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The Nature of The Artificial

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Title: The Nature of The Artificial


1
The Nature of The Artificial
IV International Conference The Culture of The
Artificial. Urbino, Italy, 25-27 May 2001.
  • Augmenting Negrottian Artificiality with
    Heideggerian-Whiteheadian Naturality

Syed Mustafa Ali, Ph.D
2
The Meaning(s) of Nature
  • nature1
  • the collective term for all that exists apart
    from the artificial
  • NATURE AS OTHER TO THE ARTIFICIAL
  • nature2
  • all that exists in the evolving universe of
    space and time
  • NATURE AS EXISTENTIAL TOTALITY
  • nature3
  • that which is expressed all other things being
    equal, when it develops according to its kind
    without outside interference.
  • NATURE AS ESSENCE

EXISTENTIAL CONTINUUM
Ferré, F. (1988) Philosophy of Technology. Englewo
od Cliffs, Prentice-Hall.
3
Mimetic Nature3 of The Artificial
4
The Theory of The Artificial (I)
  • Definition The Artificial
  • An object or machine that reproduces by means of
    different materials and procedures the essential
    performance of a natural object taken as an
    exemplar based on a more or less shared
    representation at a particular observation level.

Negrotti, M. (1999) The Theory of The Artificial.
Exeter, Intellect. Negrotti, M. (1999) From The
Artificial to the Art A Short Introduction to a
Theory and Its Applications. Leonardo 32 (3),
183-189.
5
The Theory of The Artificial (II)
observation level
representation
exemplar
essential performance
nature1
nature3
conventional technology
nature2
?
artificial
6
Evaluation of The Theory
  • Merits
  • Self-evident simplicity of conceptual foundations
  • Possible overall correctness
  • Drawbacks
  • Problematic metaphysical assumptions about the
    nature3 (as essence) of nature1 (as other to
    the artificial)

7
The Philosophy of The Artificial
  • Realism
  • A human-independent reality exists
  • Representationalism
  • Human interactions with phenomena are mediated by
    mental representations
  • Essentialism
  • The essence (or what-ness) of a phenomenon is
    definable in terms of a finite set of necessary
    and sufficient features that it must possess

8
Negrottian Realism (I)
  • Accessible and Inaccessible Reality
  • The objects that we perceive from the
    observation levels that we assume in each unit of
    time and space are not pieces or partial
    spheres of reality rather, they are the
    verifiable reality that we can grasp from those
    selected levels. (p.13)
  • Finite Access to Reality
  • There is no reason to think that, having to deal
    with a finite, limited and filtering sensory
    power, reality should disappear from our
    horizon. (p.13)

OBJECTIVE RELATIVISM (OR)
9
Negrottian Realism (II)
  • Accessible Reality as Infinite
  • The observational levels of concrete reality -
    both of the natural and of the artificial reality
    - and their interplays have to be considered as
    infinite. (pp.36-37)
  • Inaccessible Reality as Infinite
  • Reality includes, that is to say, it has in
    itself, all the features observable by all the
    species, along with infinite others which cannot
    be observed by any species and which are
    sometimes revealed through investigations using
    scientific instruments. (p.14)

HIERARCHICAL INFINITISM
10
OR TR or ER ?
11
Negrottian Realism (III)
  • Reality In-Itself as Inaccessible
  • it does not matter what the world is in
    itself, since the only ways we have at our
    disposal to describe the world are our
    representations of it. (p.15)

TRANSCENDENTAL REALISM (TR)
12
The Problem of Consciousness
Where appearance is concerned we cannot make the
appearance-reality distinction because the
appearance is the reality. (p.122) Searle,
J.R. (1992) The Rediscovery of The
Mind. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Consciousness provides at least one example of
reality accessible as it is In-Itself.
13
From TR to ER
  • Heideggerian Empirical Realism
  • Hermeneutic (access-oriented)
  • Pluralistic (multiply-moded)

Dreyfus, H.L (1991) Being-In-The-World.
Cambridge, MA. MIT Press.
  • Robust (supports scientific-naturalism)
  • Evolutionary account of consciousness
  • Materialistic conception of nature1
  • nature1 as absurd, meaningless
  • nature1 as In-Itself yet not For-Itself
  • nature1 as non-experiential or vacuous

14
ER and The Hard Problem
The Hard Problem of Consciousness Explaining
how ontological subjectivity (or first-person
experience) can arise in (or from) an
ontologically-objective (or non-experiential)
substrate. Chalmers, D.J. (1996) The Conscious
Mind In Search of a Fundamental Theory. OUP
Heideggerian ER cannot solve it.
15
Post-Heideggerian ER
  • What we know
  • Some form of ER is correct
  • Proof In-Itself reality of consciousness
  • Heideggerian ER is incorrect
  • Proof Failure to solve The Hard Problem
  • Cause Non-experiential ontology of nature1
  • What we must do

