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The Augmented Mind
«In simple terms the Augmented Mind is the mind, such as we know it (or think we know it) inside our heads, but externalized, shared, multiplied, accelerated, random accessed and generally processed connectively outside our heads».
An essay by Derrick de Kerckhove
«The functions that we all thought were exclusively internal to us, like memory, that is the active recalling of anything, and imagination, that is the creation of images inside our heads, are actually emigrating to screens outside our heads, there to serve new purposes».
An essay by Derrick de Kerckhove
«The functions that we all thought were exclusively internal to us, like memory, that is the active recalling of anything, and imagination, that is the creation of images inside our heads, are actually emigrating to screens outside our heads, there to serve new purposes».
27 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 12, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 17, 2011
Abituata alle analisi di connettivismo di S.Downes e G.Siemens trovo molto interessante questa che fa De Kerchove partendo dal linguaggio e dalle sue rappresentazioni nell'intreccio dei passaggi antropologici della nostra civiltà, soffermandosi in particolare su quella greca e dei significati, vecchi e nuovi, di 'mythos' e 'logos'.
L'autore, inoltre, pone l'accento sulla netta distinzione tra i termini "collettivo" e "connettivo" indicando quest'ultimo come capace di riappropriarsi del corpo come modalità di apprendimento non assimilabile ad una fase regressiva della conoscenza, ma una forma nuova, ibrida e fortemente soggettiva.
Da leggere per fugare paure assurde ed anacronistiche sull'uso delle nuove tecnologie e dei nuovi media.
L'autore, inoltre, pone l'accento sulla netta distinzione tra i termini "collettivo" e "connettivo" indicando quest'ultimo come capace di riappropriarsi del corpo come modalità di apprendimento non assimilabile ad una fase regressiva della conoscenza, ma una forma nuova, ibrida e fortemente soggettiva.
Da leggere per fugare paure assurde ed anacronistiche sull'uso delle nuove tecnologie e dei nuovi media.
April 12, 2011
This review originally appeared on my website: http://www.ecapris.com
What if I told you that the act of reading maintained our humanity? That, as our world becomes more fully digitized, our lives will morph and emulate into tags and clouds? According to de Kerckhove in his short e-book "The Augmented Mind," reading (especially silently to one's self) is what will keep humans from losing their lives to the virtual world.
Reading silently is what jumpstarted our humanity's real cognitive power, back in history when we (as a species) seemed to be crawling through our technological evolution.
"Silent reading marks the full appropriation of language by the human body. It introduces the consciousness of words inside the mind, voiced within only for the reader, and that only on command. Reading and writing bring forward language to the mind in a controlled way, allowing for the identity of the individual reader to affirm itself in a detached self-image, a homunculus that thinks."
Reading silently is the secret to strengthening the autonomy of the individual mind. It combats the augmented mind, which, while it is has many exciting attributes and innumerable networking capabilities, ostracizes humans by taking their individual minds and segmenting them through sharing.
The generation currently inhabiting the scientific (sociological, etc.) fields have noticed this trend developing quite rapidly already. However, this will become blindingly apparent once the "always-on" generation (the digital natives, those that were born after the Internet was in full-swing) grows up a bit more and starts infiltrating the creative and industrial fields.
The connecting elements of our forms of media create a vacillating, textured picture of any one concept. If a digital native is required to research Iceland for a school project, they will be able to experience, via the Internet, YouTube videos, podcasts, Wikipedia articles, blog posts by Icelandic authors or blog posts about Iceland, etc. etc. They will be able to take little pieces in various formats and put them together in their mind to form a living idea. According to de Kerckhove, reading (especially silently) is a way to create augmentation, but solely contained in your brain (as in, rather than using the Internet, you use your mind as a world wide web).
He also discusses the virtual worlds of SecondLife and The Sims and how they affect our currentsociety's perception of reality. Really, they are exercises in the "Objective Imaginary," those fanciful thoughts that can be translated onto a screen. This is yet another contributor to the augmented mind.
Along with Wikipedia and Innocentive. Innovation engines are taking what is our minds and are contextualizing them, tagging them, and sharing them.
"With these kinds of new tools we are literally hypertextualizing, as well as externalizing, our mental processes in a shared, connected cognition."
All of this tagging and segmenting of words is moving technology from cloud computing to "intelligent dust." Intelligent dust allows for the power of cloud computing to be paired with the strength of networking and sharing.
And while it is performing virtual miracles in the "digital fleshing-out" of our global mind, it presents an imperative to the individual: while this is happening, we need to remain aware and conscious of our own private identities. We need to continue reading and performing logos with our own minds.
"Though we can hardly resist its increasingly rapid and complex momentum, people can retain a modicum of individuality by learning to negotiate the interaction."
de Kerckhove certainly presents an idea that is at the cusp of our sociological cognition. It's something that many of us (especially those of us that are fully imbibed in the technological world) think about: how is this going to change the nature of our personal lives, our nations, our world? Everything is happening so fast! How can we hold on when the merry-go-round of technology is spinning at a nauseating speed?
