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PHD-DESIGN  March 2012

PHD-DESIGN March 2012

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Subject:

Re: Mind Design: towards a new framework for the study of mentalmodification of human behavior

From:

Keith Russell <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:55:40 +1100

Content-Type:

text/plain

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text/plain (144 lines)

Dear Luis,

To say we have such things as "minds" is to already presuppose that we
can and do design our "minds". That is, when we reflect on consciousness
(become conscious that we are conscious), we are necessarily
constructing a something that we might call a "mind". The fact that
children at very early ages can be seen to have a working theory of
"mind" further illustrates the pervasiveness of our constructions of
"minds".

What I have in "mind" (a thought or idea etc.) is also something that I
"mind" (look after) by virtue of isolating as a coherent and repeatable
moment of consciousness. That is, I can bring back to "mind" things that
I "mind" in my "mind". The relative stability of this process makes it
available for modification, revision, alteration and hence DESIGN.

So, designing "minds" is a fundamental feature of "minds". What you
seem to be questioning is whether we can design designs of "minds" that
can then alter "minds". Put more simply, can we derive techniques,
logical strategies or magics that pertain to "minds" in such a way as to
seem to invent new controls structures that will further modify the
designs of "minds".

Can a "mind" "re-mind" itself or would we then need to assume that
there is a deeper "non-mind" that allows us (as conscious beings) to
radically alter our "minds"?

Cognitive therapies presume that there is an available set of "mind
games" (logical possibilities of consciousness, for example, dialectical
logic). People undergoing cognitive therapy are instructed in the uses
of such "mind-games". Is cognitive therapy merely disclosing the
existing possibilities of the logic-set of consciousness, or is it
inventing new ways of "minding"? Should we teach cognitive therapy
techniques to design students? Do we already do this in some design
practice way? 

All of which is about acts of consciousness (thinking about thinking).
Beyond this domain (or along side it if we wish to modify our "mind-set"
by altering our metaphors), we can start to look at various aspects of
determinisms (such as Marshall McLuhan's Technological Determinism). In
the sphere of biology we would seem to be looking at how we are designed
rather than how we might design but equally, we impose experiences on
ourselves deliberately in order to modify our affective states which
means that we are directly playing "mind-games", in the world of
experiences, with out "minds" (we sit by a slow flowing river to calm
our troubled "mind"). Raising such existing behaviors to the level of
formal practice would seem to be part of what we mean by the concepts of
maturing and acquiring wisdom.

So, it would seem we are constantly involved with "mind design"
actively and passively, internally and externally. Indeed, one might
well suggest that any definition of "mind" would need to account for the
central nature of designing in the acts of consciousness that construct
(constitute) "minds".

cheers

Keith Russell
Newcastle OZ
 
>>> Luis Inacio <[log in to unmask]> 03/06/12 8:58 AM >>> 
Hi all,

I have posted a short paper in my blog, Designio
2.0<http://designio2.wordpress.com/>,
about the interesting field of Mind design. The title of this, Mind
Design:
towards a new framework for the study of mental modification of human
behavior - a short
presentation<http://independent.academia.edu/LuisInacio/Papers/1512834/Mind_Design_towards_a_new_framework_for_the_study_of_mental_modification_of_human_behavior_-_a_short_presentation>,
presented at the 12th International Conference for Philosophy &
Psychiatry
2009, in Lisbon, Portugal. It can be accessed in Academia.edu.

I would like to have some of your brainpower over this issue. Its a
broad
theme (in the sense that implies various fields of inquiry), and I made
a
little twist in it. At the present time I had made a progress in this
matter. My current position is not reflected in this presentation. But
it
serves as an introduction for a theoretical discussion in this list,
because its a pressing issue and we are witnessing to various forms of
mind
designing through psychological and economical theories, pedagogical
theories, etc. Here is the abstract:

**Can we design our minds and our behaviors?* this is the driving
question
that presupposes the framework of this field of *Mind Design*. This
term is
not original. It is used by John Haugeland, in the collection of
essays
Mind Design II (1996), to a new emerging field where the subject matter
was
*psychology by reverse engineering*, studying the mind in terms of
how it
works, in order to build intelligent artifacts in the field of
Artificial
Intelligence.
However, this new approach of mind design expands its field (combining
the
study o practical reason, the cognitive sciences and psychotherapies)
to
the possibility of calculated modification of/in our minds and
behaviors,
assuming that behaviors and mental states are subject to manipulation,
combination, and deletion of whatever patterns that are conditions of
courses of action in a human mind.
This appeal to mind engineering might be perceived as artificial, but
in
fact it is as natural as any codification of whatever action we
execute.
The set of questions that mind design elaborates are: What it is when
we
talk about mind engineering? Can an agent autonomously design his own
behavior? What type of engineering is necessary for such thing to
happen?
Are there limits of such design? What are the structures of such
possibility?
This set of calculated and intentional modifications of human mind and
behavior are presupposed in psychotherapies. That is why Mid Design
defends
a close relationship to various sorts of therapies and their
respective
conceptual background.
Therefore, this essay aims to present a brief account of this new
framework, by i) delineating some of the philosophic background and
the
connection to psychiatric therapies, ii) the goals of this field and
iii)
the delineation of possible future routes of concern of this ongoing
investigation, leaving room for possible discussion.*

Thank you all!

Best regards
-- 
Luís M Inácio
________________________________
Filósofo | Designer de Comunicação
Philosopher | Communication Designer
[log in to unmask]

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