Reconsider the nature3 of nature1
16
Rethinking Nature1 A Sketch
WHITEHEADIAN PANEXPERIENTIALISM
A process-atomism in which the fundamental units
of nature1 are dipolar physical-mental events
(actual occasions), relationally-constituted via
a process of actualisation (concrescence) involvin
g mental selection of physical feelings (prehensio
ns) of actualised events (objects) by actualising
events (subject-superjects).
17
Concrescence Subject Phase
OTHER- CAUSATION
PHYSICAL PREHENSIONS
SUBJECT1
SUBJECT2
18
Concrescence Superject Phase
SELF- CAUSATION
MENTAL SELECTIONS
SUPERJECT1
SUPERJECT2
19
Types of Prehension (Feeling)
  • Physical
  • objects of prehension are concrete actualities
    (prior actual occasions)
  • pure
  • actualities prehended in terms of their physical
    pole
  • hybrid
  • actualities prehended in terms of their mental
    pole
  • Conceptual
  • objects of prehension are abstract potentialities
    (eternal objects)

20
Aggregates and Individuals
  • Collections (or complexes) of actual occasions
    form societies or nexus
  • Societies can be distinguished into two kinds on
    the basis of internal structure
  • Aggregates
  • non-experiential, non-creative
  • Compound Individuals
  • experiential, creative (regnant monad)

21
Post-Mimetic Artificiality ?
  • Conventional panexperientialism does not provide
    any criteria other than the mimetic (behavioural)
    by which to distinguish aggregates from
    individuals
  • Problem Case 1
  • Pseudo-non-experience (Guillain-Barré syndrome)
  • (Searle 1992)
  • Problem Case 2
  • Pseudo-experience (Chinese Room, Zombies)
  • (Searle 1980) (Chalmers 1996)

22
The Poietic Difference (Ali 1999)
The being or existence) of an actual entity is
its becoming or process (Whitehead)
Being and becoming are the same in the sense that
they belong together in essential, unitary
relation (Heidegger)
A difference in becoming entails a difference in
being
?
23
Phenomenology of Artificing
Aristotelian Framework
NATURALS
ARTIFACTUALS
24
Panexperientialist Conception
  • Contraction of the field of incoming prehensions
    to a concrescing occasion occurs in two ways
    (Ferre 1996a)
  • forcing discordant elements on subjectivity
  • negating elements of potential richness (pure
    physical feeling)
  • En-forcing or En-Framing (Heidegger 1977) is
    an intrinsically temporal process involving
    effective purpose sustained over time by constant
    renewal and refreshment (Ferre 1996b)
  • En-Framing involves canalization and
    intensification of originality through hybrid
    prehension (Sherburne 1966)

Artificing as Canalization (En-Framing)
25
Process Model of Artificing
Whiteheadian Framework
NATURALS
ARTIFACTUALS
26
Negrotti on Replication (I)
  • According to Negrotti,
  • We can define A as a replication (in empirical
    terms and not logical) of B if A is the result of
    a reproduction of B at all its observation levels
    by using the same materials and, more
    importantly, by drawing upon all its
    performances, without making any selection of
    essential performances. (p.75)

27
Negrotti on Replication (II)
  • Technological Systems
  • Closed
  • Completely Formal
  • Finitely-describable at single observation level
  • Therefore, replicable
  • Natural Systems
  • Open
  • Partially Non-Formal
  • Infinitely-describable at infinite levels
  • So, non-replicable
  • Assumption of Hierarchical Infinitism
  • However, is the number of levels infinite?

28
Whitehead on Replication
  • Although nature1 is hierarchically infinite, all
    naturals (except God) are finite
  • Non-replicability of naturals follows from their
    openness which follows from ...
  • self-creativity (final causation)
  • Self-creativity more pronounced in higher
    compound individuals

29
Necessity and Sufficiency (I)
  • Replication is only possible in 3 cases
  • When we know all the steps and all the
    components needed to reproduce something, for
    example, in the case of mass production
  • When we are able to act as combiners of natural
    elements which, when they are combined, are
    necessary and sufficient for producing a complete
    system, as, for example, in the case of
    artificial insemination
  • When the reality to be reproduced is composed or
    is describable from only one possible level of
    observation this is clearly possible only for a
    reality man has himself created in purely formal
    or informational terms, as, for example, in the
    case of replicating a computer program. (p.78)

30
Necessity and Sufficiency (II)
  • On a panexperientialist conception of nature1,
    need to distinguish between
  • preparatory (or subjective) necessity
  • efficient causation (physical and conceptual
    feelings) from prior actual occasions
  • can be established by the artificer
  • consummatory (or superjective) necessity
  • final causation (self-creation) of actual
    occasion
  • cannot be established by the artificer

Even in phenomena such as artificial
insemination, artifactual combination must work
in conjunction with natural combination
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