Your mind is not like a computer: It's an ecosystem

Zak Stein’s essay brings us full circle in this FB thread: “Your mind is not like a computer; it’s an ecosystem.”

First he recognized Lakoff and Johnson’s work on metaphors, how we use them to organize our models of mind and reality. He provides historical examples: Freud’s guiding metaphor for the mind was the steam engine and mechanism. Then the mind as computer metaphor became dominant, as witnessed by classic cognitive science (CCS) and algorithms. Finally the mind as ecosystem arrived in the form of second generation 4E cognitive science, and for him Fischer’s developmental work.

“According to this view the mind is best understood as a complex and dynamic system, always in process, always changing, growing, and becoming more diverse and differentiated. At the same time they grow in internal complexity, ecosystems also become more integrated and specialized, filling up their niches and fostering symbioses. Ecosystems are composed of a wide variety of independent and yet co-evolving species, so there is not one central ‘unit’ that can serve as an overall measure of the ecosystem. Rather, to understand an ecosystem you must take multiple measurements in a variety of places across a variety of time scales. Ecosystems are also sensitive and actively responsive to the larger environments in which they are nested. They can be easily disrupted and thrown off balance, but they are also generative and creative, self-regulating, and self-transcending. They are adaptable, open systems, and are constantly in a state of dynamic equilibrium. As ecosystems evolve they display non-linear growth, with jumps, dips, regressions, and daily and seasonal changes and rhythms. Their growth is not simple and linear, but messy and dynamic. And, finally, no two ecosystems are the same. Every ecosystem is unique. Give two ecosystems the same input and you should not expect the same output.”

A key reason we resist this new guiding metaphor:

“It became clear that one of the main reasons we stick with simplistic metaphors such as the ‘mind-as-computer’ is because they do not challenge our status quo systems and processes. Fundamentally changing our dominant metaphor for the mind would require fundamentally changing our educational practices. It would make us change everything.”