Summary: An interview with [[NOEMA]] editor [[Nathan Gardels]] and Chinese philosopher [[Yuk Hui]].

[[Yuk Hui]] introduces the concept of [[cosmotechnics]], the study of "how [[technology]] is infused with a [[worldview]]". He contasts the cosmotechnics of the east and west-- where in the West we forecast future-tech as a Singularity, in the East the future will more likely be predicted as a chaotic, heterogenous swirling, without a centralized control.

I have attempted to understand Chinese cosmotechnics through the dynamic relationship between two major categories of traditional Chinese thought: “[[dao]],” or the ethereal life force that circulates all things (commonly referred to as the way), and “[[qi]],” which means tool or utensil. Together, dao and qi — the soul and the machine, so to speak — constitute an inseparable unity.

Maybe we should aim for a goal that is the opposite of that of Enlightenment philosophy: to fragment the world according to difference instead of universalizing through a presumed absolute. A new world history has to emerge in the face of the meltdown of modernity.

He mentions a quote by [[Heidegger]] that I find very intriguing.

In Martin [[Heidegger]]'s' famous interview with “Der Spiegel” in 1966, “Only a God Can Save Us,” he was asked, what comes after philosophy? His answer: “[[Cybernetics]].”

[[Nathan Gardels]]:

Heidegger talked about cybernetics as the end of Western metaphysics because, through feedback loops within a system, the organism and the machine, the objective and the subjective, were able to integrate. Henry Kissinger more recently argued that the advent of AI marks the “end of the Enlightenment,” of human-centered philosophy since, like humans, machines can now adapt to their environment by incorporating, through learning from experience, the unexpected events of contingency.

Now, Kissinger argues, instead of the Enlightenment philosophy giving birth to the technological domination of the West, AI is propelling the search for a new philosophy.

Notes on the interview at [[Only a God Can Save Us - Heidegger and Der Spiegel]].

Filed in: [[Literature Notes]]

Related Links: [[The Computational Turn]]