Cognitive metabolism is my three metabolisms applied to thinking. The external one is data, compute and models; the bodily one is situated deliberation; the political one is the institutions that set the terms for foreign cognitive artifacts.
How the word moved
I introduced it in May 2026, in Cognitive Sovereignty, because I needed a third concept to make sovereignty diagnostic in the real world.
In my words
"To apply it diagnostically in the real world, we need a third concept: cognitive metabolism."
from Cognitive Sovereignty, 7 May 2026
Related
- Inherited from Distributed Cognition - the 4E layers map onto the three metabolisms.
- Related Three Metabolisms - same triad.
- Related Cognitive Sovereignty - it's the diagnostic frame for it.