Technology and Cognition Just Because We Can, Should We? Minds
and Machines
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Just Because We Can, Should We? No! Duh!
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Just Because We Can, Should We? An Argument Premise 1: If we
can, we will Premise 2: If we will, we should Conclusion: If we
can, we should
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Just Because We Can, Will We? No! Duh!
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We Control Technology, Technology does not Control Us We dont
feel that we will, or are even more inclined to do something, just
because we can. We feel in control. We make the decisions, not the
tools, technology, or situation around us. Commonly Believed
Corrolary: Technology is not good or bad. It is us who decide
whether to use technology in a good or bad way.
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The Neutrality of Technology Guns dont kill people, people kill
people
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However Why do people climb mountains? Because they are there
H. Korman "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. Great men are almost always bad man. Lord Acton,
British Historian
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From: Drone Strikes Reveal A Lost Moral Compass Last year at
this time, in preparation for the harvest feast, the children
joined their grandmother [] in the field to pick okra. Though often
aware of the intimidating drone of these robotic machines overhead,
the family, secure in its own sense of innocence, was unprepared
for the hellfire that descended on them unexpectedly when a drone
fired missile struck them followed swiftly by a second. When the
dust and the cries for help subsided, eight relatives, including
the children, were found to be wounded and their grandmother []
dead, her body burned and torn beyond recognition.
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From: Drone Strikes Reveal A Lost Moral Compass (Contd) There
is, I fear, an explanation. A compass has gone askew, the moral
compass that when pointing true tells us when our worship of war as
a substitute for wise foreign policy and its lethal ever-expanding
soulless technology is leading us into a legal, moral, spiritual
abyss.
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From: Drone Strikes Reveal A Lost Moral Compass (Contd) [J]ust
as those poorly plotted maneuvers over our children's heads remind
us that we are at war, the senseless murder of a grandmother []
should remind us that [] the horrors we model, condone and justify
today are shaping a dystopian future [] where the commitments to
human rights and law are quaint, outmoded notions that can be
shredded and burned beyond recognition because... well, because we
can. Albany Times Union, November 16, 2013Albany Times Union,
November 16, 2013
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A Sobering Video Baghdad AirStrike July 17, 2007Baghdad
AirStrike July 17, 2007 (embedded video)
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The Plan I will use cognitive science to make an argument that
tools, technology, and the nature of our environment can have an
impact on our inclinations to do or not do something.
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Traditional, Nave, View of Cognition Cognition SenseAct
Environment Agent (Brain) Cognition = f(brain) Perception and
Action are mere input to and output from thinking, reasoning,
problem solving, and decision-making
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Catching a Fly Ball
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The World as External Memory Situated Cognition people say that
the brain often uses the environment as a kind of external memory.
Examples: Taking apart your computer: how do you lay down the
pieces to get it back together? Notes you write to yourself
Planners, calendars, cellphones, laptops
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Copying Blocks Experiment OriginalCopy Bins Task: Subjects have
to make a copy of the configuration of blocks on the left by
grabbing individual blocks from the bins at the bottom and placing
them on the right. Result: after grabbing block from bin, eyes
would move to original to check position
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Epistemic moves: Moves that are not part of a solution, but
help find one Rotating Slamming
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No Opposable Thumbs
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External Representations VI / XLIV \ ??
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The Google Effect
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Avatars (or simply characters you control) In a video game, you
dont push the button, you jump!
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Biological Being We often think the boundary between me and my
environment is my skin: Me: heart, lungs, legs, bones, brain, etc.
Not Me: clothes, wallet, laptop, glasses, etc. This distinction
makes sense if I talk about genetics, diseases, growth, etc.:
biology!
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Physical Being As a physical being I have: Mass Shape Color
These properties allow us to explain and predict things such as:
How much weight I add to an airplane How people can recognize me
from other people But note: things like clothes, glasses, wallet,
are part of me. This is my physical being.
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Cognitive Being As a cognitive being, I: See things Remember
things Solve problems Make decisions Etc According to situated
cognition, I may need to refer to things that are outside of my
biological (or physical) being in order to explain those
capacities.
Using Tools to create a new Cognitive System? Cognitive System
A World Cognitive System A Tool World Cognitive System B
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Our Best Tool: Language Literacy Numeracy Science Math Logic
Language allows us to pass knowledge and skills along to others,
through all of space and time. It is a huge part of culture.
