McCauley Honorary | Justin Barrett "Bringing Technology to Mind: Cognitive Naturalness and Technological Enthusiasm"

Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture

Justin Barrett | President, Blueprint 1543
"Bringing Technology to Mind: Cognitive Naturalness and Technological Enthusiasm"

Sometimes new technologies spread before society has had sufficient time to evaluate them. Can we make better decisions about whether to be enthusiastic or reticent regarding new tech without waiting for thorough testing or the emergence of unintended negative consequences? In his book Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not (Oxford, 2011), Robert McCauley provides heuristic criteria for identifying the relative cognitive naturalness of various cultural forms and then applies these criteria to an analysis of religions and the sciences. I argue that McCauley’s distinction and criteria can also give some guidance regarding how enthusiastic we should be regarding new technologies, including artifacts and systems. The sciences fare well in such an analysis. Many social media platforms and some of newer artificial intelligence programs, however, should give us pause.

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