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Kann man das ewige Leben auf technischem Weg realisieren? Lässt sich der Geist eines Menschen als dynamische Datenstruktur abspeichern und jenseits des vergänglichen Körpers als funktionsfähige Einheit erhalten? Solche technischen Utopien sind mittlerweile nicht nur spielerisches Motiv in Literatur und Film, sondern auch ernsthaftes Ziel von Informatikern und Tech-Start-ups. Ist dieses Vorhaben durchführbar? Welche Auswirkungen hätte eine erfolgreiche Implementierung des Mind-Uploads für unsere Vorstellungen von menschlicher Individualität und personaler Identität? Wie ist das Projekt ethisch zu bewerten und wie verhält es (...) sich zur christlichen Hoffnung auf eine Auferstehung und ein sich daran anschliessendes ewiges Leben? Der Band beleuchtet diese Fragen aus philosophischer, theologischer und sozialethischer Perspektive"-- Back cover. (shrink)

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Technologies of communication condition human sense-making. They do so by creating the social environment we inhabit and extending their structural biases and logics through human use. As such, this essay inquires into the prevailing habits of mind in thedigital era. Employing a media ecology of communication, I argue thatdigital computers and microprocessors are defined by three structural properties and, hence, underlying logics: digitization (binary code), algorithmic execution (input/output), and efficiency (machine logic). Repeated exposure to these logics (...) cultivates adigital mind, a model of thinking, communicating, and sense-making characterized by intransigence, impertinence, and impulsivity. I conclude the essay by exploring the broader implications of adigital mind, paying particular attention to the challenges it poses to democratic politics. (shrink)

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I survey four categories of factors that might give adigital mind, such as an upload or an artificial general intelligence, an advantage over humans. Hardware advantages include greater serial speeds and greater parallel speeds. Self-improvement advantages include improvement of algorithms, design of new mental modules, and modification of motivational system. Co-operative advantages include copyability, perfect co-operation, improved communication, and transfer of skills. Human handicaps include computational limitations and faulty heuristics, human-centric biases, and socially motivated cognition. The shape of (...) hardware growth curves, as well as the ease of modifyingminds, are found to have a major impact on how quickly adigital mind may take advantage of these factors. (shrink)

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Emerging cybertechnologies, such as social digibots, bend epistemological conventions of life and culture already complicated by human and animal relationships. Virtually-augmented niches of machines and organic life promise new free-energy-governed selection of intelligentdigital life. These provocative eco-evolutionary contexts demand a theory of (natural and artificial)minds to characterize and validate the immersive social phenomena universally-shaping cultural affordances.

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Current educational research focuses on classroom instruction and employing technology to improve learning. This research proposesDigital Mind Mapping with Collaborative Learning in the fourth semester of the English department curriculum. This research investigates the possibility of usingDigital Mind Mapping, combined with Collaborative Learning, to enhance academic performance in students. The data on these issues is collected by implementing a research project incorporating mixed methods research. The research comprises interviews with teachers and students currently enrolled in the (...) English Department Programme at Universitas Jabal Ghafur and firsthand observations on their classrooms. In addition, both pre and post-tests will be conducted. This study demonstrates that cognitive talents and traits affect the efficiency ofDigital Mind Mapping with Collaborative Learning as an educational tool. The presence of these attributes and educational competencies has positively influenced the academic achievement of students. The study also identified many challenges educators and learners have when incorporatingDigital Mind Mapping and collaborative learning approaches into their educational settings. This research emphasises the need to modify educational approaches in education, particularly for the purpose of English language acquisition. It evaluates the degree to which this tactic might enhance these methodologies. (shrink)

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Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, proponents ofdigital psychiatry were touting the promise of variousdigital tools and techniques to revolutionize mental healthcare. As social distancing and its knock-on effects have strained existing mental health infrastructures, calls have grown louder for implementing variousdigital mental health solutions at scale. Decisions made today will shape the future of mental healthcare for the foreseeable future. We argue that bioethicists are uniquely positioned to cut through the hype surroundingdigital (...) mental health, which can obscure crucial ethical and epistemic gaps that ought to be considered by policymakers before committing to adigital psychiatric future. Here, we describe four such gaps: The evidence gap, the inequality gap, the prediction-intervention gap, and the safety gap. (shrink)

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I aim to illustrate how the recommender systems ofdigital platforms create a particularly problematic kind of vulnerability in their users. Specifically, through theories of scaffolded cognition and scaffolded affectivity, I argue that adigital platform’s recommender system is a cognitive and affective artifact that fulfills different functions for the platform’s users and its designers. While it acts as a content provider and facilitator of cognitive, affective and decision-making processes for users, it also provides a continuous and detailed (...) amount of information to platform designers regarding users’ cognitive and affective processes. This dynamic, I argue, engenders a kind of vulnerability in platform users, structuring a power imbalance between designers and users. This occurs because the recommender system can not only gather data on users’ cognitive and affective processes, but also affects them in an unprecedentedly economic and capillary manner. By examining one instance of ethically problematic practice from Facebook, I specifically argue that rather than being a tool for manipulating or exploiting people,digital platforms, especially by their underlying recommender systems, can single out and tamper with specific cognitive and affective processes as a tool specifically designed for mind invasion. I conclude by reflecting how the understanding of such AI systems as tools for mind invasion highlights some merits and shortcomings of the AI Act with regards to the protection of vulnerable people. (shrink)

