Representing Reality: Implications for Artificial Intelligence

This is episode #29 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 16th of February, 2023.

A couple of month ago, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, a scientist with a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another Ph.D. in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence).  Bernardo is particularly known for his work at the forefront of the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. Covered in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured on 'Scientific American,' the 'Institute of Art and Ideas,' the 'Blog of the American Philosophical Association' and 'Big Think,' among others. Bernardo is also the executive director of Essentia Foundation, an information hub that identifies and helps to promote scientific and philosophical work relevant to metaphysical idealism or nondualism. In the interview, we touched on various aspects of these topics as well as on their connection to artificial intelligence (details are provided in the notes from the interview).
Here is the show.

Show Notes:
- Theories of (perception of) reality: what is reality and how we make sense of it
- Content representations explained
- How to make room for the subjective (value, meaning, intention, purpose, etc.) in the physical world
- The false mind-matter dichotomy and its connection to language
- AI, its representation(s) of the world, and its illusions
- Augmented reality
- Approaches to AI
- The tension between science and experience
- How to best investigate experience and the first-person perspective
- How (and even should) we bring the subjective in science?
- The isolation of AI: Consequences of losing the ‘Renaissance Man’

Essentia Foundation: https://www.essentiafoundation.org
Media info here: https://www.bernardokastrup.com/p/media.html