Here's how: look down at the hands on the wheel and remember they're yours. Be aware of your own mind and propogate your individual thinking patterns. Maintain the individual while taking advantage of the wondrous new world that is emerging.
What if I told you that the act of reading maintained our humanity? That, as our world becomes more fully digitized, our lives will morph and emulate into tags and clouds? According to de Kerckhove in his short e-book "The Augmented Mind," reading (especially silently to one's self) is what will keep humans from losing their lives to the virtual world.
Reading silently is what jumpstarted our humanity's real cognitive power, back in history when we (as a species) seemed to be crawling through our technological evolution.
"Silent reading marks the full appropriation of language by the human body. It introduces the consciousness of words inside the mind, voiced within only for the reader, and that only on command. Reading and writing bring forward language to the mind in a controlled way, allowing for the identity of the individual reader to affirm itself in a detached self-image, a homunculus that thinks."
Reading silently is the secret to strengthening the autonomy of the individual mind. It combats the augmented mind, which, while it is has many exciting attributes and innumerable networking capabilities, ostracizes humans by taking their individual minds and segmenting them through sharing.
The generation currently inhabiting the scientific (sociological, etc.) fields have noticed this trend developing quite rapidly already. However, this will become blindingly apparent once the "always-on" generation (the digital natives, those that were born after the Internet was in full-swing) grows up a bit more and starts infiltrating the creative and industrial fields.
The connecting elements of our forms of media create a vacillating, textured picture of any one concept. If a digital native is required to research Iceland for a school project, they will be able to experience, via the Internet, YouTube videos, podcasts, Wikipedia articles, blog posts by Icelandic authors or blog posts about Iceland, etc. etc. They will be able to take little pieces in various formats and put them together in their mind to form a living idea. According to de Kerckhove, reading (especially silently) is a way to create augmentation, but solely contained in your brain (as in, rather than using the Internet, you use your mind as a world wide web).
He also discusses the virtual worlds of SecondLife and The Sims and how they affect our currentsociety's perception of reality. Really, they are exercises in the "Objective Imaginary," those fanciful thoughts that can be translated onto a screen. This is yet another contributor to the augmented mind.
Along with Wikipedia and Innocentive. Innovation engines are taking what is our minds and are contextualizing them, tagging them, and sharing them.
"With these kinds of new tools we are literally hypertextualizing, as well as externalizing, our mental processes in a shared, connected cognition."
All of this tagging and segmenting of words is moving technology from cloud computing to "intelligent dust." Intelligent dust allows for the power of cloud computing to be paired with the strength of networking and sharing.
And while it is performing virtual miracles in the "digital fleshing-out" of our global mind, it presents an imperative to the individual: while this is happening, we need to remain aware and conscious of our own private identities. We need to continue reading and performing logos with our own minds.
"Though we can hardly resist its increasingly rapid and complex momentum, people can retain a modicum of individuality by learning to negotiate the interaction."
de Kerckhove certainly presents an idea that is at the cusp of our sociological cognition. It's something that many of us (especially those of us that are fully imbibed in the technological world) think about: how is this going to change the nature of our personal lives, our nations, our world? Everything is happening so fast! How can we hold on when the merry-go-round of technology is spinning at a nauseating speed?
Here's how: look down at the hands on the wheel and remember they're yours. Be aware of your own mind and propogate your individual thinking patterns. Maintain the individual while taking advantage of the wondrous new world that is emerging.
November 1, 2012
Sono so se possiamo definire questo ebook Saggio nel senso letterario del termine, ma saggio è il suo contenuto. L'analisi che l'autore porta avanti, come sono cambiati i metodi comunicativi nell'ultimo ventennio?
Se la scrittura ha modificato il nostro modo di pensare il web e la sua struttura connettiva ha portato effetti ancora più significativi per la velocità con cui sono diventati evidenti. L'io fuori da noi stessi (avatar), la produzione di contenuti e la lettura tramite l'elettricità.
Se la scrittura ha modificato il nostro modo di pensare il web e la sua struttura connettiva ha portato effetti ancora più significativi per la velocità con cui sono diventati evidenti. L'io fuori da noi stessi (avatar), la produzione di contenuti e la lettura tramite l'elettricità.
December 6, 2010
Consueto appuntamento bisettimanale in cui presento le nuove uscite e cerco di spiegare perchè le ho scelte. Come al solito, prendetela con beneficio di inventario: in fondo è l'oste che parla del suo vino.
Derrick in Italia (e in rete) lo conosciamo tutti molto bene. Allievo di McLuhan (è stato per tantissimi anni il direttore del McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology) è stato uno dei grandi teorici del digitale fin da tempi non sospetti: già agli inizi degli anni novanta, con Brainfames, aveva intuito il mondo di oggi. Brainframes è un libro straordinario anche da rileggere oggi, diciassette anni dopo: non c'era e non poteva esserci il lessico che utilizziamo nel 2010, ma racconta lucidamente buona parte dei processi e delle cose che vediamo accadere.