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In this paper, I will critically consider Clark and Chalmers’ hypothesis of the «extended mind» in order to sketch a possible phenomenological account of active externalism, by following three steps: I will consider Clark and Chalmers’ hypothesis within the broader context of the so-called «physical symbol system hypothesis» theorized by Herbert A. Simon; I will connect the problem of the «extended mind» to that of the «extended self», with particular regard to the context of digitalization; I will take into account (...) an explanatory dimension that has been fundamentally underrated by externalist theories: the dimension of the human body and its relationship to mind, which I understand from a phenomenological perspective. My ultimate goal is to show how phenomenology could provide the missing theoretical framework to develop a more complex and comprehensive theory of the extended self. (shrink)

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This book argues that relational cognition, a form of social cognition, exhibitsdigital infinity as does language. Copies of elementary models are combined and recursively nested to form a potentially infinite number of complex models. Just as one posits proof-theoretic grammars in order to account for thedigital infinity of language, one also should posit proof-theoretic grammars to account for thedigital infinity of relational cognition. Objections to a proof-theoretic approach, often equally applicable both to language and (...) to relational cognition, are considered and criticized. Such objections either posit overly complex alternatives or overlook the role of idealization in science. (shrink)

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In this presentation we shall discuss the nature of mind vis-a-vis the brain and computers. Such a comparison presumes a general equivalence of brains and computers and models the brain as a huge biological computer, with consciousness added. The uniqueness of Mind in the lines of ancient Indian thought has been accpted as the basic concept in the analysis. Regarding the chief difference between mind and brain, material of the mind is taken to be subtle matter.The brain is made of (...) gross matter and is a part of the physical body. Considering the brain and the computer, the brain is a biological structure made of organic molecules, whereas computer chips are inorganic objects manufactured by etching circuits on the surface of silica chips. Thus the human brain, occupying volume, is a volumetric entity whereas a computer, as electronic circuitry on a silica chip, is an areal entity. This explains the vast processing power andexceptional capabilities of the human brain. (shrink)

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The article deals with the problem of compatibility of the extended mind thesis with the concept of epistemic responsibility. This compatibility problem lies at the intersection of two current trends in Virtue Epistemology (VE): the study of extended cognition, and the return of VE to the topic of epistemic responsibility. I give objections to two seemingly independent positions; their acceptance makes it difficult or even impossible to make the concept of epistemic responsibility applicable to the agents ofdigital society (...) whose cognition is extended. The core of both positions can be illustrated by the following thesis: “Since the subject cannot voluntarily change his/her beliefs, we cannot ascribe to him/her either epistemic responsibility or intellectual virtues that allow him/her to take responsibility”. The counter-arguments to this thesis are based on the distinction between the causal (responsibility-in) and normative (responsibility-for) components of responsibility. The absence of the former allows us to characterize the subject as not responsible, the absence of the latter as irresponsible. I propose two conceptual foundations that can make possible the consistent talk about the epistemic responsibility of an extended subject. 1) The subject may not be responsible for the beliefs taken from the epistemic environment, but the subject bears significant responsibility for what environment he finds himself in. 2) Being epistemically responsible means deliberately reducing the number of possible causal excuses – excuses based on agent’s unresponsibiity due to his causal dependence on his epistemic environment (‘cognitive extensions’). (shrink)

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As ever more advanceddigital systems are created, it becomes increasingly likely that some of these systems will bedigitalminds, i.e.digital subjects of experience. Withdigitalminds comes the risk ofdigital suffering. The problem ofdigital suffering is that of mitigating this risk. We argue that the problem ofdigital suffering is a high stakes moral problem and that formidable epistemic obstacles stand in the way of solving it. (...) We then propose a strategy for solving it: Access Monitor Prevent (AMP). AMP uses a ‘dancing qualia’ argument to link the functional states of certaindigital systems to their experiences—this yields epistemic access todigitalminds. With that access, we can preventdigital suffering by only creating advanceddigital systems that we have such access to, monitoring their functional profiles, and preventing them from entering states with functional markers of suffering. After introducing and motivating AMP, we confront limitations it faces and identify some options for overcoming them. We argue that AMP fits especially well with—and so provides a moral reason to prioritize—one approach to creating such systems: whole brain emulation. We also contend that taking other paths todigitalminds would be morally risky. (shrink)

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Thedigital transfer of the mind to a computer system requires representing the mind as a finite sequence of bits. The classic “stored-program computer” paradigm, in turn, implies the equivalence between program and data, so that the sequence of bits themselves can be interpreted as a program, which will be algorithmically executed in the receiving device. Now, according to a previous proof, on which this paper is based, a computational or algorithmic machine, however complex, cannot be free. Consequently, a (...) finite sequence of bits cannot adequately represent a free mind and, therefore, a free mind cannot be digitally transferred, quod erat demonstrandum. The impossibility of making this transfer, as demonstrated here, should be a concern especially for those who wish to achieve it. Since we intend this to be a rigorous demonstration, we must give precise definitions and conditions of validity. The most important part of the paper is devoted to explaining the meaning and reasonableness of these definitions and conditions. Special attention is paid, also, to the philosophical implications of the demonstration. Finally, this thesis is distinguished from other closely related issues. (shrink)

