ABSTRACT

Philosophers and cognitive scientists alike have recently been interested in whether cognition extends beyond the boundaries of skin and skull and into the environment. However, the extended cognition hypothesis has suffered many objections over the past few decades. In this paper, I explore the option of control extending beyond the human boundary. My aim is to convince the reader of three things: (1) that control can be implemented in artifacts, (2) that humans and artifacts can form extended control systems, and (3) that perhaps extended control ought to be preferred over extended cognition. Using the objections to extended cognition as constraints on my own extended theorizing and the example of autofocus systems in cameras, I mechanistically analyze the components of an autofocus system that realize the central properties of control from a plausible theory of control in the literature. I then provide criteria according to which control can be extended in a system. Finally, I consider how this theory of extended control ought to be preferred to theories of extended cognition.

抽象的

哲学家和认知科学家最近都对认知是否扩展到皮肤和头骨的边界之外并进入环境感兴趣。然而，在过去的几十年中，扩展的认知假设遭到了许多反对。在本文中，我探索了超越人类边界的控制选择。我的目的是说服读者三件事：（1）可以在人工制品中实现控制；（2）人类和人工制品可以形成扩展的控制系统；（3）也许扩展控制应该比扩展认知更可取。以反对扩展认知为约束，这是我自己的扩展理论和相机中自动对焦系统的示例，我机械地分析了自动对焦系统的组成部分，这些组成部分从文献中的合理的控制理论中了解了控制的核心特性。然后，我根据可以在系统中扩展控件的条件提供标准。最后，我考虑了这种扩展控制理论应该如何被扩展认知理论所取代。