Cognitive Design

Traditionally philosophers make arguments about issues that cannot be resolved empirically or by checking the facts in the world. It turns out that some of these arguments make testable assumptions about how people think and feel.  An emerging branch of philosophy called experimental philosophy or X-Phil wants to go out and test those assumptions to see what is really going on.  

Philosophers doing empirical work to determine how people think and feel? Sounds like applied cognitive science in the field to me.  No matter, as a cognitive designer I am interested in any field that attempts to better understand how people think and feel.

Having a master’s degree in analytic philosophy I know that the situations experimental philosophers explore will surely be unique and provocative from a designer’s standpoint.  For an example, check out this YouTube video that exposes an important asymmetry (bias) in our moral reasoning.

Cognitive designers may have some important things to learn from experimental philosophers. I will keep you posted.

IBM and five leading universities are pulling out all the stops to create nothing short of a “global brain” based on the latest neuroscience, super computing and nano tech.  

A two-minute video overview of their cognitive computing project (with references) can be found here.