arvix | "Cognizing" (e.g., thinking, understanding, and knowing) is a mental state.
Systems without mental states, such as cognitive technology, can sometimes
contribute to human cognition, but that does not make them cognizers. Cognizers
can offload some of their cognitive functions onto cognitive technology,
thereby extending their performance capacity beyond the limits of their own
brain power. Language itself is a form of cognitive technology that allows
cognizers to offload some of their cognitive functions onto the brains of other
cognizers. Language also extends cognizers' individual and joint performance
powers, distributing the load through interactive and collaborative cognition.
Reading, writing, print, telecommunications and computing further extend
cognizers' capacities. And now the web, with its network of cognizers, digital
databases and software agents, all accessible anytime, anywhere, has become our
'Cognitive Commons,' in which distributed cognizers and cognitive technology
can interoperate globally with a speed, scope and degree of interactivity
inconceivable through local individual cognition alone. And as with language,
the cognitive tool par excellence, such technological changes are not merely
instrumental and quantitative: they can have profound effects on how we think
and encode information, on how we communicate with one another, on our mental
states, and on our very nature. Cognition Distributed
