Philosophy
The Extended Mind: Is Your Phone Literally Part of Your Mind?
11 min
An exploration of Andy Clark and David Chalmers's thesis that tools like smartphones are not just accessories, but functional components of our cognitive architecture.
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Show notes
The Parity Principle argues that external tools are part of the mind if they perform cognitive tasks.
Rotating Tetris blocks physically is three times faster than performing the same rotation mentally.
Otto’s notebook functions as a cognitive limb by providing reliable memory for his Alzheimer’s symptoms.
The Google Effect causes the brain to prioritize where information is stored over the information itself.
Smartphones act as cognitive prosthetics that shift biological memory into digital long-term storage.
Extended mind theory redefines data privacy as the protection of an individual's internal thought architecture.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Parity Principle3 min
- 3Inga and Otto3 min
- 4The Smartphone as a Cognitive Limb2 min
- 5The Limits of Extension3 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- The Extended Mind
- Andy Clark on The Extended Mind - Philosophy Bites
- Could Your Phone Hold a Piece of Your Mind? | by Allegra Cuomo | Philosophy Today | Jul, 2026 | Medium
- The Extended Mind
- Is your phone part of your mind? | David Chalmers | TEDxSydney
- The mind isn’t locked in the brain but extends far beyond it | Aeon Ideas
- Your phone is an extension of your mind | CBC Radio
- The Extended Mind Author(s): Andy Clark and David Chalmers Source: Analysis, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 7-19 Accessed: 05/04/2014 05:33
- Dear iPhone—It Was Just Physical, and Now It's Over - Nautilus
- The Extended Mind Thesis: Is Your Smartphone Literally Part of ...
- The Extended Mind
- Extended Cognition and Extended Consciousness
- The Extended Mind Author(s): Andy Clark and David Chalmers Source: Analysis, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 7-19 Accessed: 31/01/2011 20:33
- The Extended Mind Andy Clark & David Chalmers1 - DocsLib
- 02 Clark/Chalmers
- The Extended Mind
- 0195333217.pdf
- Extended Mind | Springer Nature Link
- The Extended Mind
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