La Mente Accresciuta riprende da un'altra angolazione i temi che molti lettori hanno già apprezzato leggendo La Strategia del Cyborg di Crouzet (che -non a caso- è uno dei nostri bestseller). La nostra mente, racconta Derrick, delega molte sue funzioni allo «schermo» e aggiorna il suo funzionamento diventando connessa. Una risposta, se vogliamo, agli argomenti populisti di Nicholas Carr (quello dell'Internet che ci rende stupidi), ma anche un ragionamento a tutto campo sul «come stiamo cambiando».
Ricorda il Cyborg, no? Great Minds Think Alike.
leggi tutto
Derrick in Italia (e in rete) lo conosciamo tutti molto bene. Allievo di McLuhan (è stato per tantissimi anni il direttore del McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology) è stato uno dei grandi teorici del digitale fin da tempi non sospetti: già agli inizi degli anni novanta, con Brainfames, aveva intuito il mondo di oggi. Brainframes è un libro straordinario anche da rileggere oggi, diciassette anni dopo: non c'era e non poteva esserci il lessico che utilizziamo nel 2010, ma racconta lucidamente buona parte dei processi e delle cose che vediamo accadere.
La Mente Accresciuta riprende da un'altra angolazione i temi che molti lettori hanno già apprezzato leggendo La Strategia del Cyborg di Crouzet (che -non a caso- è uno dei nostri bestseller). La nostra mente, racconta Derrick, delega molte sue funzioni allo «schermo» e aggiorna il suo funzionamento diventando connessa. Una risposta, se vogliamo, agli argomenti populisti di Nicholas Carr (quello dell'Internet che ci rende stupidi), ma anche un ragionamento a tutto campo sul «come stiamo cambiando».
Ci troviamo ormai in una situazione in cui gli uomini stanno sviluppando (interiorizzando) una forma d’intelligenza ipertestuale. La testa si fa ipertesto. Qualsiasi pensiero elaboriamo, lo ricaviamo da frammenti e piccole parti che abbiamo immagazzinato da qualche parte e che, nel momento in cui cominciamo a pensare, si presentano in un insieme. Possiamo benissimo manipolare il pensiero, cambiandolo, deformando contorni e situazioni a piacimento. È ciò che chiamiamo immaginazione. Ma l’informazione sembra sopraggiungere come una riga lineare e continua o come una rappresentazione filmica, come un’entità compatta le cui singole parti sono indistinguibili.
Ricorda il Cyborg, no? Great Minds Think Alike.
leggi tutto
January 25, 2019
Personalmente, considero que Derrick de Kerckhove es uno de los pensadores más importantes de nuestros tiempos.
Siguiendo el pensamiento teórico de Marshall McLuhan, de Kerckhove se dedica a analizar los efectos de la tecnología en nuestra vida cotidiana, explicando de qué manera nos modifica tanto a nivel personal como social.
En este ensayo en particular, el tema central es la mente y sus interacciones con la tecnología a partir de la introducción del alfabeto. Allí, realiza un recorrido que finaliza en los medios que hoy estimulan nuestro cerebro, haciendo énfasis en las herramientas precisas que utilizamos día a día como Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, el celular y más. El autor explica de manera simple pero profunda cómo estos recursos afectan a nuestra percepción del mundo y el cambio que generan en nuestra mente, con el objetivo de hacernos conscientes sobre las secuelas que los medios van dejando en nosotros.
La reflexión que propone de Kerckhove es necesaria para cualquiera que quiera entender los efectos de la tecnología en la mente humana. Recomiendo fuertemente que lo lean.
Siguiendo el pensamiento teórico de Marshall McLuhan, de Kerckhove se dedica a analizar los efectos de la tecnología en nuestra vida cotidiana, explicando de qué manera nos modifica tanto a nivel personal como social.
En este ensayo en particular, el tema central es la mente y sus interacciones con la tecnología a partir de la introducción del alfabeto. Allí, realiza un recorrido que finaliza en los medios que hoy estimulan nuestro cerebro, haciendo énfasis en las herramientas precisas que utilizamos día a día como Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, el celular y más. El autor explica de manera simple pero profunda cómo estos recursos afectan a nuestra percepción del mundo y el cambio que generan en nuestra mente, con el objetivo de hacernos conscientes sobre las secuelas que los medios van dejando en nosotros.
La reflexión que propone de Kerckhove es necesaria para cualquiera que quiera entender los efectos de la tecnología en la mente humana. Recomiendo fuertemente que lo lean.
October 1, 2016
The final line sums up the message of the brilliant book that can be read in under an hour: "People will keep control of their own lives and destinies as long as they keep reading".
Books feed our imagination alternative while the always on, connected world of the world wide web increasingly does our imagining for us.
De Kerckhove makes the vital point that there is a crucial difference between "having your imagination on the screen and having your imagination in your head".
Books feed our imagination alternative while the always on, connected world of the world wide web increasingly does our imagining for us.
De Kerckhove makes the vital point that there is a crucial difference between "having your imagination on the screen and having your imagination in your head".
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews