The Problem of Meaning in AI and Robotics: Still with Us after All These Years
Philosophies April 3, 2019 DOI: 10.3390/philosophies4020014 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Mind-body problem 4e cognition Cognitive robotics Artificial life Minimal cognition Dynamical approach Enactive approach Complex systems |
| Citations | 44 |
| Key points | Argues that the problem of meaning in AI and robotics can be addressed by revising the concept of nature to include physical indeterminacy at the macroscopic scale of living beings. |
Abstract
In this essay we critically evaluate the progress that has been made in solving the problem of meaning in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. We remain skeptical about solutions based on deep neural networks and cognitive robotics, which in our opinion do not fundamentally address the problem. We agree with the enactive approach to cognitive science that things appear as intrinsically meaningful for living beings because of their precarious existence as adaptive autopoietic individuals. But this approach inherits the problem of failing to account for how meaning as such could make a difference for an agent’s behavior. In a nutshell, if life and mind are identified with physically deterministic phenomena, then there is no conceptual room for meaning to play a role in its own right. We argue that this impotence of meaning can be addressed by revising the concept of nature such that the macroscopic scale of the living can be characterized by physical indeterminacy. We consider the implications of this revision of the mind-body relationship for synthetic approaches.