Continuity, Time, and "Artificial Intelligence"

Abstract

This paper argues against the paradigm of mechanistic reductionism in relation to consciousness. The paradigm impoverishes reality by dismissing the greater part of the experienced world in exchange for control over a small segment. The distortion limits nature with respect to the concept of time and mistakenly defines consciousness as a "property." The concept of time in the paradigm provides no way to account for remembering other than storage and mechanical retrieval of records of past events, erroneously called "memories." The error is the conversion of verbs into nouns: taking actions as bytes and bits of data. Once this is allowed, the idea that the person is the mind, the mind is the brain and the brain is a computer becomes the bedrock upon which the edifice of AI rises beyond its capacity as a useful tool and betrays humanity by blurring the distinction between self and machine. An alternative view is introduced which suggests the idea of Developmental Time instead of Physical Time and replaces "consciousness" with "experience."