Man is not made of letters and numbers, or even algorithms and data.
The drive removal accomplished by alphabetic writing led us to abstract thinking, enabled by the alphabet and mathematical signs.
Man is not made of letters and numbers, nor of algorithms and data. The drive removal achieved by alphabetic writing has led us to abstract thinking, enabled by the alphabet and mathematical signs. In the face of the rise of bodiless artificial intelligence, we need to recover the bodily and spatial dimensions of knowledge and learning that are distinctive to human beings. We could call “logosomatics” that form of thinking that fully values the body as the leading actor in human knowledge. Neuroscience has pointed out that in evolutionary history it is crucial to be able to navigate different environments and remember safe areas with vital resources, and that the places in which we live continually shape us.
If GPS neurons, discovered by Nobel laureates O’Kefee, May Britt and Moser, are brain cells that help us navigate physical space, they also contribute to the construction of autobiographical memory, in which personal identity is associated with specific places and times.
Place cells create an internal map of the surrounding space; grid cells create a virtual grid that maps the environment, calculating distance and direction; other specific cells detect the direction of the head and give information about orientation in the surrounding space.
The brain also creates a social map of the location of other people with whom we relate.
When our relationships take place through social or telematic means, such as in video calls, our brains are not stimulated to perform any of the tasks we have just discussed: social and video calls are absences of place, and they weaken personal identity and social roles, which are reinforced when interpersonal relationships take place in physical spaces.
The sense of place produces “placeness,” a set of emotions and information that make the place unique and special. It follows that in learning, motor, spatial, bodily experience is and must remain central and fundamental. Another new dimension of learning should also be investigated, that of immersive technologies, including integrated with Artificial Intelligence, a fundamental challenge for future forms of knowledge.
Italiano