In the lecture Andrew explained Hypomnesis it as ‘extended memory which is technical’, or recalling things through techniques and technology, while Anamnesis was natural memory. I find memory very interesting due to my lack of it. I struggle to remember anything from 10 some years ago, even insignificant details. I don’t remember birthdays, holidays, parties, anything. But enough about me – onto the reading…
The cognitive process goes beyond just our mind as memories rely on the environment in order to remember or record details. From Chalmers (1998) paper, ‘the extended mind’, we use the environment as part of our memory. For example using objects as a memory tool or trigger for when we need them again. Therefore because of the extension of our mind we are basically embedded in the world around us. Lately with the introduction of new technologies we are actually able to store these memories in various forms. Here we see that memory literally goes beyond our mind as it is extended into our actual environment, relying on it to hold these moments in time. This, as wonderful as it is for us, is displacing our natural memory. Stiegler argues that as “we exteriorize in contemporary mnemotechnical equipment more and more cognitive functions, correlatively we are losing more and more knowledge”. However are we losing knowledge of making space for more?
An example of the extended mind would definitely be the mobile phone, especially the new convergent media form of the iPhone and Blackberry and other similar phones. These enable us to store a myriad of forms of information including phone numbers, email addresses, to-dos, birthdays, and so many others, (some that you can even put reminders on for so it notifies you when you have to do something as simple as “pick up the kids at 4” for example) that exist as an extension of our mind and in fact body. However what happens when technology fails us, the battery dies, you leave it at home, it just plain ole’ crashes on you… then we are forced to either sit in the corner holding our knees, try and produce information that we should know from our memory, or have a day off! J