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From email to smart phones, and from social media to Google searches,digital technologies have transformed the way we learn, entertain ourselves, socialize, and work. Despite their usefulness, these technologies have often led to information overload, stress, and distraction. David M. Levy, who has lived his life between the "fast world" of high tech and the "slow world" of contemplation, offers a welcome guide to being more relaxed, attentive, and emotionally balanced while online. In a series of exercises carefully (...) designed to help readers observe and reflect on their own use, Levy has readers observe themselves while emailing and while multitasking, and also to experiment with unplugging for a specified period. (shrink)

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This is a review of Susan Greenfield's 2015 book 'Mind Change: HowDigital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark On Our Brains'. Greenfield is a neuroscientist and a member of the UK House of Lords, who argues thatdigital technologies are changing the human environment "in an unprecedented way," and that by adapting to this environment, "the brain may also be changing in an unprecedented way." The book and its author have created a surprising amount of controversy. I discuss (...) both Greenfield's book and a prominent critique by Bell et al. (2015). The exchange points to some flaws in Greenfield's argument and represents an interesting debate about the public role of scientists, but it does not undermine the value of the book as a springboard for discussions about possible policies and future research. (shrink)

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Galit Wellner’s exploration of new kinds ofdigital technologies employing AI algorithms that simulate features and functions of the human imagination leads her to propose a conceptual analysis of the imagination as a composite of perception and memory. Wellner poses the question of whether the output of such technological applications might be regarded as not merely simulating creative activity but as truly imaginative in their own right. Wellner concludes with a qualified “no.” The use of AI algorithms in conjunction (...) with human cognitive activity, conceived in terms of a layered architecture of the faculties in question, can in fact be understood as an essential component of imaginative, and thus creative, production, but humans are still needed in the mix. To the extent that the AI-algorithm-enhanced human system is capable of imagining and creating works of art, imagination can be extended to AI algorithms. But, the algorithms sans humans are not themselves imaginers. For Wellner, AI algorithms can augment and enhance human imaginative efforts, equipping us with a richer and vastly wider array of possibilities and options for aesthetic consideration, but ultimately, the human is the essential element. However, once the door is opened to accepting algorithmically determined alternatives as capable of successfully achieving desired results within a field of possible outcomes, it seems possible that the activities of connecting, coordinating, or meaningfully linking, combining, and establishing new imaginative layers that Wellner reserves as requiring humans to enact might also be programmable, algorithmically achievable tasks that instantiate genuine aesthetic decision making. (shrink)

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The article examines the impact of digitalization on human life and intellectual experience. The development of computer technology demands an understanding of new aspects of human development and requires a capability to overcome not only external conditions but also ourselves. Entering a new level of development cannot imply a complete rejection of previous dispositions, but should be accompanied by reflection on personal experience and by the quest for new forms of interaction in society and with nature. Communicative and cognitive activity (...) of a person has an ontological basis and relies on processes that actually evolve in nature. Therefore, the creation of new objects is always associated with the properties of natural material and gives rise to new points of support in the development of man. The more audacious his projects, the more important it is to preserve this connection to nature. It is always the human being who turns out to be the initiator who knows how to solve problems. The conformity of complex technical systems to nature is not only a goal but also a value of meaningful construction of development perspectives. The key to the nature orientation of the moderndigital world is the human being himself, who keeps all the secrets of the culture of his natural development. Therefore, the proposed by the Russian philosopher V.S. Stepin post-non-classical approach, based on the principle of “human-sizedness,” is an important contribution to contemporary research because it draws attention to the “human – machine” communication, to the relationship between a person and technological systems he created. The article concludes that duringdigital transformation, a cultural conflict arises: in an effort to solve the problems of the future, a person equips his life with devices that are designed to support him, to expand his functionality, but at the same time, the boundaries of humanity become dissolved and the forms of human activity undergo simplification. Transhumanism engages society in the fight against fears of vulnerability and memory loss and ignores the flexibility and sustainability of natural foundation. (shrink)

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Intellectual property is one of the highly divisive issues in contemporary philosophical and political debates. The main objective of this paper is to explore some sources of tension between the formal rules of intellectual property (particularly copyright and patents) and the emerging informal norms of file sharing and open access in online environments. We look into the file sharing phenomena not only to illustrate the deepening gap between the two sets of norms, but to cast some doubt on the current (...) regime of intellectual property as an adequate frame for the new type of interactions in online environments. Revisiting the classic Arrow–Demsetz debate about intellectual property and the epistemological issues involved in assessing institutions, we suggest that seeking out new institutional arrangements aligned with the norms-in-use seems to be a more promising strategy in the new technological setting than attempting to reinforce the current legal framework. Moreover, such a strategy is less prone to committing the so-called ‘Nirvana fallacies’. As a secondary task, we try to cast some doubt on the two most common moral justifications of intellectual property as being able to ground the full extent of the current intellectual property regime. (shrink)

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Thedigital era in which we live has led to countless online social movements, all driven by emotions. This paper builds on fieldwork that stretched over 2 years, starting March 2020 as Norway went into lockdown due to COVID‐19. Emotions as experienced online seem to differ from those that are materially embodied or physically present among the studies' 25 young adults. Through two young women, this paper explores reflections on slow writing, holding a letter in their hands, in juxtaposition (...) to fast scrolling on their phones, receiving and sending messages and pictures. In the meetings between their hands and paper, their hands, and their phone screens, they sense time and experience emotions through touch and imaginaries. Amelia and Embla connect mind, body, and senses, as they share their understanding of touching what others have made by hand, imagining the thought behind the embodied materiality. (shrink)

