Artificial intelligence or artificial signification?

Abstract

The article discusses the nature of the phenomenon 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) from a historical point of view. AI is seen as part of a major "cultural revolution", which is going to change our very concepts of humankind and society, in particular the concept of "intelligence". In a situation like this, we have to be very careful not to project previously established concepts into an area of use which transcends those concepts. The article, therefore, begins with a semantic analysis of our established use of the predicate "intelligence", using Fillmore's case-grammar semantics as its tool of analysis. There follows a sketch of the history of ideas concerning the relationship between human and machine; this interaction of ideas results in what I have called technomorphic anthropology, respectively anthropomorphic technology. After this, the article turns to the core of the AI-discussion, viz., the relationship between AI and HI (Human Intelligence). This problem is stated as being a matter of either analogy or homology. After an outline of the anthropology of HI, the article investigates the nature of AI, my goal being not only to point out what AI lacks in comparison to HI, but primarily what it is in itself, an embarrassing new phenomenon whose possible consequences are the object of the concluding, futurological epilogue. © 1982.