Volume 14, Number 3, 387-389, DOI: 10.1023/B:MIND.0000035454.36558.55

Off-Loading Memory to the Environment: A Quantitative Example

John Case

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Abstract

R.W. Ashby maintained that people and animals do not have to remember as much as one might think since considerable information is stored in the environment. Presented herein is an everyday, quantitative example featuring calculation of the number bits of memory that can be off-loaded to the environment. The example involves onersquos storing directions to a friendrsquos house. It is also argued that the example works with or without acceptance of the extended mind hypothesis. Additionally, a brief supporting argument for at least a form of this hypothesis is presented.

bits - brain - environment - extended mind hypothesis - mathematics

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