Collapsing the Singularity: Bergson, Gibson and the Mythologies of Artificial Intelligence

The “Singularity” is the hypothetical point in time – considered by AI writers to be very close – where artificial intelligence and super intelligent machines meet and surpass human intelligence. Yet neither AI theory nor Cognitive Science – equally committed to the computer model of mind – have begun to make the needed considerations on what the human mind truly is. While they have entertained “embodiment,” or “embodied cognition,” and/or J.J. Gibson’s ecological psychology as needed components, these frameworks are themselves only dimly grasped. For coherence, Gibson must be placed within the remarkable model of time, mind and brain of Henri Bergson. This book is a challenge to look deeply at the real nature of human perception, memory, and consciousness, that is, what is required to even begin to claim human equivalence in intelligence. Much of this book is a reorganization, expansion and deepening of portions of an earlier book, Time and Memory: A Primer on the Scientific Mysticism of Consciousness, aimed and refocused for those interested in artificial intelligence and its future.

Stephen Robbins received his PhD in educational psychology/psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1976, with a focus in computer simulation of thought. His doctoral thesis critiqued the computer model of mind then just emerging, describing a theory of consciousness before the problem of consciousness came into vogue. He gravitated from academics into software development, working thirty-three years as an executive in data processing and software firms. With the emerging awareness of the weaknesses in the computer model of mind in the mid-1990's, particularly in the area of consciousness, he began publishing aspects of his theory in academic journals. He and his wife, Susan, live on a small farm in Wisconsin.