CONCEPT
Otto's Notebook
The thought experiment at the heart of Clark and Chalmers's 1998 paper — a man with Alzheimer's whose notebook plays the same functional role as biological memory, and therefore, on the parity principle, counts as part of his mind.
Otto is the most famous thought experiment in contemporary philosophy of mind, a deceptively simple scenario that has generated a vast literature and shaped how an entire generation of philosophers thinks about the boundaries of cognition. Otto has Alzheimer's disease. His biological memory is unreliable. He carries a notebook in which he writes down information he needs to remember. When Otto wants to go to the Museum of Modern Art, he consults his notebook, finds that the museum is on Fifty-Third Street, and walks there. The question Clark and Chalmers pose: does Otto believe the museum is on Fifty-Third Street, even before he consults his notebook? Their answer — yes — launched the extended mind thesis.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The argument works through a comparison. Inga, who has healthy biological memory, believes the museum is on Fifty-Third Street; she recalls this when needed and walks there. Nobody denies that Inga's