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7 - Artificial Intelligence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

Raymond Noble  and
Denis Noble
Raymond Noble
Affiliation:
University College London
Denis Noble
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool created by living organisms, us humans. Like the hydraulic robots of the seventeenth century which inspired Descartes’ mechanical view of organisms, AI has become the latest in a list of mechanical metaphors for life. Yet it is just as limited, just as much a mistaken view of organisms. It views life as just processing further and further information faster and faster. Computers exist to process rapidly. That is their function, given to them by the humans who created them. Organisms use processing to help them create objectives, purpose.

Keywords

purposive behaviourteleologycreative evolutiongene delusionecological intelligencegene-centrismthe central dogmaWeismann barrieragencyliving systemssymbiogenesissymbiosiscommunicationlanguagelearningnaturesocial animalsproblem-solvingartificial intelligenceorganism intelligencefree willtransgenerational inheritance
Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding Living Systems , pp. 99 - 112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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