The two kinds of artificial intelligence, or how not to confuse objects and subjects

Abstract

The following essay is a stylistic experiment for Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, re fl ecting on a personal research agenda and trajectory, in relation to the disciplines that the author has engaged with. Interdisciplinary enquiry often arises from the idiosyncratic experiences and decisions of an individual serendipitously following curiosity, alongside the practical contingencies that shape anybody ’ s career. Such a re fl ection, if spanning multiple disciplines through the perspective of one person, cannot possibly be comprehensive, and will certainly expose the gaps in knowledge and loss of rigour that could have been corrected within a single discipline. The intention in presenting such a personal agenda is not to be de fi nitive, but rather to open up discussion by pulling on the loose threads at the edges of discipline. The primary goal of the experiment is to unsettle established disciplinary perspectives, even where the same questions could have been addressed more authorita-tively in another fi eld. 1