Extended cognition and life after death

Abstract

Minimally cognitive processes are identified in animals that have no central nervous system, in bacteria and in plants, and even in nonbiological systems that exhibit self-organization, self-sustenance, and group coordination. The common thread among these living and life-like systems is that they all participate in an adaptive dynamic bidirectional exchange of energy and information with their environment. Some of the cognitive processes that these systems exhibit are best detected not inside the system but instead emerging in that bidirectional exchange between the system and other nearby systems. This externalization of some portion of an organism’s cognition suggests that a common currency of cognitive activity (not relying solely on a neural substrate) could support an account of cognition wherein it spreads among organisms and their epistemic tools. When an organism’s cognition is extended out into the environment, a contiguous manifold of cognitive activity allows some of that cognition to persist after its death.