VOLUME LXXIII | JAN 2023

Unlocking the Mystery of Technical Reasoning

Imagine technical reasoning as a special kind of brain power, it’s like having a super ability to navigate the technological world. In their article, the researchers argue that technical reasoning is an essential cognitive capacity that helps us build upon our knowledge of technology and create a cumulative technological culture. However, there are still some questions that need answers. Is technical reasoning just general reasoning applied to technology or is it a unique form of reasoning specific to technology? Has technical reasoning evolved alongside our use of tools? And does it differ across cultures? Answering these questions will bring us closer to understanding the true nature of technical reasoning and its role in shaping human cultures. But before diving deeper into these topics, let’s first explore Heyes’ broader agenda of determining whether cognitive abilities like technical reasoning are innate instincts or learned gadgets. This thought-provoking research opens up new avenues for investigation and could shed light on the origins of our cognitive capacities.

Marc Harper

Marc is a Canadian exercise physiologist in St. John’s, linking fitness to sharper thinking. He writes about real-world ways to stay strong and sharp, inspired by Newfoundland’s tough, no-frills lifestyle.

In our target article in TiCS [1], we argued that technical reasoning is a cognitive capacity that supports cumulative technological culture. Heyes [2] rightly points out the ambiguity surrounding our use of the term ‘technical reasoning’ and sets a research agenda for the future: is technical reasoning general reasoning applied to the technological domain? Is it a form of reasoning that is specific to reasoning about technology? Has technical reasoning co-evolved with human tool use? Does it vary across cultures? Before providing additional elaboration on the concept of technical reasoning that may help start answering these questions, we discuss Heyes’ more general agenda, which seeks to determine whether cognitive capacities, such as technical reasoning, are instincts or gadgets, an issue Heyes raises in Box 1 in [2].
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