The Mediated Mind – Rethinking Representation

This paper will discuss the role of networks in cognition on two levels: on the level of the organization of ideas, and on the level of interpersonal communication. By way of introduction, however, let me refer to the level which is the most basic: that of neurophysiological organization. The adult brain has around 100 billion neurons, linked to each other by axons. Most axons connect nearby neurons within the same functional region, some axons link up with neurons in neighbouring brain regions, and a small number of axons link brain regions that are far apart. Neurophysiological processes make up an efficient and concerted whole due to the fact that the neurons of the brain constitute a "small-world" network in the sense of Milgram and Watts–Strogatz, with "weak ties" in the sense of Granovetter connecting clustered nodes. In an experiment Harvard professor Milgram conducted in 1967, persons in the U.S Midwest were asked to attempt to reach a certain addressee in Boston by postcard. If the participants knew the addressee on a first-name basis – a very unlikely assumption – they were to send the postcard to him directly. Otherwise they were to send the postcard to someone they knew on a first-name basis who could be assumed to be more likely to know the addressee. Milgram wanted to find out in how many iterated steps the postcard would reach, if at all, the addressee. An average of 5.5 was the surprising result. Milgram's problem was soon taken up by Mark Granovetter, who in his classic paper pointed to the indispensable social role of personal relationships leading beyond one's intimate circle of friends and thereby connecting distant circles with each other. Granovetter's approach was then further developed and generalized by Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz. Let us note that the famous formula "six degrees of separation" did not originate with Milgram. It was first introduced in John Guare's 1991 play of that title. As Guare put it: "Everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people."