About
I am an AI Fellow at the Paris School of AI, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, and a researcher on Xscape Material Minds, an ERC-funded project at the University of Sussex. My work is interdisciplinary, bridging philosophy and cognitive science to understand how minds change over time and how the tools we build come to shape that change.
I completed my Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Sussex (2021–2025), supervised by Andy Clark and Beatrice Fazi. My dissertation, “Technology and Human Wellbeing: An Approach Through 4E Predictive Processing,” was supported by a Leverhulme PhD Scholarship through the Sussex be.AI Doctoral Training Programme. Before that, I completed an MSc in Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh, an MA in Applied Ethics at Oregon State University, and a BA in English and Philosophy at the University of Sussex.
My current research investigates how emotion and affect shape cognitive change over time — particularly in learning — and how technology reshapes cognition through processes of outsourcing, extending our minds into the tools and systems we build.
Ben White
Research
My research sits at the intersection of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Broadly, I am interested in:
Selected Publications
- Techno-Wantons: Adaptive Technology and the Will of Tomorrow
- Digital Being: Social Media and the Predictive Mind
- Surfing Uncertainty with Screams: Predictive Processing, Error Dynamics and Horror Films
- Material Culture Both Reflects and Causes Human Cognitive Evolution
- Ambient Smart Environments: Affordances, Allostasis, and Wellbeing
- Preventive Mental Health Care: A Complex Systems Framework for Ambient Smart Environments
Teaching
- Challenges of the Digital Society
- AI, Culture and Society
- Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science
- Dynamical Systems and E-Cognition
- Reason and Argument
Curriculum Vitae
Contact
Université Paris Dauphine-PSL
Paris, France