Abstract

Extended Mind: collective intelligence and distributed cognition From a cybernetic perspective [Heylighen & Joslyn, 2001], cognition does not consist of a discrete collection of beliefs, propositions, or procedures, but is a continuously evolving process which relates perceptions to further perceptions and actions and thus allows an agent to anticipate, adapt to changes in its environment, and moreover effect changes upon its environment [Kirsch & Maglio, 1994]. The study of cognition—cognitive science—is in essence multidisciplinary, integrating insights from approaches such as psychology, philosophy, artifical intelligence (AI), linguistics, anthropology, and neurophysiology. To this list of “sciences of the mind”, we now also must add the disciplines that study society. An increasing number of approaches are proposing that cognition is not limited to the mind of an individual agent, but involves interactions with other minds. Sociologists have long noted that most of our knowledge is the result of a social construction rather than of individual observation [Berger & Luckman, 1967]. Philosophers such as Searle and Clark have brought the matter to research for urgent

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