x This is the thesis of the extended mind: when parts of the environment are coupled to the brain in the right way, they become parts of the mind.

p.13 another important characteristic of embodied, embedded cognition... the Principle of Ecological Assembly (PEA). According to the PEA, the canny cognizer tends to recruit, on the spot, whatever mix of problem-solving resources will yield an acceptable result with a minimum of effort.

p.71 Epistemic actions stand in contrast to pragmatic actions. The latter are actions designed to bring one physically closer to a goal. Walking to the fridge to fetch a beer is a pragmatic action. Epistemic actions may or may not yield such physical advance. Instead, they are designed to extract or uncover information. Looking inside the fridge to see what ingredients are available to cook tonight's dinner is a mild species of epistemic action.

p.71 Kirsh and Maglio's (1994) claim was that epistemic actions are pervasive and their importance underestimated by the sciences of mind.

p.72 A natural way to think about epistemic actions is in terms of the Principle of Ecological Assembly (sec. 1.3). The costs (temporal and/or energetic) of adding nonpragmatic actions to the problem-solving mix are outweighed by the benefits conferred.

p.75 The human agent, one might say, is nature's expert at becoming expert.

p.77 Parity Principle. If, as we confront some task, a part of the world functions as a process which, were it to go on in the head, we would have no hesitation in accepting as part of the cognitive process, then that part of the world is (for that time) part of the cognitive process. (Clark and Chalmers 1998, 8)