Unconscious Networks. Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence PDF
Preview Unconscious Networks. Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence
Unconscious Networks This book develops an original theoretical framework for understanding human–technology relations. The author’s approach, which he calls technoanalysis, analyzes artificial intelligence based on Freudian psychoanalysis, biosemiotics, and Latour’s actor–network theory. How can we communicate with AI to determine shared values and objectives? And what, ultimately, do we want from machines? These are crucial questions in our world, where the influence of AI-based technologies is rapidly growing. Unconscious dynamics influence AI and digital technology, and understanding them is essential to better control AI systems. This book’s unique methodology—which combines psychoanalysis, biosemiotics, and actor–network theory—reveals a radical reformulation of the problem of the human mind. Technoanalysis views the mind as a hybrid network of humans and nonhuman actants in constant interaction with one another. The author argues that human unconscious dynamics influence and shape technology, just as technology influences and shapes human unconscious dynamics. He proceeds to show how this conception of the relationship between the unconscious and technology can be applied to social robotics and AI. Unconscious Networks will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in philosophy of technology, philosophy of artificial intelligence, psychoanalysis, and science and technology studies. Luca M. Possati is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto, Portugal. He is the author of many books, including Software as Hermeneutics: A Philosophical and Historical Study (2022) and The Algorithmic Unconscious: How Psychoanalysis Helps in Understanding AI (Routledge, 2021). Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy Epistemic Injustice and the Philosophy of Recognition Edited by Paul Giladi and Nicola McMillan Evolutionary Debunking Arguments Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mathematics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology Edited by Diego E. Machuca The Theory and Practice of Recognition Edited by Onni Hirvonen and Heikki J. Koskinen The Philosophy of Exemplarity Singularity, Particularity, and Self-Reference Jakub Mácha Wealth and Power Philosophical Perspectives Michael Bennett, Huub Brouwer, and Rutger Claassen Philosophical Perspectives on Memory and Imagination Anja Berninger and Íngrid Vendrell Ferran Unconscious Networks Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence Luca M. Possati Updating the Interpretive Turn New Arguments in Hermeneutics Edited by Michiel Meijer For more information about this series and a full list of titles, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Contemporary-Philosophy/ book-series/SE0720 Unconscious Networks Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence Luca M. Possati First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Luca M. Possati The right of Luca M. Possati to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 978-1-032-38551-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-38552-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-34557-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003345572 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Overture 1 32 1 To Take Freud Seriously: Psychoanalysis as Natural Science 34 2 Reassembling the Mind: Psychoanalysis and Actor–Network Theory 81 3 Mediation and Anti-Mediation: Google Glass, the Metaverse, and Social Robotics 114 4 Looking Through Replika: How to Psychoanalyze an AI Chatbot 152 5 Turing and Peirce: A Semiotic Reinterpretation of Computation 176 6 AI, Psychoanalysis, and the Critique of Identity 203 7 Cybernetic Derrida: Différance and the Constitution of the Digital Object 222 vi Contents Conclusions: A Planetary Negotiation 239 Epilogue 244 References 246 Index 263 Figures 0.1 The theoretical structure of this book: Stiegler’s organology, improved by MET, ANT, and biosemiotics 14 1.1 The Freudian method re-interpreted through systems theory 41 1.2 The main concepts of biosemiotics to explain the material dynamics of the constitution of meaning 63 1.3 The main concepts of biosemiotics with Deacon’s integrations 68 1.4 The set of procedures comprised by the Freudian method 76 2.1 The basic form of a bio-collective 106 2.2 The organic stimulus (OS) produces a drive (D), which is its representative or its sign. However, there is a problem (PR) that prevents satisfaction (SA) 107 2.3 The drive therefore seeks another form of satisfaction (SB) and to do so produces a new sign, an interpretant (int), that mediates the relationship between the drive and satisfaction 107 2.4 Following Peirce’s principle of infinite semiosis, the interpretant produces a new interpretant and thus a new form of seeking satisfaction (S1) 107 2.5 The process of succession of interpretants goes on until a point of stabilization is found, or until what Peirce calls a habit (H) is formed 108 2.6 The three levels of the constitution of the mind: the natural conditions of semiosis, the interaction with matter, and the historical evolution of technology 111 4.1 The avatar in Replika’s graphic interface 170 5.1 The Turing information model 186 5.2 The reinterpretation of the Turing model through Peirce 186 5.3 The semiotic structure of TM 192 5.4 The semiotic structure of computation (STM) 194 Tables 1.1 Types of constructions and the effects of MES 39 1.2 Types of objects, concepts, and levels of abstractions in the psychoanalytic method 44 1.3 Forces and related principles in the psychoanalytic model of the mind 45 3.1 The fundamental concepts of the book, which compose the theoretical framework through which we reinterpret psychoanalysis 115 3.2 The types of mediation that technology (T) operates in the relationship between humans (H) and the world (W) 118 3.3 Techno-centric forms of mediation 125 Acknowledgments I thank the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto which made possible the development of this research. I also thank all the anonymous reviewers who allowed me to correct my mistakes. I express my gratitude especially to Andrew Weckenmann for accepting the volume in the Rout- ledge Contemporary Philosophy series.
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