The Extended Mind: AI, Cognition, and the Four-Day Week

The Extended Mind: AI, Cognition, and the Four-Day Week

We once automated manual labor. Now, we are automating the mind itself. Unlike the assembly lines of the past, generative AI targets non-routine cognitive work: judgment, synthesis, and composition.

Dr. Will Stronge explores how this shift radicalizes the philosophy of the "extended mind." If thinking has always moved beyond the skull through tools and maps, AI now becomes a constitutive part of the cognitive unit. This evolution raises urgent questions about cognitive atrophy, the loss of productive friction, and the ethics of thinking within ecosystems we do not own.

The stakes are material. By 2033, AI-led productivity could grant nearly 28 million workers a significant reduction in hours. We face a definitive distributive choice: do these gains flow to capital, or do we socialize them as free time? Join us to discover why the four-day week is part of a logical response to this new era of automation.

Bio

Dr. Will Stronge is the co-founder and Director of Research at Autonomy, the UK’s leading think tank dedicated to the future of work and the post-carbon economy. A visionary in the fields of political philosophy and labor economics, Will has become one of the most prominent advocates for a shorter working week, helping to spearhead the world’s largest trials of the four-day week.

He holds a PhD in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Brighton and is the co-author of several foundational texts on modern labor, including Overtime: Why We Need a Shorter Working Week (Verso, 2021) and the forthcoming Post-work (Bloomsbury, 2025).

As a frequent commentator for the BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times, he is widely recognized for translating complex data into radical, pragmatic solutions that challenge how we think about productivity, technology, and our most valuable asset: time.

Venue

34 Sekforde Street
Clerkenwell
London
EC1R 0HA

Event Running Time:
Doors from 7pm
Introduction: 7:25pm
Lecture: 7:30pm
Q&A: 8:10pm