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From a 4E cognition framework, this article compares earlier cultural and technologically mediated expert practices with contemporary use ofdigital technology. I discuss two case studies. First, the art of memory, where I look at how medieval monks constructed memory palaces inside theirminds to enable creative thinking and how Renaissance thinker Giulio Camillo built on this tradition to create a complex machine to think. The second example is of literary writing, where I look at how writers engage (...) with the materiality of language and the writing material, creating new cognitive opportunities. Finally, I compare these earlier practices with contemporarydigital technology, discussing both continuous and novel aspects. First, I examine how all practices engineer the cognitive surroundings of its practitioners to enable new cognitive possibilities. However, this comparative work also allows me to spot a worrisome novelty indigital technology. In many cases, the goals of such technology are contrary to those of its users. Drawing on discussions both outside and inside the 4E framework, I argue thatdigital technology introduces economic agency into ourminds. I suggest that when we extend ourminds in thedigital ecology, we allow powerful economic actors to shape the direction of our cognitive lives in ways that are contrary to our own goals. Finally, I argue, building on the case studies, that my discussion might point to a new and more pragmatic approach to these issues. (shrink)

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Empathy is an integral aspect of human existence. Without at least a basic ability to access others’ affective life, social interactions would be well-nigh impossible. Yet, recent studies seem to show that the means we have acquired to access others’ emotional life no longer function well in what has become our everyday business – technologically mediated interactions indigital spaces. If this is correct, there are two important questions: (1) What makes empathy for frequent internet users so difficult? and (...) (2) What can we do to alleviate the negative consequences? Correspondingly, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, we identify structural differences between offline and technologically mediated interactions that can explain whydigital empathy is harder to achieve. Second, drawing on the literature on ‘situated affectivity,’ we consider the idea of modifyingdigital spaces in ways specifically designed to ‘scaffold’ empathy where our evolved mechanisms fail. Section 2 argues that empathy is requires _interpreting_ the behavior of _embodied subjects_. Section 3 identifies three factors that are crucial for this interpretative endeavor: the empathizer’s _affective repertoire_, their _perceptual input_, and their _background knowledge_. Section 4 argues that technologically mediated interactions differ from face-to-face interactions with regard to these factors in ways which render our evolved empathy mechanisms less effective in thedigital world. Section 5 introduces the idea that situational factors can serve as ‘empathic scaffolds,’ i.e., as ‘tools’ that can ‘shape’ people’s empathic reactions. Section 6 wraps up the main line of reasoning, responds to objections and invites further scholarship. (shrink)

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Ourdigital technologies have inspired new ways of thinking about old religious topics. Digitalists include computer scientists, transhumanists, singularitarians, and futurists. Digitalists have worked out novel and entirely naturalistic ways of thinking about bodies,minds, souls, universes, gods, and life after death. YourDigital Afterlives starts with three digitalist theories of life after death. It examines personality capture, body uploading, and promotion to higher levels of simulation. It then examines the idea that reality itself is ultimately a (...) system of self-surpassing computations. On that view, you will have infinitely manydigital lives across infinitely manydigital worlds. YourDigital Afterlives looks at superhuman bodies and infinite bodies. Thinking of nature in purely computational terms has the potential to radically and positively change our understanding of life after death. (shrink)

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The combination of spirituality, meditation, and artificial intelligence (AI) has promising potential to expand people’s well-being using technology-based meditation. Proper meditation originates from Zen Buddhism and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and focuses on inner peace and intensified consciousness which elective personal disposition. AI, in turn, brings master means of delivering those practices in the form of self-improving systems that customize and make access to them easier. However, such an integration brings major philosophical and ethical issues into question, including the genuineness of (...) experiences that are facilitated by artificial intelligence, data sharing, concerns over over-dependence on the technology that may in turn cause reduced personal responsibility and hard work. This paper aims at analysing the critical integration of AI-driven meditation following the spiritual interpretations of traditional meditation without compromising the tenets of meditation. It presents an interdisciplinary approach based on recent findings from the field of cognitive science, moral AI, and Eastern wisdom traditions to approach these problems. Therefore, by identifying the research lacunae, it provides a groundwork for voting ethically in the integration of AI in mindfulness practice and avoiding constraining human-oriented values resulting in improved existential spiritual change. (shrink)

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Digital health includes applications for smartphones and smart speakers as well as more traditional ways to access health information electronically, such as through your health care provider's online web‐based patient portal. As the number ofdigital health offerings—such as smartphone health trackers and web‐based patient portals—grows, what benefit do ethics, or bioethics, perspectives bring todigital health product development? For starters, the field of bioethics is concerned about issues of social justice, including equitable benefit and minimization and (...) fair distribution of the burden of harms. Researchers who employ user‐centered design methods should consider whatdigital health applications and products would look like if issues like equity and accessibility were foregrounded throughout design and development. One group whose needs are often neglected in the design ofdigital health products is older adults. Many people anticipate that thedigital divide among older adults will close as the current generation of tech‐savvy consumers ages up. But since technology is constantly evolving, this divide may be constantly recreated. As bioethics moves ever further into the technology era, I want it to be mindful of the creation ofdigital health care disparities. (shrink)

