Unconscious Networks. Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence

279 Pages·2023·7.525 MB·English

by  Luca M. Possati

Unconscious Networks
This book develops an original theoretical framework for understanding
human–technology relations. The author’s approach, which he calls
technoanalysis, analyzes artificial intelligence based on Freudian
psychoanalysis, biosemiotics, and Latour’s actor–network theory.
How can we communicate with AI to determine shared values and
objectives? And what, ultimately, do we want from machines? These
are crucial questions in our world, where the influence of AI-based
technologies is rapidly growing. Unconscious dynamics influence AI
and digital technology, and understanding them is essential to better
control AI systems. This book’s unique methodology—which combines
psychoanalysis, biosemiotics, and actor–network theory—reveals a
radical reformulation of the problem of the human mind. Technoanalysis
views the mind as a hybrid network of humans and nonhuman actants
in constant interaction with one another. The author argues that human
unconscious dynamics influence and shape technology, just as technology
influences and shapes human unconscious dynamics. He proceeds to
show how this conception of the relationship between the unconscious
and technology can be applied to social robotics and AI.
Unconscious Networks will appeal to scholars and advanced
students interested in philosophy of technology, philosophy of artificial
intelligence, psychoanalysis, and science and technology studies.
Luca M. Possati is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Philosophy,
University of Porto, Portugal. He is the author of many books, including
Software as Hermeneutics: A Philosophical and Historical Study (2022)
and The Algorithmic Unconscious: How Psychoanalysis Helps in
Understanding AI (Routledge, 2021).
Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
Epistemic Injustice and the Philosophy of Recognition
Edited by Paul Giladi and Nicola McMillan
Evolutionary Debunking Arguments
Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mathematics,
Metaphysics, and Epistemology
Edited by Diego E. Machuca
The Theory and Practice of Recognition
Edited by Onni Hirvonen and Heikki J. Koskinen
The Philosophy of Exemplarity
Singularity, Particularity, and Self-Reference
Jakub Mácha
Wealth and Power
Philosophical Perspectives
Michael Bennett, Huub Brouwer, and Rutger Claassen
Philosophical Perspectives on Memory and Imagination
Anja Berninger and Íngrid Vendrell Ferran
Unconscious Networks
Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Artificial Intelligence
Luca M. Possati
Updating the Interpretive Turn
New Arguments in Hermeneutics
Edited by Michiel Meijer
For more information about this series and a full list of titles, please visit: 
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Contemporary-Philosophy/
book-series/SE0720
Unconscious Networks
Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and
Artificial Intelligence
Luca M. Possati
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2023 Luca M. Possati
The right of Luca M. Possati to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-38551-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-38552-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-34557-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003345572
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Overture 1 32
1 To Take Freud Seriously: Psychoanalysis as
Natural Science 34
2 Reassembling the Mind: Psychoanalysis and
Actor–Network Theory 81
3 Mediation and Anti-Mediation: Google Glass,
the Metaverse, and Social Robotics 114
4 Looking Through Replika: How to Psychoanalyze
an AI Chatbot 152
5 Turing and Peirce: A Semiotic Reinterpretation of
Computation 176
6 AI, Psychoanalysis, and the Critique of Identity 203
7 Cybernetic Derrida: Différance and the
Constitution of the Digital Object 222
vi Contents
Conclusions: A Planetary Negotiation 239
Epilogue 244
References 246
Index 263
Figures
0.1 The theoretical structure of this book: Stiegler’s
organology, improved by MET, ANT, and biosemiotics 14
1.1 The Freudian method re-interpreted through systems theory 41
1.2 The main concepts of biosemiotics to explain the
material dynamics of the constitution of meaning 63
1.3 The main concepts of biosemiotics with Deacon’s integrations 68
1.4 The set of procedures comprised by the Freudian method 76
2.1 The basic form of a bio-collective 106
2.2 The organic stimulus (OS) produces a drive (D), which is
its representative or its sign. However, there is a problem
(PR) that prevents satisfaction (SA) 107
2.3 The drive therefore seeks another form of satisfaction
(SB) and to do so produces a new sign, an interpretant
(int), that mediates the relationship between the drive
and satisfaction 107
2.4 Following Peirce’s principle of infinite semiosis, the
interpretant produces a new interpretant and thus a new
form of seeking satisfaction (S1) 107
2.5 The process of succession of interpretants goes on until a
point of stabilization is found, or until what Peirce calls
a habit (H) is formed 108
2.6 The three levels of the constitution of the mind: the
natural conditions of semiosis, the interaction with
matter, and the historical evolution of technology 111
4.1 The avatar in Replika’s graphic interface 170
5.1 The Turing information model 186
5.2 The reinterpretation of the Turing model through Peirce 186
5.3 The semiotic structure of TM 192
5.4 The semiotic structure of computation (STM) 194
Tables
1.1 Types of constructions and the effects of MES 39
1.2 Types of objects, concepts, and levels of abstractions in
the psychoanalytic method 44
1.3 Forces and related principles in the psychoanalytic model
of the mind 45
3.1 The fundamental concepts of the book, which compose
the theoretical framework through which we reinterpret
psychoanalysis 115
3.2 The types of mediation that technology (T) operates in
the relationship between humans (H) and the world (W) 118
3.3 Techno-centric forms of mediation 125
Acknowledgments
I thank the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto which made
possible the development of this research. I also thank all the anonymous
reviewers who allowed me to correct my mistakes. I express my gratitude
especially to Andrew Weckenmann for accepting the volume in the Rout-
ledge Contemporary Philosophy series.