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Abstract
Mnemotechnics or the “art of memory” is no longer part of our cultural heritage but, at one time, it was exercised and greatly appreciated starting from Marcus Tullius Cicero who used it to better remember his perorations. However, it was the mnemonists who between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries developed a real method of remembering, based on creating associations between the material to be learned and images of known places or “loci”. Mnemotechnics was a first attempt to expand mental functions and laid the groundwork for a dispute between advocates of tight localization of brain functions and supporters of holism. As neuroscientific knowledge about memory progressed, the existence of an “extended mind” based on the use of technologies that amplify cognitive capabilities was discussed. In line with the concept of the extended mind, the development of neurotechnologies poses the problem of an enlarged mind that implies a fusion of natural and artificial minds. It is therefore right to ask the question in terms of the repercussions on the concepts of person, identity, free will, etc. The advent of brain-brain communication devices also amplifies the problems associated with the agent, responsibility and responsibility of actions, problems that have their distant roots in the mnemotechnics of mnemonists and in the idea of a mind with higher abilities.