Using the World to Think
Faculty
Pancho Tolchinsky
Cognitive Science Missionary
Course length
Duration
Total hours
Credits
Language
Course type
Fee for single course
Fee for degree students
Skills you’ll learn
Overview
If you take any familiar object and purposely interact with it in novel ways, new neural connections will be formed in your brain. You’re learning new plans of action for engaging with your environment. And so, you’re creating opportunities for thinking in new ways. Indeed, in order to think, we certainly need a brain, but we also need a body embedded in an environment. Because thinking, after all, is not the shuffling of abstract symbols detached from the world.
It is a physical engagement with our surroundings. Our actions in the world shape what’s in our head, which in turn, shape our behaviour. It is this dynamic loop that includes brain, body and environment, that we may call thinking. In other words, our cognitive system isn’t bound to our head.
Yet, we usually ignore how our body and environment intervene in our thoughts, and so, we fail to take full advantage of all our cognitive resources at hand. The world around us offers us countless possibilities of interactions. These are countless opportunities to reorganise and reshape our thoughts. In this course, we will learn to make better use of the world as an integral part of our cognitive system.
Learning highlights
- Learn the principles of the extended mind thesis. Why we are not our brain
- Learn to use the page as the surface of our mind in which we draw our thoughts, to put them in motion
- Learn to use the physical world as an infinite pool of thinking schemes
- Learn to set artificial rules for more productive brainstormings
Course outline
5 classes
Session 1
A practical introduction to the extended mind thesis. That is, we will learn how brain, body and environment are dynamic coupling in which features of the environment and our body are exploited as part of our cognitive processes
Session 2
An introduction to Visual Knowledge. Here we learn that drawing is thinking and re-drawing is re-thinking. When we draw we place our thoughts on paper so that we can put them in motion, question them and experiment with them
Session 3
Our physical world contains countless relations. We’ll learn to search for these relations and use them as thinking schemes
Session 4
Creating our own rules for thinking opens new routes for our imaginations. We’ll explore different rules for brainstorming alone and in groups
Session 5
Course materials
Books
Prerequisites
This course is one of three in a wholistic series.
Students that have already taken MSL-111 and those with prior experience with HTML, CSS, and Javascript building simple web pages will be good candidates for this module.
Pancho Tolchinsky delivers workshops and participates in projects to help people discover the beauty and power of the human mind.
Pancho graduated in Mathematics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and earned a PhD in Artificial Intelligence at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia. At the university, he worked on a few projects involving Commonsense Reasoning and Human-Computer Interaction. Pancho later worked at the Yahoo! Research Lab, developing crazy prototypes for data exploration. Previously, he worked as a teacher/software-developer/researcher in a Master in Architecture at Metapolis (now IaaC) in Barcelona, and helped developing software for the architects of the Sagrada Familia.
See full profileApply for this course
Using the World to Think
by Pancho Tolchinsky
Total hours
15 Hours
Dates
Nov 25 - Nov 29, 2019
Fee for single course
€500
Fee for degree students
€250
How to secure your spot
Complete the form below to kickstart your application
Schedule your Harbour.Space interview
If successful, get ready to join us on campus
FAQ
Will I receive a certificate after completion?
Yes. Upon completion of the course, you will receive a certificate signed by the director of the program your course belonged to.
Do I need a visa?
This depends on your case. Please check with the Spanish or Thai consulate in your country of residence about visa requirements. We will do our part to provide you with the necessary documents, such as the Certificate of Enrollment.
Can I get a discount?
Yes. The easiest way to enroll in a course at a discounted price is to register for multiple courses. Registering for multiple courses will reduce the cost per individual course. Please ask the Admissions Office for more information about the other kinds of discounts we offer and what you can do to receive one.