Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

Repository | Series | Book | Chapter

201863

The crises of techo-cognitive niches

from maladaptive to terminator niches

Tommaso Bertolotti

pp. 171-187

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyze in full detail a concept I merely introduced at the end of the previous Chap.  8, that is the possibility of a Terminator Niche. The concept of terminator niche should intuitively represent a cognitive niche that instead of benefitting its users with a decreased local selective pressure, has eventually a negative impact on the population's welfare. I will specify this concept along the chapter, first characterizing the specificity of techo-cognitive niche construction, then showing how some maladaptive niches can be individuated in human beings' evolutionary past. Finally I will properly consider the techno-cognitive terminator niche and elaborate upon two relevant cases.

Publication details

Published in:

Bertolotti Tommaso (2015) Patterns of rationality: recurring inferences in science, social cognition and religious thinking. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 171-187

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-17786-1_9

Full citation:

Bertolotti Tommaso (2015) The crises of techo-cognitive niches: from maladaptive to terminator niches, In: Patterns of rationality, Dordrecht, Springer, 171–187.