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Mind and Body in Early China critiques Orientalist accounts of early China as a radical "holistic" other, which saw no qualitative difference between mind and body. Drawing on knowledge and techniques from the sciences anddigital humanities, Edward Slingerland demonstrates that seeing a difference between mind and body is a psychological universal, and that human sociality would be fundamentally impossible without it. This book has implications for anyone interested in comparative religion, early China, cultural studies,digital humanities, or (...) science-humanities integration. (shrink)

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Representation is central to contemporary theorizing about the mind/brain. But the nature of representation--both in the mind/brain and more generally--is a source of ongoing controversy. One way of categorizing representational types is to distinguish between the analog and thedigital: the received view is that analog representations vary smoothly, whiledigital representations vary in a step-wise manner. I argue that this characterization is inadequate to account for the ways in which representation is used in cognitive science; in its (...) place, I suggest an alternative taxonomy. I will defend and extend David Lewis's account of analog anddigital representation, distinguishing analog from continuous representation, as well asdigital from discrete representation. I will argue that the distinctions available in this four-fold account accord with representational features of theoretical interest in cognitive science more usefully than the received analog/digital dichotomy. (shrink)

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This paper argues that the ubiquitousdigital networks in which we are increasingly becoming immersed present a threat to our ability to exercise free will. Using process philosophy, and expanding upon understandings of causal autonomy, the paper outlines a thematic analysis of diary studies and interviews gathered in a project exploring the nature ofdigital experience. It concludes that without mindfulness in both the use and design ofdigital devices and services we run the risk of allowing (...) such services to direct our daily lives in ways over which we are increasingly losing control. (shrink)

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Se intenta en este trabajo identificar y describir de algún modo, en caso de que exista, la contraculturadigital de nuestro tiempo. Con tal propósito en mente, en primer lugar, el autor esboza sus presuposiciones con respecto la cultura, la tecnologíadigital, la culturadigital y la contracultura, bajo las ópticas que imponen la naturaleza de este artículo.Digital Culture and Counter-Culture: an Essay It is attempted in this work to identify and to describe somehow, in (...) case it exists, thedigital counterculture of our time. With such a purpose in mind, first of all, the author sketches his presuppositions regarding culture,digital technology,digital culture and counterculture, under the optics that imposes the nature of this article. (shrink)

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This report aims to offer insights into cutting-edge research ondigital well-being. Many of these insights come from a 2-day academic-impact event, The Future ofDigital Well-Being, hosted by a team of researchers working with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in February 2024. Today, achieving and maintaining well-being in the face of online technologies is a multifaceted challenge that we believe requires using theoretical resources of different research disciplines. This report explores diverse perspectives on (...) howdigital well-being can be actively cultivated, while also emphasising the importance of considering individual differences, societal contexts, and nuanced cultural factors. We aim to offer a holistic view of the future ofdigital well-being, one that will inspire the next generation of designers of online tools, as well as policymakers who will regulate these tools. We start by asking whatdigital well-being is – how we can best define a concept that is used by diverse stakeholders and researchers from many disciplines in various ways. To do this, we explore the classic ethical theories of well-being, showing how they can give us insights into how the termdigital well-being is currently deployed. We then move to look at the existing strategies that have been proposed to actively cultivatedigital well-being, exploring the business models that threatendigital well-being and the relative advantages of thedigital and non-digital solutions that are currently proposed. On the one hand,digital tools – such as Apple’s Screen Time and app blockers such as Opal and Forest – integrate seamlessly with thedigital lifestyles of users. They also create precise metrics fordigital well-being, which facilitates their solutions to reduce screen time. On the other hand, non-digital solutions, including mindfulness practices,digital detoxes, anddigital well-being coaching, offer a new set of tools to reconnect individuals to their natural rhythms and help to actively promote offline activities. We then move to discuss diversity and how various groups of users have strikingly differentdigital well-being needs. Embracing neurodiversity indigital well-being is crucial as it strongly impacts the users’ experience of online technologies. When designing for diversity, organisations and designers alike need to prioritise customization for people with physical disabilities, mitigate harmful content for users with mental well-being conditions, address gender stereotypes and online harassment, and be designed in ways that recognize the very real risks of online technologies. This report closes by examining cultural differences. We believe that non-Western conceptions of well-being offer rich sources for enhancingdigital well-being insofar as these traditions can inform and inspire the designers of future online technologies. We focus on East-Asian and South-Asian traditions, although in further work we recognise it would be useful to investigate conceptions of well-being that are influential in the Gulf region, Africa, and South America. Each of these areas have ethical frameworks that discuss well-being in depth as well as a rich cultural heritage. In conclusion, this report’s insights underscore the imperative of recognizing diversity indigital well-being, both in terms of cultural contexts and disciplinary perspectives. It emphasises the need for culturally responsive design methodologies and the integration of non-Western philosophical perspectives into currentdigital well-being research. Embracing this diversity, we believe, offers the best chance to createdigital environments that prioritise well-being for users and the societies they live in across the world. Ultimately, we believe that it is not only about designing better online products; it’s about shaping adigital landscape that promotes well-being and flourishing for everyone. (shrink)

