, on this view, is the outcome of a process that determines the best way to achieve the goal-state or desire, based on current representations. Such a determinative process may be the purview of aCartesian "central executive" or a distributed process like homuncular decomposition.
In contrast to traditional models ofcognition, which often posit the one-way flow of sensory information from the periphery towards more remote areas of thebrain, Clark has suggested a two-way "cascade of cortical processing" underlyingperception,action, andlearning. The concept ofpredictive processing lies at the heart of this view, wherein top-down predictions attempt to correctly guess or "explain away" bottom-up sensory information in an iterative, hierarchical manner. Discrepancies between the expected signal and actual signal, in essence, the "prediction error," travel upward to help refine the accuracy of future predictions. Interactions between forward flow of error (conveyed by "error units") and backward flow of prediction are dynamic, with attention playing a key role in weighting the relative influence of either at each level of the cascade (dopamine is mentioned as "one possible mechanism for encoding precision" with regard to error units). Action (or action-oriented predictive processing) also plays an important role in Clark's account as another means by which the brain can reduce prediction error by directly influencing the environment. To this, he adds that "personal,affective, andhedonic" factors would be implicated along with the minimization of prediction error, creating a more nuanced model for the relationship between action and perception.[4]
According to Clark, thecomputational model, which forms the philosophical foundation ofartificial intelligence, engenders several intractable problems. One of the more salient is an informationbottleneck: if, in order to determine appropriate actions, it is the job of the mind to construct detailed inner representations of theexternal world, then, as the world is constantlychanging, the demands on the mentalsystem will almost certainly preclude any action taking place. For Clark, we need relatively little information about the world before we may act effectively upon it. We tend to be susceptible to "grand illusion", where our impressions of a richly detailed world obscure a reality of minimal environmental information and quick action. We needn't try to reconstruct the detail of this world, as it is able to serve as its own best model from which to extract information "just in time".
Clark's writings also focus on the concept oftranshumanism, most prevalent in his work,Natural-Born Cyborgs which explores the progressing incorporation of human biology and technological implants. Through a series of contemporary technological studies and an evaluation of thecyborg figure inpop-culture, Clark maps out a perception of the cyborg as a reality. This is not necessarily to show what humanity is to become from biologically implanted technology, but rather to explore where humanity is now with said technology.[5] In his own words, humans are "creatures whose minds are special precisely because they are tailor-made for multiple mergers and coalitions."[5] He elaborates this as he describes his body as an "electronic virgin" untouched by technology, but gradually over time technology will become intertwined with his biology.[5] Whether that incorporation will be as mundane as the use ofeyeglasses or something more advanced such as a newauditory prosthesis, he believes the merger of technology and biology is inevitable and present.
Clark is perhaps most well known for his work on theextended mind thesis, which says that the mind extends into the environment. Clark spoke about his thesis inTEDxLambeth 2019.[6]
Clark lives inBrighton,England, with his partner, Alexa Morcom, acognitive neuroscientist. He has a tattoo of a comic book styled, undersea theme.[7]
Books by Andy Clark:
Clark is also on the editorial boards of the following journals:
