Join us at this week's meeting of the Philosophy Club virtually or in-person (Auerbach 320) on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 1 p.m.—2 p.m. as Brian Skelly speaks of the illusory depictions of intelligence behind the Artificial Intelligence movement.
There is no doubt that computer search-engine technology has come a long way, and that there have been notable improvements in the past few years. To date, the results have been remarkably democratic with respect to language and culture. Just about all written languages and cultures have equitable representation, and the so-called AI offerings of search engines often give cleaner answers without commercialist distractions and tangents. It is thus tempting to say computers are getting smarter, and that if we build enough big data centers, we will finally achieve something that some are calling “super intelligence”: something that is way smarter than we are.
But first we have to inspect the tree or trees up which we are barking and make sure we haven’t got things all wrong, and instead are grossly misconceiving what exactly is we have been achieving. We are at a point where clearing up such misconceptions is becoming vital to our not erring in the paths we take from here into the future.
In particular, for quite a while now, and traceably into our more overtly racist past we have been misconceiving intelligence as an individual neurological trait separately by that is had more or less, such that some of us have notably more of it than others; and that is this is so, then perhaps we can reverse-engineer superior artificial neurological systems to create a super-intelligent agency far smarter than we are.
But we mistake in seeing things this way, a way which permits us also to say that we are smarter than dogs, but dogs are smarter than lizards, as if all intelligence were on a single comparable spectrum. In fact, the comparison between humans and other animals should only be on the level of organismic awareness, not rational awareness, which is a unique trait of humans among organisms of which we are aware. But in either case, it is wrong to say we are smarter than dogs as if it were a matter of degree. Awareness of any kind is not a matter of degree but is an either-or trait. Dogs have canine organismic awareness and are unrivaled in that possession. Insofar as we are organisms, we have human organismic awareness and are unrivaled in that possession. But insofar as we have rational awareness—a truth-oriented awareness distinct from but collaborative with our survival-oriented organismic awareness, we are unrivalled in nature as we know it—and we possess it as an either-or trait, which therefore cannot be made more or less, but can only be developed. It is in our development over time of our rational awareness that human intelligence reaches its excellence; and it does that primarily in a social manner.
Brian Skelly has been teaching Philosophy locally for more than 30 years. Starting with a Bachelors' Degree. in Anthropology at Michigan State University, he moved on to study Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome Italy, and later returned to earn his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Skelly’s interests vary from religion, science, and music to world languages and culture. He has taught a wide range of courses, including Biomedical Ethics, Ethics in the Professions, Ethical Problems, History of Philosophy, Logic, and Introductory Anthropology.
His publications include Introduction to Philosophy - Themes for Classroom and Reflection, Third Edition, Cognella, 2022. ISBN: 978-1-7935-2686-1 (Expanded to sixty-two original essays) and Religious Liberty According to the Conciliar Declaration “Dignitatis Humanae” in the Teaching of John Paul II Through 1983, by Rev. Andrzej Pogorzelski. Translation from Italian by Brian D. Skelly. Elk-Hartford, 2017. ISBN: 978-83-60737-56-9; Logic Between the Lines - Making Philosophical Sense of Logic and Logical Sense of Philosophy, Cognella, First Edition, Revised, 2026. ISBN: 978-1-7935-5065
Questions? Contact Brian Skelly at bskelly@hartford.edu or 413.273.2273.
An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
Come live or join online! Invite friends. Suggest topics and activities. Take over the club! It belongs to you!