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The idea that the technologies one uses and the work experiences one has influence cognition is old, but somewhat vague, focused on how technology induced generalisable habits of mind. Technology creates a familiar world, which changes in large and small shocks, rather than in rational steps. This kind of change, at the tacit level, has characteristics of liminality. Cognitive science provides a vocabulary for discussing this problem that connects with several different strands of social theory, and points to various ways (...) of conceptualising the effects of digitalisation. If we focus on the tacitisation of skilled performance, we can see how the familiar is created and recreated, and identify processes by which this occurs, specifically pattern recognition in a liminal or liminoid state. In the past, and in the classic anthropology of the liminal, the familiar consisted of a world of common or shared objects, and the liminal states involved sacred ones. In thedigital world, the choice of experience is voluntary, and the worlds are diverse, but the effects of object-induced involuntary pattern recognition are the same: they organise and reorganise cognition at a tacit, non-discursive, level. (shrink)

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I argue that sometimes a group can author a work of art without the work being either co-authored or multiply-authored. Sometimes the group, itself, is an author, rather than any of its members alone or together. I argue that when a group is an author like this, it has mental properties that no individual member of the group possesses. For example, we can consider the groups that authoreddigital remixes based on a film titled #INTRODUCTIONS created by the artists (...) LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner. YouTubers posted theirdigital remixes online, and the question is: Who authored those remixes? I contend that manydigital remixes are authored by groups that are capable of cognition. (shrink)

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Love taking pictures with yourdigital camera? Want to improve your skills, but don’t have a lot of time to spend? How about some straight-to-the-point tips that cut to the chase and show you step by step how to accomplish a task? If that sounds like just what you had in mind,Digital Photography Just The Steps For Dummies, 2nd Edition is exactly what you need. This handy, full-color guide breaks down the most important tasks into simple two-page, (...) illustrated instructions. You choose what you want to do, flip to the right page, follow the instructions, and voilà! A new skill is yours!Digital Photography Just The Steps For Dummies, 2nd Edition covers important tasks from choosing a camera to printing your photos or turning them into slideshows or galleries. You’ll be able to: Select and use various lenses Take advantage of your meters Use tripods, screens, and scrims when shooting Work with depth of field Shoot and process Camera Raw images Download and organize your pictures Understand and use color profiles Edit in the “quick fix” mode Restore a vintage photo Create an online photo gallery, greeting cards, calendars, or CD jackets More than 170digital photography tasks are presented in this easy-to-use, full-color reference. Grab a copy and find out how much more fun you can have with yourdigital camera! (shrink)

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Digitalists base their thoughts about reality on concepts taken from the sciences of information and computation. For digitalists, these sciences are prior to the physical sciences. Digitalists emphatically reject substance metaphysics. They are neither materialists nor idealists nor dualists. They have their own novel definitions of bodies,minds, lives, and souls. They talk aboutdigital universes running ondigital gods, and they regard nature as a recursively self-improving system of computations. They endorse digitized theories of resurrection and (...) reincarnation. But they also argue for deeper and more mathematical approaches to life after death. All thesedigital ideas are naturalistic. They are consistent with our best sciences. (shrink)

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This paper endeavors to appraise scholarly works from the 1940s to the contemporary era, examining the scientific quest to transpose human cognition and consciousness into adigital surrogate, while contemplating the potential ramifications should humanity attain such an abstract level of intellect. The discourse commences with an explication of theories concerning consciousness, progressing to the Turing Test apparatus, and intersecting with Damasio’s research on the human cerebrum, particularly in relation to consciousness, thereby establishing congruence between the Turing Test and (...) Damasio’s notions of consciousness. Subsequently, the narrative traverses the evolutionary chronology of transmuting human cognition into machine sapience, and delves into the fervent endeavors to metamorphose humanminds into synthetic counterparts. Additionally, theoretical perspectives from the domains of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience provide insight into the constraints intrinsic to AI implementations, contentious hypotheses, the perils concealed within artificial networks, and the ethical considerations necessitated by AI frameworks. Furthermore, contemplation of prospective repercussions facilitates the refinement of strategic approaches to safeguard our future Augmented Age Realities within AI, circumventing the prospect of inhabiting an intimidating technopolis where a mere 30% monopolize the intellect and ingenuity of the remaining 70% of humanminds. (shrink)

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Smartphone use plays an increasingly important role in our daily lives. Philosophical research that has used first wave or second wave theories of extended cognition in order to understand our engagement withdigital technologies has focused on the contribution of these technologies to the completion of specific cognitive tasks (e.g., remembering, reasoning, problem-solving, navigation).However, in a considerable number of cases, everyday smartphone use is task-unrelated. In psychological research, these cases have been captured by notions such as absent-minded smart-phone use (...) (Marty-Dugas et al., 2018) or smartphone-related inattentiveness (Liebherr et al., 2020).Given the prevalence of these cases, we develop a conceptual framework that can accommodate the functional and phenomenological characteristics of task-unrelated smartphone use. To this end, we will integrate research on second wave extended cognition with mind-wandering research and introduce the concept of ‘extended mind-wandering’. Elaborating the family resemblances approach to mind-wandering (Seli, Kane, Smallwood, et al., 2018), we will argue that task-unrelated smartphone use shares many characteristics with mind-wandering. We will suggest that an empirically informed conceptual analysis of cases of extended mind-wandering can enrich current work on digitally extended cognition by specifying the influence of the attention economy on our cognitive dynamics. (shrink)

