Physical creatures in a digital world
Alan John Dix · 2011
We are creatures of flesh and blood, our whole cognitive nature well fitted to a physical world of solid things, and yet, within our lifetimes, learning to deal with digital devices our flint-knapping forbearers could never envisage. This paper explores some aspects of this. Inter alia, we see how Fitts' law is really a law of cybernetic extension and how this extension has been part of our being since the earliest humans and we discuss the way imagination and externalisation, two complimentary aspects of our cognitive being, fit us for physical life and yet are also essential as digital denizens.