To Humanity and Beyond
The case of the use of the abacus by Japanese school children and adults provides an illustration of how thoroughly the historical processes involved in the development of a tool’s use becomes incorporated into a culture-specific technology while simultaneously becoming a part of human nature ..
We Have Met Technology and It Is Us
Cole & Derry 2005
Manuel, Cho and Sam are talking about the following paper:
Enhancement, ethics and society: ..
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Group Chat
Manuel, Cho, Sam
Manuel
Let’s get down to earth again. Prosthetics generally replace a missing limb, but cognitive tools seem to do something different, right?
Cho
Limb or organ, but OK 😊
Sam
The categories do overlap though, you can definitely see some brain implants as cognitive tools
Manuel
OK, examples? 😉
Sam
Deep Brain stimulation to improve memory in Alzheimer patients
Cho
Indeed, and this also improves memory in non-impaired people, so can be considered an enhancement too
Manuel
Right, so cognitive tools aren’t just handheld devices, but can also be prosthetics or implants
Manuel
With all the tools and technologies we have nowadays, do we live in some kind of sci-fi future? 👾
Sam
Ha! 🤔 I’m sure some would see it as a dystopia! Everything controlled by computers we no longer understand …
Cho
That actually is a serious issue. Things have gotten incredibly complex and no single person understand everything anymore
Cho
Just think of surgery: most surgeries require a large team and a lot of infrastructure, not just a dude with a saw …
Sam
That’s right, same thing for computers. Remember the y2k panic? Year 2000 problem
Sam
People thought the millennium bug would cause the end of the world!
Sam
Both individual computers and especially computer networks have become hugely complex. Not just two guys in a garage…
Manuel
Ok, so a lot more specialization and collaboration.
Cho
Sam mentioned brain prosthetics earlier: it won’t be long before we have brain prosthetics with AI
Cho
I’m quite sure that this would be considered an enhancement by most, and scary by many.
Sam
Right, it might not be literally rocket science, but it does bring together two of the most complex and advanced fields
Manuel
Computers and the brain, neither of which we fully understand yet?
Sam
Well, we design the computers, but artificial neural networks are indeed hard to explain
Cho
Asking people to let an implant “do their thinking for them” requires a lot of trust
Manuel
Wow, this has been great, thank you both so much for your input! 😊
… Continue reading our conversations that are posted every Saturday …
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