Some of the most transformative tools humans have ever invented may be the invisible ones, the tools we think with: language, numerals, writing, maps, diagrams, mnemonics. If you ever felt your thinking shift after learning a new skill (like coding, or math, or a new language, or Photoshop), then you've felt the changes that using a new tool can bring for thought.
This class takes that experience as something worthy of studying and understanding. It turns out we humans have been augmenting our minds with such tools forever: number words that make exact quantities thinkable at all, notations that can make things like calculus (or even just addition) easy or extremely laborious, maps, memory palaces, songlines, metaphors, even just regular old spreadsheets. The research on this question is scattered across many different fields -- linguistics, cognitive science, history of science, HCI, and anthropology, to name just a few -- and we’ll draw on all of them.
The class also takes this phenomenon as something that can be studied as a craft: how do you create a new tool for thought on purpose, and how do you design one well?
Out of our six meetings, we'll spend four weeks pulling some of the research on tools for thought together into a usable picture, and two weeks in workshop mode, where each of us will practice designing a tool for thought for their own life. (Don't worry, it could be something small, like a new concept or a question word.)
A longer outline and more details for the class can be found here: draft syllabus.
Hi, this is Arthur, your instructor for the class. I have been thinking about thinking for a while now, even went to grad school to study it and work on it more, and now I'd like to think about it with others! I have also taught at Praxis CU a couple times already and am offering a class on AI later this summer term.
Want to join? Fill out the application form below!