Robert Logan Book Launch December 7th - Second Life

The Media Ecology Group in Second Life presents an event to mark the
launch of The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, the Human
Mind, and Culture, the new work by Robert K Logan, Friday December
7th, 2007, 10AM SLT/1PM ET, at the Media Ecology Pavilion in Second
Life (We the living 87,178,22). There will be a brief reading and
virtual refreshments will be served. Avatars attending the in-world
event will have a chance to win an autographed copy of The Extended
Mind.

As well, this event will announce a new book project, Second Lives:
Real Autobiographies from a Virtual World, edited by Ken Hudson and
Robert K Logan. This book will collect autobiographical sketches from
Second Life residents and their real life counterparts into a
fascinating expose of the diverse cross-section of people who
participate in virtual worlds.

Please plan to join us for the launch.

About The Extended Mind:

The ability to communicate through language is such a fundamental part
of human existence that we often take it for granted, rarely
considering how sophisticated the process is by which we understand
and make ourselves understood. In The Extended Mind, acclaimed author
Robert K. Logan examines the origin, emergence, and co-evolution of
language, the human mind, and culture.

Building on his previous study, The Sixth Language (2000) and making
use of emergence theory, Logan seeks to explain how language emerged
to deal with the complexity of hominid existence brought about by
tool-making, control of fire, social intelligence, coordinated hunting
and gathering, and mimetic communication. The resulting emergence of
language, he argues, signifies a fundamental change in the functioning
of the human mind – a shift from percept-based thought to
concept-based thought.

From the perspective of the Extended Mind model, Logan provides an
alternative to and critique of Noam Chomsky's approach to the origin
of language. He argues that language can be treated as an organism
that evolved to be easily acquired, obviating the need for the
hard-wiring of Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device. In addition
Logan shows how, according to this model, culture itself can be
treated as an organism that has evolved to be easily attained,
revealing the universality of human culture as well as providing an
insight as to how altruism might have originated. Bringing timely
insights to a fascinating field of inquiry, The Extended Mind will be
sure to find a wide readership.

Robert K. Logan is a professor emeritus in the Department of Physics
at the University of Toronto.