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The ‘Mind-Upload’ hypothesis, a radical version of the Brain-in-a-Vat thought experiment, asserts that a whole mind can safely be transferred from a brain to adigital device, after being exactly encoded into substrate independent informational patterns. Prima facie, MU seems the philosophical archenemy of the Embodied Mind theory, which understands embodiment as a necessary and constitutive condition for the existence of a mind and its functions. In truth, whether and why MU and EM are ultimately incompatible is unobvious. This (...) paper, which aims to answer both questions, will not simply confirm that MU and EM actually are incompatible. It will also show the true reason of their incompatibility: while EM implies that a mind’s individual identity is contingent upon the details of its physical constituents, MU presupposes thatminds can be relocated from one material vessel to another. A systematic comparison between these conflicting assumptions reveals that the real shortcoming of MU is not the one usually discussed by the philosophical literature: it has nothing to do with MU’s functionalist or computationalist prerequisites, and is only secondarily related to the artificial implementability of consciousness; the real problem is that MU presupposes thatminds could still be individuated and numerically identified while being reduced to immaterial formal patterns. EM seems committed to refute this assumption, but does it have sufficient resources to succeed? (shrink)

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Adolf Reinach’s theory of social acts and Czesław Znamierowski theory of the environment can show a new perspective of analysis in the fields of computer science anddigital communication. This paper will begin analysing the performance of social acts in two categories ofdigital environments: (i) fictionaldigital environment and (ii) realdigital environment. The analysis will be supported by examples from the history of computer science. In both kinds ofdigital environments, organigrams play a (...) significant role and depend on the users’digital power to perform a real or fictional social act. Finally, the paper will analyse one of the possible roles that AI plays in performing social acts indigital environments. It will show how AI could affect the perception of social acts. (shrink)

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Up to now, there is a big debate, about what self-consciousness is, what inhibits it, and how this is related to work. By referring to classical theories of mind by Hegel this paper advances the thesis of an apparent congruence of self-consciousness and work as a developmental process in social relationships. This paper aims to open up a wider philosophical horizon for the criticism of current digitalization and the increasing variety of new flexible forms of work design. For example, the (...) working conditions on largedigital platforms for taxi drivers tend to inhibit the development of worker`s self-consciousness for two reasons: Firstly, workers ondigital platforms are not able to further developdigital tools through their work and this inhibits their intellectual creativity and secondly, the developmental process of the self-consciousness remains restricted because of the asymmetrical recognition, which only obtains by virtue of a process of recognizing and being recognized by others. Creative work and recognition are important for the development of consciousness as self-reflection indigital business, in which organizations operate and people work. (shrink)

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In this paper, I argue for three claims. The first is that the difference between analog anddigital representation lies in the format and not the medium of representation. The second is that whether a given system is analog ordigital will sometimes depend on facts about the user of that system. The third is that the first two claims are implicit in Haugeland's (1998) account of the distinction.

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Introduction : schizoanalysis,digital screens and new brain circuits -- Schizoidminds, delirium cinema and powers of machines of the invisible -- Illusionary perception and powers of the false -- Surveillance screens and powers of affect -- Signs of time : meta/physics of the brain-screen -- Degrees of belief : epistemology of probabilities -- Powers of creation : aesthetics of material-force -- The open archive : cinema as world-memory -- Divine in(ter)vention : micropolitics and resistance -- Logistics of (...) perception 2.0 : multiple screens as affective weapons -- Conclusion : the neuro-image : brain-screens from the future. (shrink)

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How a human observer perceives duration depends on the amount of events taking place during the timed interval, but also on psychological dimensions, such as emotional-wellbeing, mindfulness, impulsivity, and rumination. Here we aimed at exploring these influences on duration estimation and passage of time judgments. One hundred and seventeen healthy individuals filled out mindfulness (FFMQ), impulsivity (BIS-11), rumination (RRS), and depression (BDI-sf) questionnaires. Participants also conducted verbal estimation and production tasks in the multiple seconds range. During these timing tasks, subjects (...) were asked to read digits aloud that were presented on a computer screen. Each condition of the timing tasks differed in terms of the interval between the presentation of the digits, i.e., either short (4-s) or long (16-s). Our findings suggest that long empty intervals (16-s) are associated with a relative underestimation of duration, and to a feeling that the time passes slowly, a seemingly paradoxical result. Also, regarding more mindful individuals, such a dissociation between duration estimation and passage of time judgments was found, but only when empty intervals were short (4-s). Relatively speaking, more mindful subjects showed an increased overestimation of durations, but felt that time passed more quickly. These results provide further evidence for the dissociation between duration estimation and the feeling of the passage of time. We discuss these results in terms of an alerting effect when empty intervals are short and events are more numerous, which could mediate the effect of dispositional mindfulness. (shrink)

