A review by valdelane
Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again by Andy Clark

5.0

Cogscigasm! This book might be even _more_ relevant now than when it was published 14 years ago, given how the border is blurring between our carbon-based brains and silicon-based exocortex. Sure, the interface is still a bit clumsy, but really--would you let anyone take away your smartphone other than prying it from your cold, dead fingers? Although Clark makes it clear that intelligence extends into the environment, he also argues quite convincingly that our physical bodies are intrinsic to the process of learning and thinking--which implies that full consciousness upload to silicon (the Rapture of the Nerds) may be impractical, or at least require that a body be part of the model.