>>Τεχνολογία, Καπιταλισμός, Ἱστορία: Ὁ ἀσίγαστος πόθος μιᾶς τεχνητῆς νοημοσύνης, τὰ συσσωρευόμενα πάθη τῶν πλασμάτων τῆς φύσης

Abstract: This paper is an attempt at a critical introduction to the pursuit of
constructing machines capable of artificial intelligence, thinking machines.
This has defined modernity, historical capitalism, through an endless
introduction and use of computing tools and mechanisms (merchant
capitalism) and computing machines (industrial capitalism), mechanical,
electrical, and, since the 1940s, also, electronic. It is popularly assumed
that presenting machines as capable of artificial intelligence is a rather
recent phenomenon. The examples offered here suggest that computing
artifacts were ideologized as intelligent from the beginning of capitalism.
Attention is invited to both offline and online computers, going back to
mechanical calculators and steam engine governors respectively. The case
of the steam engine governor, an online analog of the steam engine that
was connected to the circuit of the steam engine in a ‘negative feedback’
manner, is used to introduce to the limits of artificial intelligence, as these
are linked to the unprecedented environmental crisis that all creatures
of nature are now living with.