Seventeenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

William James’ pragmatist philosophy proposes that all that we experience must be accounted for to find truth. Amongst the many failings of ‘AI’ discourse is the failure to consider the full range of intelligence or consciousness which we find ample evidence of in the world, from the octopus, to fungi, to insect colonies, and to neurodiverse human communities. The reliance in AI algorithmic development on limited and brain-centric cognitive models has, I argue, been a leading cause of the failure of AI, as it ignores the multiplicity of forms of consciousness, and because it perpetuates the Enlightenment model of the bounded individual as the only intelligent form possible. In this paper I utilise James’ philosophical methodology to explore the possibility of ecological intelligence as evidenced in the world, which might offer a different and differential path to AI development.