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I knew Otto would make an appearance.

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That there on the bottom right is a platter of Smoked Salmon Appetizers– none left, in fact, there was hardly any food left at all!

They talked philosophy for two hours before they made their way to social hour where they… wait for it… continued to talk philosophy and other stuff for another couple of hours.

Otto is a reference to Otto and His Notebook. From that infallible source:

“The Extended Mind” by Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998)[2] is the paper that originally stated the EMT [Extended Mind Thesis]. … They argue that the separation between the mind, the body, and the environment is an unprincipled distinction. Because external objects play a significant role in aiding cognitive processes, the mind and the environment act as a “coupled system” that can be seen as a complete cognitive system of its own. In this manner, the mind is extended into the physical world. The main criterion … is that the external objects must function with the same purpose as the internal processes.

The “thought experiment”:

The fictional characters Otto and Inga are both travelling to a museum simultaneously. Otto has Alzheimer’s disease, and has written all of his directions down in a notebook to serve the function of his memory. Inga is able to recall the internal directions within her memory. The argument is that the only difference existing in these two cases is that Inga’s memory is being internally processed by the brain, while Otto’s memory is being served by the notebook. In other words, Otto’s mind has been extended to include the notebook as the source of his memory.

I stand with Mr. Big Food in that I think the EMT is a remarkably stunning claim that, gosh, we interact with our environments. (That said, a youngish woman declared that her phone was just part of who she was. Every Saturday morning she’d get up, look at her phone, and discover what she’d done the night before. Quite pathetic, if you ask me.) EMT can be remarkably complicated if you’re into it– and some really really smart people are.

That’s Dave there on the left, having fun at the WhooHa here at The Farm a few years ago.

So– The Farm Circle Philosophy Live! Speaker Series is off to a good start! Mr. Big Food is already contemplating what apps he’ll make next time when three different folks will join us. I think shrimp and bacon will be involved. I am thinking about putting out a TIP JAR.