Cybernetics
Extended circuit
Following Gregory Bateson, an account of mental and practical life that includes the pathways of information and support beyond the skin.
Also called: extended mind
Limit: Being part of someone’s explanatory circuit never grants authority over another person’s body, time, or consent.
When a blind person walks down a street with a cane (Plate III), the living loop of perception and balance runs through pavement, cane, palm, nerve, and step together. In the Toroidal Way, we honor this extended circuit by thanking the unseen people and tending the tools that hold our lives together.
At the same time, we pair every discussion of the extended circuit with an unmistakable ethical boundary: including another person in your understanding of how the world works never makes them an instrument under your command. Explore this distinction in The Self in Relationship and the boundary instrument.