The reappearing tool: transparency, smart technology, and the extended mind
Ai & Society February 7, 2018 M. Wheeler
Expert performance with technology is often described as involving the disappearance of that technology from conscious experience, a phenomenon called transparency. This idea, rooted in the phenomenology of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, has influenced user interface design and the philosophy of extended cognition, where transparency is considered necessary for technology to become part of the mind. However, smart artefacts equipped with artificial intelligence pose epistemic challenges that call for a reassessment of the drive for transparency in technology design. The argument suggests that transparency may not always be desirable, with implications for the concept of extended minds in contemporary technological contexts.