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Evolution Darwin Wallace Discovered the theory of evolution
independently. Coincidence? Did one look over the shoulder of the
other? No. Many of the ingredients and basic ideas for evolution
were already in place. Darwin and Wallace were both able to put the
final pieces in and complete the puzzle. In fact, the history of
science and inventions is full of such multiple discovery: it shows
that ideas dont originate from a naked brain, letmultiple discovery
alone pop up in a brain, but instead gradually evolve in the public
domain.
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Talk about Evolution: Next Step in Cognition? Think! SenseAct
Environment Agent
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No! Cognition will advance by incorporating more and more tools
Process SenseAct Environment Cognitive Agent 1 Tool ActSense
Cognitive Agent 2
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OK, So What?
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Exploration and Exploitation As a controller, the brain has to
figure out how what it controls is able to interact with the world.
That is, before it can exploit its powers, it first needs to
explore its powers. Thus, it has to figure out the action
potentials of what it controls, as well as those of its
environment. As such, the brain will figure out and classify things
as: walkable reachable graspable movable hammerable ?
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Hammer-Man! Hammers dont hit Nails, People Do! If all you have
is a hammer, everything becomes a nail - Bernard Baruch
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Copying Blocks Experiment II OriginalCopy Bins Same task as
before. However, original is hidden by square, and you have to
click on it to reveal the original. Moreover, it takes a certain
amount of time for original to appear. Result: the more time it
took for original to appear, the more subjects started to rely on
internal memory (brain).
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The Google Effect The Google effect is that people forget those
things that they can Google.Google effect Some people lament this,
saying that people have become lazy or stupid, not unlike how the
calculator has made people worse at basic arithmetic. But in
reality, this was in fact a very smart move of the brain.
Incorporating the internet as external memory is not lazy, but
efficient. And while brain alone = less smart, brain + internet =
smarter! Most importantly, the brain naturally integrates its
environment if it makes sense: we dont control this!
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How our Brain Integrates Technology: Perception (Click on pic
for vid)
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How our Brain Integrates Technology: Action (click on pic for
vid)
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Monday, November 25 4-6pm EMPAC Theater Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw
Adaptive Neurotechnologies: Principles & Promise Live
Demonstration of Brain-Computer Interface!
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Conclusion Technology very much has the potential to change us
as cognitive beings, affecting our capacities for perception,
action, problem solving, reasoning, etc. i.e. all of cognition. As
such, they are anything but neutral, and well have to be cautious
in how we proceed with the development of these technologies.
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Thank you! With great power comes great responsibility
Voltaire, French Philosopher
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Back to Drones: Confessions of a Drone Warrior Drone operator
Brandon Bryant Was part of drone missions that killed 1626 people
Suffers from PTSD November 2013 Issue of GQ
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PTSD for Drone Operators? There was no significant difference
in the rates of MH diagnoses, including post-traumatic stress
disorder, depressive disorders, and anxiety disorders between RPA
and MA pilots. - Pentagon StudyPentagon Study
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Why do Drone Operators get PTSD? To some extent, their brain
says: Im there Old theory: PTSD is caused by fear Do drone
operators fear for their lives the way soldiers do that are
actually in the battle zone feel fear? Does the virtual presence
become that real? Unlikely. So, new theory: PTSD is caused by moral
anguish of killing people
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Solution to PTSD?!? [R]esearchers have proposed creating a
Siri-like user interface, a virtual copilot that anthropomorphizes
the drone and lets crews shunt off the blame for whatever happens.
Siri, have those people killed.
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Just Because We Will, Should We? Variants: Just because we do,
should we?
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Technology will Change and Destroy Humanity! If technology
becomes more and more integrated with our brains and with our
being, basically making us into a race of cyborgs, then that means
the end of humankind! So no, even if we will, that doesnt mean we
should.
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Problems Ought-From-Is or Naturalistic Fallacy: Just because
humans are a certain way, doesnt mean that we should be or stay
that way.
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Technology is Simply Speeding Up Evolution! If technology is
really going to change humanity and make us into a race of cyborgs,
well, thats just the next step of evolution: Homo Sapiens 2.0! So
yes, we will, and we should!
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Problems Naturalistic Fallacy again: just because evolution
happens doesnt mean it is good. Only shows 1 line of evolution but
evolution is a tree! Suggest evolution = progress. In particular:
smarter is better but tree of evolution suggests quite a different
picture. Also, progress is only increased fitness to local
environment this is far cry from fitness in any kind of absolute
sense, let alone that this would be better in any kind of moral
sense.