Powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) generative tools such as chatGPT and DALLE-2 are reaching the awareness of the wide public. It is, therefore, high time to deepen our understanding of the generative processes and the philosophical thinking behind them. In this seminar, Weaver D.R. Weinbaum will present the foundations of Gilbert Simondon’s groundbreaking theory of individuation (Simondon, 2020) as presented in his oeuvre ‘Individuation in the light of notions of form and information.’ This transdisciplinary investigation into all aspects of the real - the physical, biological, as well as psychic/cognitive and beyond has got far-reaching implications on our understanding of the world, us, and others.
In the seminar, we will explore Simondon’s radical shift of focus from individuals to individuation that renders individuals as merely temporary phases of stability within a fundamental generative process of individuation. Foundational concepts of Simondon’s thought, being and becoming, metastability, relation as being, singularities, information, transduction, individual - milieu, the pre-individual, the individual and the transindividual, will be explained with profound implications on our understanding of identity and change.
Next, we will briefly discuss the individuation of physical, biological, and psychic individuals, the individuation of knowledge and the individuation of individuation itself. Connections and comparisons will be made to cybernetics and self-organization.
The third part will be dedicated to open-ended intelligence as a derivation of individuation (Weinbaum, 2022). Open-ended Intelligence is generative by nature and manifests prior to any other kind of intelligence that is already individuated. We will discuss the relations and differences between Open-ended Intelligence and the more conventional understanding of intelligence as goal-oriented or problem-oriented. Finally, we will question the significance of generative processes to our understanding of general intelligence and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
References
Simondon, G. (2020). Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information (T. Adkins, Trans.). Univ Of Minnesota Press.
Weinbaum, W. D. R. (2022). Open-Ended Intelligence. Bright Hall Publishing.
About the speaker
Weaver D.R. Weinbaum is a free thinker and researcher at Center Leo Apostel (CLEA), Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB). He is also an instructor in the School of Thinking at the VUB. He holds a PhD in interdisciplinary studies -- philosophy, psychology and science, from the VUB (2018) and M.Sc. (Magna cum Laude) in electronics and computer engineering from Tel-Aviv University (1989). His research interests extend to Philosophy of mind, Cognitive Science, Foundations of thought, Metaphysics, Complex systems, Individuation and self-organization, Cybernetics, Theory of evolution, The Singularity, Postmodernist philosophy, Tantric teachings, Shamanic practices, Psychedelics, Theory of Emptiness, Butoh dance, Storytelling and the Absurd.
Practical
The CLEA seminars are taking place simultaneously at the VUB campus in Etterbeek, Brussels, and online (via Zoom) and are open to everyone interested!
When. Saturday March 11, 2023 from 16:00 until 18:00h
Where. Center Leo Apostel (CLEA house), Krijgskundestraat 33 - 1160 Brussels (near VUB)
Online. You can follow the seminar online via Zoom. You may need a Meeting ID and passcode to enter.
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82757798426?pwd=em9sQlJDVjJYTEFRNk01dEJLWGxGUT09 Meeting ID: 827 5779 8426Passcode: 122127
Video:
Acknowledgement
This seminar was supported by the John Templeton Foundation through the grant ID61733 The Origins of Goal-Directedness.
