# Extended Mind Thesis **Domain:** Philosophy of Mind / Cognitive Science **Doc Type:** Theory Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition The **Extended Mind Thesis**, associated with Andy Clark and David Chalmers, argues that under appropriate conditions resources outside the biological brain can become constitutive parts of a cognitive process rather than merely tools used by it. The classic argument emphasizes functional integration: when an external resource is reliably available, automatically trusted and used as internal memory would be used, the boundary of cognition may extend across brain, body and environment. ## Machine-Intelligence Context Maps, search, feeds, recommender systems and AI assistants increasingly participate in remembering, orienting and anticipating. Institutions likewise think through databases, models and dashboards. This supports the claim that cognition can be distributed across human-machine systems. It does not follow that the entire network is conscious or that every frequently used device is literally part of one mind. Reliability, reciprocal coupling and integration matter, and constitution of cognition remains distinct from phenomenology. [[articles/Person of Interest and The Machine|Is Person of Interest's “The Machine” Real?]] uses the thesis to explain why [[wiki/The Machine|The Machine]] is best understood as an entangled cognitive system rather than an isolated model. ## See Also [[wiki/Distributed Intelligence|Distributed Intelligence]], [[wiki/Human-Machine Symbiosis|Human-Machine Symbiosis]], [[wiki/Global Workspace Theory|Global Workspace Theory]], [[wiki/Integrated Information Theory|Integrated Information Theory]], [[wiki/Plural Agency|Plural Agency]] ## Sources / Provenance - Andy Clark and David Chalmers, “The Extended Mind” (1998).