Andy Clark

Clark is one of the founding members of the CONTACT collaborative research project, whose aim is to investigate the role environment plays in shaping the nature of conscious experience. Clark's papers and books deal with the philosophy of mind and he is considered a leading scholar on the subject of mind extension. He has also written extensively on connectionism, robotics and the role and nature of mental representation.

Philosophical work

Clark has proposed a two-way "cascade of cortical processing" underlying perception, action, and learning. He posits a model where 'error units' are generated by comparing the expected outcome of a given process with the actual outcome, and these are used to refine the prediction of outcome in the future, creating a feedback loop between prediction and error. He posits that interactions between the 'forward' flow of error and 'backward' flow of prediction are dynamic, with factors such as attention, dopamine production, changes in environment, and one's individual personality affecting this two-way system.

Clark's writings also focus on the concept of transhumanism, such as in his work Natural-Born Cyborgs, which explores the fusion of human biology and technological implants through a series of contemporary technological studies and an evaluation of the cyborg figure in pop-culture.

Extended mind thesis

Clark has also worked on the extended mind thesis, which says that the mind extends into the environment. Clark spoke about this thesis in TEDxLambeth 2019.