The nature of cognitive artefacts 141
traffic situation and my behaviours is integrated in order to raise my attention to
the situation at hand.
In cases of this kind, my purposes are certainly affected in the most straightforward fashion. Moreover, my informational environment is altered, in terms of
cues being added that are relevant to my further course of action but that would
remain, by definition, as it were, out of my perceptual reach in the kind of situation at hand. I will have to learn to make use of those additional cues. A driver
assistance system that is successful in improving road safety is supposed to
change my and other drivers’ ecological environment for the better, in terms of
reduced risk of physical harm. The informational relations involved, including
the information the system collects about my behaviours and cognitive states, are
still part of domains of natural information though, as they could be tracked by a
suitably placed real or hypothetical observer – but not the receiver immersed in
the situation.
Convergence and isomorphism
In the two examples briefly discussed in the previous section, the information
involved retains some key properties of natural information. Although there will
be some variance in the mechanisms involved in information uptake and transmission, the relations between the purposefully produced signals and the world
affairs onto which they are supposed to map remain largely continuous with the
relations the receiver would detect when using natural cues in his environment.
More precisely, the subclass of cognitive artefacts exemplified by these devices
is marked by their ability to provide real-time information for perception about
some condition in the environment, and by providing it in the course of being used
within that same environment, so as to guide their users’ decisions and activities
in a given situation. In this class of artefacts, the analogies to the use of natural
information for perception will be as close as factually possible. Their primary
purpose is to provide information that is integrated with natural information for
perception in the natural environment in which they are used – a condition that is
satisfied by artefacts as humble as signposts but developed to the fullest by Augmented Reality Technologies, which integrate virtual elements with a naturally
perceived environment. I will discuss these latter technologies in more detail in
Chapter 9.
This subclass of cognitive artefacts has to be distinguished from a second subclass, whose purpose is to provide information that relates to a largely or entirely
closed, artificial environment which is supposed to be perceived and treated in
analogy to the perception of a natural environment. Hence, the environment about
which there is information will be created by or within the artefact. The domain of
the information involved is closed and self-contained, and typically can be clearly
identified as such, independent of the degree of realism involved. Such will be the
case, to a limited extent, for pictorial forms that do not picture real-world objects
and scenes, whereas the paradigm of this class of cognitive artefacts are Virtual
Reality or simulator environments, such as flight simulators.
traffic situation and my behaviours is integrated in order to raise my attention to
the situation at hand.
In cases of this kind, my purposes are certainly affected in the most straightforward fashion. Moreover, my informational environment is altered, in terms of
cues being added that are relevant to my further course of action but that would
remain, by definition, as it were, out of my perceptual reach in the kind of situation at hand. I will have to learn to make use of those additional cues. A driver
assistance system that is successful in improving road safety is supposed to
change my and other drivers’ ecological environment for the better, in terms of
reduced risk of physical harm. The informational relations involved, including
the information the system collects about my behaviours and cognitive states, are
still part of domains of natural information though, as they could be tracked by a
suitably placed real or hypothetical observer – but not the receiver immersed in
the situation.
Convergence and isomorphism
In the two examples briefly discussed in the previous section, the information
involved retains some key properties of natural information. Although there will
be some variance in the mechanisms involved in information uptake and transmission, the relations between the purposefully produced signals and the world
affairs onto which they are supposed to map remain largely continuous with the
relations the receiver would detect when using natural cues in his environment.
More precisely, the subclass of cognitive artefacts exemplified by these devices
is marked by their ability to provide real-time information for perception about
some condition in the environment, and by providing it in the course of being used
within that same environment, so as to guide their users’ decisions and activities
in a given situation. In this class of artefacts, the analogies to the use of natural
information for perception will be as close as factually possible. Their primary
purpose is to provide information that is integrated with natural information for
perception in the natural environment in which they are used – a condition that is
satisfied by artefacts as humble as signposts but developed to the fullest by Augmented Reality Technologies, which integrate virtual elements with a naturally
perceived environment. I will discuss these latter technologies in more detail in
Chapter 9.
This subclass of cognitive artefacts has to be distinguished from a second subclass, whose purpose is to provide information that relates to a largely or entirely
closed, artificial environment which is supposed to be perceived and treated in
analogy to the perception of a natural environment. Hence, the environment about
which there is information will be created by or within the artefact. The domain of
the information involved is closed and self-contained, and typically can be clearly
identified as such, independent of the degree of realism involved. Such will be the
case, to a limited extent, for pictorial forms that do not picture real-world objects
and scenes, whereas the paradigm of this class of cognitive artefacts are Virtual
Reality or simulator environments, such as flight simulators.