Wayfinding for Human-Technology Relations

• In Event: Technology and the Attention Economy: Postphenomenological Studies

Abstract

In 2005, anthropologist Edwin Hutchins demonstrated how new cognitive entities can occasionally emerge when mental concepts are tightly combined with material “anchors”, to enforce stability in reasoning processes (for instance, an abacus or wristwatch). In several respects, his analysis closely parallels Ihde’s material hermeneutics in human-world relations, as explicated within postphenomenology. This paper aims to examine Hutchins’ notion of cognitive blends—practical structures incorporating both mental and physical aspects—as a contribution to the understanding of instrumental perception, through a case study involving nautical navigation.
Pilots routinely use range markers to guide ships visually, while avoiding hidden underwater obstructions near shore. Here, two stationary markers are remotely positioned in alignment with a known safe track. To help explain the operational technique, imagine two small lights located in a dark room, slightly separated from each other. Although deprived of other visual information, a human percipient can walk along a specific path straight towards this position by maintaining alignment with both lights. In coastal navigation, range markers constitute a remote instrument display from the pilot’s perspective, such that any ship motion misaligned with the proper track produces the parallax effect. Perception accompanied by corrective action to eliminate parallax continuously revises the track of the ship. Thus, successful transit is both enabled and constrained by this instrument.
Conclusions drawn from this case study suggest that current applications of visually “augmented realities” for wayfinding in unfamiliar environments may be more fully understood within the context of material anchoring, reinterpreted as a hermeneutic human-world relationship.

Author

• Stanley C Kranc, University of South Florida