As someone used to ‘4E’ referring to, say, ‘fourth edition’, that the third generation of cogsci is called 4E is a bit confusing. But it stands for Embodiment, Embedded, Enactive, Extended; that is, human cognition is shaped by human bodies, happens in the physical world, is an action, and is extended through interactions with the world and psychotechnologies. [Consider how having a pencil and paper extends thought.]
The main upshot of all of this (besides being more current science) is that it’s a devastating response to Descartes. Actually the mind and body have a deep continuity between them; actually the mind and world have a deep continuity between them.
I should also note that the word ‘emergent’ shows up a lot, I think in a way that doesn’t fall afoul of The Futility of Emergence; they’re not saying “ok, intelligence is emergent, we’re done here”, they’re saying something more like “ok, intelligence emerges from many smaller-scale interactions”, in a way that clarifies what sort of aggregation is going on (contra Eliezer, I think there are things that aren’t well-described by ‘emergent’, and so it is actually adding some bits).
As someone used to ‘4E’ referring to, say, ‘fourth edition’, that the third generation of cogsci is called 4E is a bit confusing. But it stands for Embodiment, Embedded, Enactive, Extended; that is, human cognition is shaped by human bodies, happens in the physical world, is an action, and is extended through interactions with the world and psychotechnologies. [Consider how having a pencil and paper extends thought.]
The main upshot of all of this (besides being more current science) is that it’s a devastating response to Descartes. Actually the mind and body have a deep continuity between them; actually the mind and world have a deep continuity between them.
I should also note that the word ‘emergent’ shows up a lot, I think in a way that doesn’t fall afoul of The Futility of Emergence; they’re not saying “ok, intelligence is emergent, we’re done here”, they’re saying something more like “ok, intelligence emerges from many smaller-scale interactions”, in a way that clarifies what sort of aggregation is going on (contra Eliezer, I think there are things that aren’t well-described by ‘emergent’, and so it is actually adding some bits).