What if we are not – simply – (biological) computational machines?
What if nature is not composed – simply – of discrete data?
The book is a philosophical study of the foundations and some significant consequences of Artificial Intelligence. Its chapters revisit the triptych of human–nature–technology with reference to this artifact, attempting to confront it with its true self, which is often forgotten or concealed. Its aim is to contribute to the deconstruction of false beliefs and dystopian predictions grounded in misunderstandings or idealizations about the nature, applications, and functioning of (more accurately formulated by the author) Artificial “Intelligence.”
Within this framework, the central problem highlighted is the abandonment of critical inquiry into what constitutes intelligence in humans. In the mid-20th century, and based on ontological and epistemological foundations gradually formed since the dawn of modernity, the scientific community accepted as given, on one hand, the assumption that nature and the world can be fully datafied, and on the other, that intelligence is exhausted in the computational processing (of the world's data) – and since the latter can be programmed into artificially constructed machines, these were regarded as “intelligent.” But if, as the author argues, intelligence is not limited to this function, then the term “Artificial Intelligence” is misleading. Meaning-making, imagination, embodiment, curiosity, interest, concern, will – concepts that resist machine simulation – emerge as the limits of machines.
The book does not reject Artificial Intelligence wholesale nor is it technophobic. However, it seeks to place it – or perhaps restore it – in its proper place. In this way, it intends to contribute to limiting the myths created around it, which are responsible for its social, political, and economic consequences.
