Manuel, Cho, Sam

I’m not sure these count as prosthetics or enhancement, but we all use devices to improve ourselves

I use GPS, map, and navigation software to plan my route, but I could do it on my own

But for people with cognitive impairments devices like that become essential for day to day activities

I see what you mean: one person’s enhancement is another person’s cure, so to say

The same happens in medicine, where sensors and smart devices are use to speed recovery, say, in physiotherapy

but also to help athletes reach peak performance. Restoring and enhancing are on the same slippery slope

Can we compare cognitive tools to “prosthetics for the mind”?

That sounds a bit weird, but maybe? I mean, pencil and paper would qualify as cognitive tool …

If you put shoes in the same category as prosthetic legs, sure, but it stretches the usual meaning quite a bit

OK, maybe that goes too far, and indeed we all seem to use tools like that all the time. So we’re all enhanced?

Depends on what your baseline is. I’ve got a smartwatch, but my grandfather could tell the time and predict the weather just by looking at the sky

Indeed, replicating the same functionality but with different means, isn’t really enhancement

Right, so if we just keep doing the same things, but now with tools, it’s not really enhancement?

Think about this example: people used to have to memorize a lot of things, like phone numbers

Now we can just look them up. It is quicker, but not radically different

Right, we can make calls from the middle of nowhere, instead from a fixed phone, but that’s just improvements in infrastructure

I mean, we wouldn’t consider switching cars for horses an “enhancement” in the human body or functionality?

I guess not, but shouldn’t we then discuss overall progress too? Like at the level of humanity, aren’t we all enhanced in a sense?

That’s an interesting point … also from a medical point of view. Better hygiene, antibiotics, vaccines, give us incredible lifespans compared to cavemen

And better communication and transportation have allowed for very different types of societies. So out tools do make us better!

Better humans? Superior humans?

Ouch, that sounds wrong. Maybe better at being human?                 

Ok, fair enough, that sounds more like it

So as individuals and as humanity we have progressed through tool use and by further integration with our tools …

Manuel, Cho, Sam