The cumulative advance of human know-how.

Full Abstract

Modern humans possess an enormous amount of 'know-how' that enables them to do things that early humans could not dream of doing. This paper explores some promising connections between two bodies of empirical research and theorizing that bear on technological know-how and its advance. Cognitive science is concerned with the nature and mechanisms of human knowing. The focus traditionally has not been on the knowledge involved in complex technologies, nor on the processes through which human know-how has advanced over time. However, certain recent developments in this field provide a nice linkage with the implicit cognitive theorizing used by scholars who study the advance of technology. And a number of the debates in the two fields are similar.

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Author information

Author/s: Nelson, Katherine (K); Nelson, Richard R (RR);

Affiliation: Program in Developmental Psychology, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences (Philos Transact A Math Phys Eng Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Aug; vol 361 (issue 1809) : pp 1635-53

Dates: Created 2003/09/03; Completed 2003/10/30; Revised 2004/12/15;

PMID: 12952678, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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