Moving the Bonds: Distributing Cognition through Cognitive Niche Construction

Abstract

In the previous Chapter I discussed the virtues and vices of bounded rationality as biased rationality. Basically, I pointed out that biases and fallacies can be useful insofar as one lacks symptomatic information to make a decision. In this sense, rationality, and human cognition, is always bounded, meaning that we are always committed to cognitive economy. However, rationality and our cognition can also be de-biased. On this point, I have argued that one way of de-biasing human cognition is to extend it. What does this mean? This means that humans improve the quality of their decisions and results by means of building up eco-cognitive structures that deliver more symptomatic information. The present chapter is mainly devoted to exploring in detail the distributed dimension of cognition. Human beings overcome their limitations by distributing and securing cognitive functions within their environment. This process does not lead to a complete de-bounding of the human cognitive system, rather, it contributes to pushing the bounds of cognition.