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and nature or, as the Greeks would have it, evolution on our planet, namely that of mutual
between phúsis and téchnê. aid. Mutual aid, an instinct that accounts for
survival itself (and that is a new take on Darwin),
However, has this separation really been is just another name for solidarity if it is viewed
established by the Greeks and are we not (still, from a social (and likewise socialist) perspective.
always) enthralled by rationalist thinking that Mutual aid is the antithesis of animosity and the
gave a spin to that venerable tradition itself? notorious struggle for existence, although, as a
Without going into specifics, let us briefly turn concept, it has never quite gained ground. Be
to Aristotle. Art imitates nature. This saying is that as it may, it turns out that not only have
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so common that it has almost lost its attribution.n. humans not lived up to their nature, but that
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And if Aristotle does come up with this they, the inventors of violence and exploitation,
definition, exploring the nature of mimesis, he have utterly corrupted the relationship between
likewise makes another observation: art finishes téchnê and phúsis. In other words, it is not
off (épitélei) what nature cannot produce. To humanism that AI threatens to shatter, but, in
be absolutely exact, he claims that in certain fact, it is the latent alliance between technology
instances art completes what nature is incapable and nature that it seeks to prolong. Or restore.
of producing, while in others it imitates nature.
It would seem that modern philosophy has A non-instrumental vision of technology has
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completely forgotten (indeed repressed) the first taken full shape in the 20 century, which
part of this dictum. But if we give it a closer look, means that technical innovations are no longer
as the French philosopher Philippe Lacoue- seen in terms of a simple extension of human
Labarthe once strongly suggested, we discover capacities, as was the case with the telescope or
that nature and art (in the sense of artifice or any the microscope, which enhanced human vision.
masterful activity) are not as opposed to each Already in the 19 century the human and
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other as one might imagine. Indeed, if nature the machine form a much more complicated
itself produces (it has the capacity to fabricate or ensemble, where the human is as much part of
aI: to make), this already points to the fact that there the machine as the latter is of its human operator
(the conveyor belt being a perfect example).
is something in nature that makes art possible.
Of course, what is implied is a lack that has to According to the French thinker Gilbert
a Challenging Return to nature? be filled in, and all our technical discoveries, in Simondon, humans and technology constitute a
network of evolving mutual relations: technical
fact the whole of culture, can be seen precisely in
Helen Petrovsky terms of overcoming or filling this lack. Humans objects serve as mediators between humans and
RAS Institute of Philosophy are beings marked by an inherent “handicap,” nature, while humans, in their turn, mediate
and even language is just a way of overcoming
between insensate machines. It is remarkable
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle one’s separation from nature. But on the other that such thoughts have been formulated
hand, if nature produces (and it does have its own well before the invention of AI. And it is also
poíēsis), it means that art, in its turn, becomes a instructive. Today AI as an indiscriminate
way of comprehending nature. In other words, absorber of data is criticized for the suppression
it becomes an intellectual tool, throwing light of the singular in favor of the average or the
upon its own unapparent beginnings. banal. It is rightly observed that IT giants
and other big corporations are beginning to
Artificial intelligence, AI, seems to have lately modus operandi. We may know its input and How is this helpful in terms of AI? First of exploit this invention to the greatest possiblelele
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become the real bone of contention. The dividing its output, but there is no way of telling how the all, this reading allows us to remove the sad degree. However, market consumption and/or
line is almost crystal clear: producers versus processing of data in the black box of neural divide between nature and technology. Or, manipulation is not a characteristic proper to
users. The manufacturers of this unprecedentedd networks actually takes place. Modeled on the which amounts to saying the same thing, it AI. Rather, we are again dealing here with that

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product are full of enthusiasm regarding its human brain, AI displays such striking features allows us to see the organic underpinnings of intrusion that destabilizes the fine line between
actual and future uses, while the educated public as a capacity for learning (what could be more technology. This means that technology and nature and technology, between phúsis and
remains suspicious, if not outright skeptical, human, if one comes to think of it) as well as the nature form a continuum of sorts, something téchnê. Perhaps, in some way it may even be
deploring the ultimate “mechanization” of ability to correct its own mistakes by taking a that was well known to Peter Kropotkin, the inevitable. Still, the potential of technology, AI
human capacities and the waning of humanity in step backward and analyzing its previous move, famous Russian scientist and revolutionary. included, remains to be further appreciated and
general. However, already at this point we are on a procedure known as backpropagation. Which He insisted on a scientific method that studied explored.
shaky ground. Even if it is commonplace to think is to say that the very functioning of AI proves to social institutions along the lines of “natural-
of AI as just another technological development, be not so much technical as organic, if we insist scientific investigations,” but, most importantly,
in fact it remains totally obscure in terms of its on the agelong separation between technology he formulated a law governing the whole of
w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h