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Elementos para uma psicopedagogia da culturadigital 1 Resumo: a culturadigital é um paradigma emergente que coloca questões a serem tratadas pelas mais diversas áreas do conhecimento. A educação é uma das áreas mais questionadas, exigindo-se dela uma constante renovação para acompanhar as mudanças que o mundodigital provoca no processo de aprendizagem. A psicopedagogia da culturadigital é uma proposta epistemológica de reflexão sobre o processo de aprendizagem permeado por desafios informacionais e comunicacionais. Nesta (...) pesquisa, fazendo análise de bibliografia no campo da psicopedagogia, mas também da teoria da comunicação e da filosofia da mente, propomos um quadro teórico que visa fundamentar tais exigências epistemológicas em educação. Apresentamos, por fim, alguns elementos teóricos, advindos das demandas da culturadigital, que permitem-nos pensar um outro paradigma psicopedagógico e outra abordagem da aprendizagem. Palavras-chave: Educação. CulturaDigital. Psicopedagogia. Epistemologia. Fundamentos da Educação. Elements towards a Psychopedagogy ofDigital Culture Abstract:digital culture is an emerging paradigm that poses questions to be addressed by the most diverse areas of knowledge. Education is one of the most questioned areas, requiring a constant renewal to accompany the changes that thedigital world causes in the learning process. The psychopedagogy ofdigital culture is an epistemological proposal of reflection on the learning process permeated by informational and communicational challenges. In this paper, making bibliographic analysis in the field of psychopedagogy, but also in the theory of communication and the philosophy of mind, we propose a theoretical framework that aims to base such epistemological demands on education. Finally, we present some theoretical elements, coming from the demands ofdigital culture, which allow us to think of another paradigm psychopedagogic and another approach to learning. Keywords: Education.Digital Culture. Psychopedagogy. Epistemology. Foundations of Education. Elementos hacia una Psicopedagogía de la CulturaDigital Resumen: La culturadigital es un paradigma emergente que pone cuestiones a ser tratadas por distintas áreas del conocimiento. La educación es una de las más cuestionadas, exigiéndose de ella una renovación continua a fin de acompañar los cambios que el mundodigital provoca en el proceso de aprendizaje. La psicopedagogía de la culturadigital es una propuesta epistemológica de reflexión sobre el mismo proceso de aprendizaje, traspasado por retos informacionales y comunicacionales. En esta recerca, haciendo uso de análisis bibliográfica en el campo de la psicopedagogía, así come de la teoría de la comunicación y de la filosofía de la mente, proponemos un cuadro teórico que intenta fundamentar tales exigencias epistemológicas en educación. Presentamos, al fin, algunos elementos teóricos, desde las demandas de la culturadigital, que nos permiten pensar otro paradigma psicopedagógico y otro abordaje del aprendizaje. Palabras clave: Educación. Culturadigital. Psicopedagogía. Epistemología. Fundamentos de la educación. Data de registro: 23/01/2021 Data de aceite: 22/09/2021 1 Pesquisa desenvolvida com financiamento CAPES. (shrink)

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There is much discussion about whether the human mind is a computer, whether the human brain could be emulated on a computer, and whether at all physical entities are computers (pancomputationalism). These discussions, and others, require criteria for what isdigital. I propose that a state isdigital if and only if it is a token of a type that serves a particular function - typically a representational function for the system. This proposal is made on a syntactic (...) level, assuming three levels of description (physical, syntactic, semantic). It suggests that beingdigital is a matter of discovery or rather a matter of how we wish to describe the world, if a functional description can be assumed. Given the criterion provided and the necessary empirical research, we should be in a position to decide on a given system (e.g. the human brain) whether it is adigital system and can thus be reproduced in a differentdigital system (sincedigital systems allow multiple realization). (shrink)

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The concept of adigital twin comes from engineering.1 It refers to adigital model of an artefact in the real world, which takes data about the artefact itself, data about other such artefacts, among other things, as inputs. The idea is that the maintenance of artefacts—such as jet engines—can be vastly improved if we work withdigital twins that simulate actual objects. Similarly, personalised medicine might benefit from thedigital modelling of body parts or even (...) whole human bodies. A medicaldigital twin could use data about the patient, more general population data, and other inputs to generate predictions about the patient. This could lead to highly personalised interventions and nuanced judgments about the patient’s health. Matthias Braun2 discusses this intriguing prospect, asking how we should think about the way(s) in which adigital twin could represent a patient. I will respond to Braun’s striking suggestion that we can regard adigital twin as an extension of the patient’s body. Notably, Braun does not compare his just-mentioned idea with the extended mind thesis popularised by Andy Clark and David Chalmers.3 But I am sure many readers will be reminded of the extended mind thesis. Accordingly, I will consider this comparison. I cannot discuss this comparison in detail, nor fully evaluate Braun’s suggestion. But I can say something about how we might approach this comparison, and provide some …. (shrink)

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Manydigital technologies, designed and controlled by intensive data-driven corporate platforms, have become ubiquitous for many of our daily activities. This has raised political and ethical concerns over how they might be threatening our personal autonomy. However, not much philosophical attention has been paid to the specific role that their hyper-designed (sensorimotor) interfaces play in this regard. In this paper, we aim to offer a novel framework that can ground personal autonomy on sensorimotor interaction and, from there, directly address (...) how technological design affects personal autonomy. To do this, we will draw from enactive sensorimotor approaches to cognition, focusing on the central notion of habits, understood as sensorimotor schemes that, in networked relations, give rise to sensorimotor agency. Starting from sensorimotor agency as a basis for more complex forms of personal autonomy, our approach gives us grounds to analyse our relationship with technology (in general) and to distinguish between autonomy-enhancing and autonomy-diminishing technologies. We argue that, by favouring/obstructing the enactment of certain (networks of) habits over others, technologies can directly act upon our personal autonomy, locally and globally. With this in mind, we then discuss how currentdigital technologies are often being designed to be autonomy-diminishing (as is the case of “dark patterns” in design), and sketch some ideas on how to build more autonomy-enhancingdigital technologies. (shrink)

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