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COGS

100 Spring 2018

Theme: Enactivism
Assignment 1: Careful consideration of a cane for the blind as a cyborg artifact
DUE DATE: The completed draft of your assignment is due via Turnitin on TritonEd before 11pm on 4/27. No late
submissions will be accepted. It is each student’s responsibility to ensure they submit on time—so please plan ahead.
I. Assignment Goals
• Leverage concepts discussed in the first 4 weeks of class to research and write a paper that clearly and
meaningfully articulates the salient systems (both biological and technological), their component parts,
relationships, and functions that must be considered in order to design and deploy a next-generation cane for
the blind and/or visually impaired.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the core concepts of enactivism, including sub-topics related to cognition
as embodied, embedded, situated, and extended—incorporating concepts of cybernetics where appropriate.
• Synthesize concepts from the readings and lecture in order to thoroughly address the component parts of the
writing prompts, with particular attention to connecting related concepts and generating insight into the
cognitive, human, and cyborg-related aspects of the theme.
• Practice critical thinking to identify, reflect on, and discuss how your proposed solution and related claims
thoughtfully addresses the prompts and the rubric.
• Write a clear, coherent, comprehensive, and concise paper that is scaffolded by the prompts in these
instructions, and that satisfies (and hopefully surpasses) the criteria put forth in the rubric.
II. Project Guidelines
1. Design and/or evaluate the next generation of cane for use by those without vision. As part of this task, you
must draft a report that clearly outlines the more important considerations, requirements, details of
implementation, and implications of use related to such a tool.
2. There are a lot of examples of advanced canes on the market. You are strongly encouraged to build on,
augment, and extend existing work, but even at the bare minimum you should thoroughly evaluate an existing
design using the provided prompts.
3. Perform some preliminary background research on blindness and visual impairment. It is recommended that you
consult a source such as (but not limited to): http://www.who.int/blindness/en/ as a jumping off point—but
there are many resources available online. Do not make assumptions about loss of vision, but rather support
your understanding with factual information. These background information sources do not count towards the
four required citations noted below, but are rather meant to familiarize you with the topic and provide context.
Be sure to indicate the type of visual impairment you are addressing (and why), especially if not full blindness.
4. Work your way through each of the writing prompts below, giving each one approximately the same amount of
time and attention, adjusting as needed depending on your focus. Don’t be afraid to get creative and to engage
critically with the ideas you have been exposed to in the class, but make sure that you are careful and deliberate
in how you approach the prompts, and in how you tie them together.
5. An example of what not to do: if you decided, for instance, that you wanted to implement some sort of sonar
system into the cane akin to that used by a dolphin, you must not (this list is not exhaustive):
a. Simply say “wouldn’t it be cool if…” and then let hand-waving fill in the rest
b. Assume that humans would have the inherent capacity to understand this type of feedback
c. Ignore any discussion of what would need to be different about our brains to make sense of sonar
d. Fail to think critically about the feasibility and usefulness of this approach, etc..

Citations: Please use APA formatting (see owl.english.purdue.edu for a style guide). You must cite a minimum of 2 in-
class sources and 2 outside sources. These secondary sources do not have to be academic, but academic sources are
preferred. You can even cite sources such as a magazine article or TED talk if it is appropriately relevant. Make sure that
you are including your citations in the body of your text, as well as a list of references at the end of your document.

Paper length requirements: 3(min) to 5(max) pages, 12pt typeface, double spaced.
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III. Writing Prompts
Address each of the following prompts, using some of the possible questions as guidance and inspiration for how you
approach each one. These questions are a good starting point, but you are encouraged to expand or focus them as you
see fit during your progress on the assignment. Also remember that connecting the ideas from each prompt is especially
important. The prompts are presented in the suggested ordering, but they may be re-ordered if you feel it would better
serve the presentation of your ideas. Make sure that in your response you close the loop from beginning to end (from
inputs to outputs and everything in between), even if the thing you are describing seems obvious—the fact that it is
taken for granted should actually highlight its importance.

1. Discuss the visual system and its relationship to enactive views of cognition
a. What is the role of the visual system on active sensing and sensorimotor operation?
b. How does vision contribute to embodiment such as proprioceptive sensing?
c. What are the salient consequences of not having vision in the context?
2. Discuss the relevant consequences of having a body embedded in and coupled with an environment
a. What is the relation between the body, space, time, surrounding materials, etc.?
b. What is the context in which the body finds itself such that meaning is created through action?
c. How is this embodiment and embeddedness affected by blindness?
3. Describe the cane as an artifact and extended resource in this context
a. What materials does the artifact/cane consist of?
b. what roles is the cane playing in the cognitive process?
c. Where in the sensorimotor loop is it situated?
d. What are the inputs and outputs to the cane?
e. Which physiological systems is the cane modifying, augmenting, or enhancing (visual, auditory,
proprioceptive, motor)?
4. Reflect on and explain the extent to which the cane should or can be considered a cyborg part, including its
relationship to cybernetics
a. How is the cane coupled and incorporated into the body-world control loop to allow for new cognitive
capacities? What are they and how do they operate?
b. How does this design account for cybernetic and embodied relationships that the cane allows for?
c. At what level of integration into the organism is the cybernetic component? How? Why?
5. Elaborate on any potential pitfalls or limitations of the approach/design you have presented
a. What can’t your design account for? Why?
b. What would could your design ideally account for that it might not be able to do in its proposed state?
c. What are some of the ethical considerations of designing for this community/context?
IV. Rubric
Authors, use the criteria below to review your own work before submission. This rubric is meant to clearly articulate (in
addition to the guidance presented above) our expectations for the assignment to you, and to also give insight into the
overall aspects that your submission will be evaluated on during grading.
DESCRIPTION
1. Enactive/Cognitive resources: Does the text IDENTIFY both observable enactive/embodied resources, artefactual, and
external environmental resources?
2. Enactive/Cognitive resources: Does the text DESCRIBE these resources in sufficient detail such that a reader can tell
what they are, how they operate, and why they matter?
3. Agency and Activity: Does the text describe the ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE of related activity—in both
time and space—including relevant conceptual details?
4. Coordination: Does the text describe how, through activity, enactive/embodied/extended and external material
resources get COORDINATED to produce a specific outcome or cognitive accomplishment?
ANALYSIS
5. Success of solution: Does the text demonstrate a thoughtful and salient EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP between

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blindness, enactivism, and cybernetics?
6. Relationship of concepts: Does the text sufficiently and clearly DRAW RELATIONSHIPS between different conceptual
elements of the prompt pertaining to the theme of enactivism?
7. Consequences: Does the text CRITICALLY EXAMINE and consider the implications of the proposed solution, especially in
terms of the specific details required to realize said solution?
8. Cognitive Outcomes: Does the text ANALYZE these cognitive accomplishments with enough detail to illustrate how the
coordination of resources achieves these outcomes?
9. Use of Cognitive Science ideas: Does the text use ideas from COGS 100 lectures and readings to ILLUMINATE RELEVANT
ASPECTS of enactivism? Does the text include two unique and relevant citations from class and two from outside sources?

STYLE
10. Organization and overall structure: Does the sequence and flow of ideas make sense to the reader, within each paragraph,
between paragraphs, and in the paper as a whole?
11. Grammar, punctuation, spelling: Is the paper clean and free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors?

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