Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Extended mind thesis enters legal domain?

#1
C C Offline
https://aeon.co/ideas/are-you-just-insid...art-of-you

EXCERPT: . . . The Chief Justice probably wasn’t making a metaphysical point – but the philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers were when they argued in ‘The Extended Mind’ (1998) that technology is actually part of us. [...] Objects such as smartphones or notepads are often just as functionally essential to our cognition as the synapses firing in our heads. They augment and extend our minds by increasing our cognitive power and freeing up internal resources.

If accepted, the extended mind thesis threatens widespread cultural assumptions about the inviolate nature of thought, which sits at the heart of most legal and social norms. As the US Supreme Court declared in 1942: ‘freedom to think is absolute of its own nature; the most tyrannical government is powerless to control the inward workings of the mind.’ [...] One’s inner life thus needs protecting only when it is externalised, such as through speech. Many researchers in cognitive science still cling to this Cartesian conception – only, now, the private realm of thought coincides with activity in the brain.

But today’s legal institutions are straining against this narrow concept of the mind. They are trying to come to grips with how technology is changing what it means to be human, and to devise new normative boundaries to cope with this reality. [...] Given how our smartphones have taken over what were once functions of our brains – remembering dates, phone numbers, addresses – perhaps the data they contain should be treated on a par with the information we hold in our heads. So if the law aims to protect mental privacy, its boundaries would need to be pushed outwards to give our cyborg anatomy the same protections as our brains.

This line of reasoning leads to some potentially radical conclusions. Some philosophers have argued that when we die, our digital devices should be handled as remains: if your smartphone is a part of who you are, then perhaps it should be treated more like your corpse than your couch. Similarly, one might argue that trashing someone’s smartphone should be seen as a form of ‘extended’ assault, equivalent to a blow to the head, rather than just destruction of property. If your memories are erased because someone attacks you with a club, a court would have no trouble characterising the episode as a violent incident. So if someone breaks your smartphone and wipes its contents, perhaps the perpetrator should be punished as they would be if they had caused a head trauma.through drugs...

MORE: https://aeon.co/ideas/are-you-just-insid...art-of-you
Reply
#2
Syne Offline
Nonsense. Smart phones are glorified Rolodexes, photo albums, etc.. No more legally relevant than property destroyed. But like an arsonist torching your home, perhaps there should be a value placed on data lost. Not everyone trusts the Cloud for backup.
Reply
#3
stryder Offline
(Feb 28, 2018 06:30 AM)Syne Wrote: Nonsense. Smart phones are glorified Rolodexes, photo albums, etc.. No more legally relevant than property destroyed. But like an arsonist torching your home, perhaps there should be a value placed on data lost. Not everyone trusts the Cloud for backup.


I don't know, I'm sure a study was done in regards to the bacteria that accumulates on such devices used by humans, one of the reasons for the study was looking at how to use it as a form of biometrics as the bacteria that lives on those devices is unique to the human that produces it. This however could be taken a littler further, after all any dead skin cells that end up as dust can end up covering your rooms in your house, so does it mean that your domicile is in fact and extension of your own organism.

There is then the counter point that should people try to indoctrinize towards a Feng Shui environment do they actually sterilise themselves from themselves and become another drone?
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Article A new “species” of legal subject: AI-led corporate entities C C 1 90 Oct 27, 2023 10:13 PM
Last Post: confused2
  Article The European Space Agency has a transparency problem — but it's completely legal C C 0 65 Sep 5, 2023 03:49 PM
Last Post: C C
  SpaceX presses legal fight + Confucian loss of "face" in China's surveillance regime C C 0 170 Jan 22, 2020 09:24 PM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)