AI, Cyborgs, and Cosmic Cognition: The Bioethics of Alterity
Instructor: Maxim Miroshnichenko, PhD with Catherine Malabou, PhD (Guest)
Description
This course will dive deep into the non-anthropogenic concepts of cognition, challenging traditional brain-centered views. We will explore the tenets of pancognitivism in modern cognitive science and understand its implications in AI engineering. After that, we will delve into cybernetic symbolism and iconic calculus, examining the nuances of human-AI communication and face recognition systems. The course concludes with a critical look at the ethics of our interaction with AI, especially in the age of human-machine hybrids and cyborg technologies. This course bridges philosophy with AI engineering for a comprehensive, ethically grounded perspective.
Session 1
Prosthetic Minds and Philosophers’ Stones: Beyond Neuromimesis
This class will critically assess the anthropogenic ideas of brain-centered cognition. Working with the abstract functional conceptions of intelligence, we will see how philosophy can transcend beyond carbon chauvinism and how it can be applied in AI engineering.
Reading
Parisi, L. (2014). Contagious architecture: Computation, aesthetics, and space. The MIT Press.
Session 2
Cognition Everywhere: The Biocosmology of Intelligence
During the class, we will delve into the radical program of pancognitivism, or pan-proto-cognitivism, developed in recent cognitive science. Based on the philosophical interpretations of thermodynamics, we will see how cognition spans across different levels of material assemblages, both natural and artificial.
Reading
McGregor, S. (2018). Cognition is not exceptional. Adaptive Behavior, 26(1), 33-36.
Session 3
Faceless Cognition: AI Personae, Xeno-communication and Psychographics
How is it possible to communicate with AI? Must it possess a human-like face? Based on the cybernetic symbolism of iconic calculus, we will see how one can formalize and automate reflexive processes and face recognition systems.
Reading
Lefebvre, V. (1975). Iconic calculus: Symbols with feeling in mathematical structures. General Systems, 20, 71-93.
Session 4
Steps To Hybridity of Mind, or the Bioethics of Alterity
This lesson focuses on the ethics of coexistence and cooperation in the age of ubiquitous computing and the emergence of environmental algorithmic intelligence. We will assess the normative ethical approaches to AI and reconsider them in the context of human-machine hybrids and cyborg technologies.
Reading
Froese, T. (2014). Bio-machine hybrid technology: A theoretical assessment and some suggestions for improved future design. Philos. Technol., 27, 539–560.