# Human Intelligence Has Always Coevolved With Its Tools by Andy Clark > "First, there is nothing new about human enhancement. Ever since the dawn of language and self-conscious thought, the human species has been engaged in a unique 'natural experiment' in progressive niche construction. We engineer our own learning environments so as to create artificial developmental cocoons that impact our acquired capacities of thought and reason. Those enhanced minds then design new cognitive niches that train new generations of minds, and so on, in an empowering spiral of co-evolving complexity. The result is that, as Herbert Simon is reputed to have said, 'most human intelligence is artificial intelligence anyway'. New and emerging technologies of human cognitive enhancement are just one more step along this ancient path." > **— Andy Clark**, *2007, Edge Annual Question, “What Are You Optimistic About?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Professor of Philosophy, Edinburgh University; Author, Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11313) — Edge published this passage in its 2007 Annual Question collection, *What Are You Optimistic About?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2007 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2007 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/STEVE|STEVE]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Art is Long|The Art is Long]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|Neuroinformatics Standards]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Knowledge Graph|Knowledge Graph]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Human-Machine Symbiosis|Human-Machine Symbiosis]] - [[wiki/Cognitive Exteriorization|Cognitive Exteriorization]] - [[wiki/Niche Construction|Niche Construction]] - [[wiki/Cognitive Prosthesis|Cognitive Prosthesis]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "First, there is nothing new about human enhancement. Ever since the dawn of language and self-conscious thought, the human species has been engaged in a unique 'natural experiment' in progressive niche construction. We engineer our own learning environments so as to create artificial developmental cocoons that impact our acquired capacities of thought and reason. Those enhanced minds then design new cognitive niches that train new generations of minds, and so on, in an empowering spiral of co-evolving complexity. The result is that, as Herbert Simon is reputed to have said, 'most human intelligence is artificial intelligence anyway'. New and emerging technologies of human cognitive enhancement are just one more step along this ancient path." — Andy Clark, 2007, Edge Annual Question, “What Are You Optimistic About?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-andy-clark-human-intelligence-artificial-already ```