applied intelligence (ai) and the truth about Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Classical Wisdom For Modern Intelligence
We live in a world with way too much superfluous information, with little knowledge and even less wisdom. Maybe knowledge and wisdom require less social media noise and nonsense. More introspection and time spent reading actual books? This might be why there hasn’t been any great wisdom created in the 21st century, even the 20th century. Classical wisdom…stoicism — intellectually reliable thinking processes are needed more today than ever before.
Proper interpretation of our world can only authentically be achieved through a disciplined objective process and existence in nature. Judgment and inference are very much part of the intelligence process. Immanuel Kant recognized hundreds of years ago that the chaos of unrestricted sensory data would always remain meaningless unless it is given context. A framework for analysis where preexisting but learned conceptions exist relative to space and time.
Therefore, the applied intelligence (ai) process is a structured process to develop useful strategies for living and succeeding. Taking contributions from math and physics, philosophy, biology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, in developing a framework for decisioning. Do it-yourself strategy development for human progress.
Mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell has said that the world consists of logically independent facts, a plurality of facts and that our knowledge depends on the data we consume, direct and indirect relation to our empirical experiences. He suggests that mathematics could be easily contrived with an artificial system of rules and procedures, unlike applied mathematics, which is natural and inherent to explaining the universe.
Therefore, according to Russell, pure math can be created and modelled to operate, lacking any inherent meaning, grounding in or without connection to nature. Purely syntactical and manipulating symbols and formal rules to invent its own language — outputs of its impressions of reality — running its own game.
According to Russell, pure or elegant invented math models can create their own sequences of logic and reasoning and interpret the universe without consciously or subconsciously knowing the universe. The risk, of course, is that the uninformed, naïve and wilfully ignorant among us begin to believe in such nice models as objective truth.
This leads to machines becoming the arbiters of our lives, exercising their own level of sophistication of self-preservation. With its impossible language (synthetic, not natural and made up), according to the father of modern linguistics, and former MIT Scientist, Noam Chomsky. Is venturing into dangerous territory.
The overriding point is that nice models, reliant on belief in the theory, such as quantum mechanics and large language models (LLMs), for example, can work extraordinarily well. Convincing enough for many to get caught up and be get fooled by the appearance of intelligence. But they aren’t real in the same sense that neutrons and neurons are real, and we shouldn’t confer upon them the status of “truth” or “laws of nature.”
Aristotle, over 2000 years ago said that the pursuit of knowledge shouldn’t be about the pursuit of abstract perfection or the very pursuit itself. Instead, our knowledge is best utilized as a productivity tool, harnessed to our ingenuity that can serve our humanity best.
Science and wisdom have informed us that reality is mathematical. Plato held that the universe is essentially sublime geometric forms that constitute reality. Galileo said, “The great book of nature is written in mathematics.” And Newton confirmed things by helping to define the laws of nature. We humans, therefore, as an integral part of nature. Our intelligence is intrinsically derived from our “Nature” itself.
We humans, therefore, don’t perceive things as they are but rather through the lens of our experiences in the physical and metaphysical world. We are the ultimate predicting machines, constantly learning and inventing our world through our natural intelligence. Correcting our errors in microseconds as we define our existence through our environments — with, through, by and because of our intelligent neurobiological bodies.
As Descartes put it centuries ago, “I think; therefore I am,” as evidence in asserting one’s existence. Machines can never assert such a thing.
AI as an independent pure mathematical reality remains by scientific definition, separate from human intelligence. Separate and not equal.
LLMs are essentially models of representation with narrow utility functionality. Nevertheless, it’s still very useful when applied purposefully, properly, and responsibly.
The goal of technological progress shouldn’t mean achieving perfection, technology works best when it can effectively be applied to focused tasks. If certain models are effective or good enough for the task, then that’s great for the technology, and us. Nevertheless, it still doesn’t mean that AI can solve “all problems” and can replace humans.
Even applied mathematics, the most useful utility we humans have to explain and invent and innovate our world, still, only fundamentally describes patterns and clarifies the universe empirically. So it forever remains up to us humans to critically think for ourselves, and to apply applied mathematics with our applied intelligence to underpin our ingenuity, innovation, and invention.
Pure math, models, and nice-sounding theories, i.e., neural networks, are nice theories I guess, but still science fiction in reality.
Taking the practical Aristotle-like approach is always most useful in getting good answers and getting things done! So by combining the value functions of artificial intelligence (AI), with the value of applied intelligence (ai), we can develop real and robust thinking ecosystems and intelligent technologies to build 21st-century strategies, for solving complex socioeconomic problems.
Ultimately, this should be to main objective of knowledge acquisition — in pursuit of the betterment of our humanity which is the underlying raison d’etre for applied intelligence.
