Coordinating minds: mindshaping, communication and technology

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dc.contributor.advisorRoss, Don
dc.contributor.authorFinnegan, Columen
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-29T07:49:16Z
dc.date.available2024-05-29T07:49:16Z
dc.date.issued2023en
dc.date.submitted2023
dc.description.abstractTraditional explanations of social cognition and coordination are under revision. Accounts that emphasise mindreading, the dominant, internalist and spectatorial framework, are challenged by accounts based on mindshaping, an externalist, interactionist concept. Mindshaping places the interpersonal regulation of minds at the root of coordination, and self-generation. However, if the profiles of selves are socially sourced, as mindshaping accounts claim, then structures that interact with these processes call for close examination in light of the new insights. One such structure, that now plays a crucial role in facilitating mindshaping, is digital communication technology. Due to the historical dominance of mindreading accounts, online communication has been primarily conceptualised in individualistic terms. As a result, the content of information communicated online (e.g. fake news, conspiracy theories) is seen as the primary driver of problematic outcomes. However, the mindshaping-based framework reveals that many pernicious features of online discourse are instead caused by the form of online communication and the incentive structures it creates for agents seeking to coordinate action. Specifically, as currently designed, online communication interferes with and modifies the types, range and effectiveness of signals deployed by agents to signal coordination suitability, changing the equilibrium dynamics of quotidian interpersonal coordination. In this new domain, I argue that mindshaping processes like imitation and conformism push agents to strategically adopt increasingly extreme belief sets. This in turn creates significant coordination noise and generates a perception of ecological threat – thereby undermining general social welfare and contributing to political stasis. These outcomes are in part the result of particular interface design choices which are responsive to the economic incentive structure within which online communication providers emerged and operate. However, this incentive structure could be reformed, and mindshaping-based explanations can play a crucial role in guiding such reforms, delineating specific causal dynamics that underpin dysfunctional online communication. I draw together literature from coordination theory, mindshaping, cultural evolution, political economy and online knowledge dissemination to show how the current digital ecology shapes minds in problematic ways but could be re-engineered by regulators to shape minds less perniciously.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationFinnegan, C. 2023. Coordinating minds: mindshaping, communication and technology. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage289
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/15936
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2023, Colum Finnegan.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectPhilosophy of mind
dc.subjectCognitive science
dc.subjectMindshaping
dc.subjectCultural evolution
dc.subjectPhilosophy of technology
dc.titleCoordinating minds: mindshaping, communication and technology
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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