The Over-Extended Mind? Pink Noise and the Ethics of Interaction-Dominant Systems

Meacham, Darian; Prado Casanova, Miguel

Abstract

© 2018, The Author(s). There is a growing recognition within cognitive enhancement and neuroethics debates of the need for greater emphasis on cognitive artefacts. This paper aims to contribute to this broadening and expansion of the cognitive-enhancement and neuroethics debates by focusing on a particular form of relation or coupling between humans and cognitive artefacts: interaction-dominance. We argue that interaction-dominance as an emergent property of some human-cognitive artefact relations has important implications for understanding the attribution and distribution of causal and other forms of responsibility as well as agency relating to the actions of human-cognitive artefact couplings. Interaction-dominance is both indicated and constituted by the phenomenon of “pink noise”. Understanding the role of noise in this regard will establish a necessary theoretical groundwork for approaching the ethical and political dimensions of relations between human cognition and digital cognitive artefacts. We argue that pink noise in this context plays a salient role in the practical, ethical, and political evaluation of coupling relations between humans and cognitive artefacts, and subsequently in the responsible innovation of cognitive artefacts and human-artefact interfaces.

Citation

Meacham, D., & Prado Casanova, M. (2018). The Over-Extended Mind? Pink Noise and the Ethics of Interaction-Dominant Systems. NanoEthics, 12(3), 269-281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-018-0325-x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 1, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 19, 2018
• Journal: NanoEthics
• Print ISSN: 1871-4757
• Electronic ISSN: 1871-4765
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 269-281
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-018-0325-x
• Keywords: extended mind thesis, cognitive artefacts, pink noise, machine-human hybrid, responsible research and innovation, distributed cognition, responsibility, Interaction-dominant systems,; enhancement, human enhancement technology, value-sensitive; design, noi
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/855384
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-018-0325-x
• Related Public URLs: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11569-018-0325-x