The Mind Can't Act Alone and AI Can't Either

About this episode

This episode explores the relationship between the brain, AI, and the interconnectedness of bodies and places.

Hello Interactors, It’s winter. So, as the sun tilts toward the sun (up north) my writing tilts toward the brain. It’s when I put on my behavioral geography glasses and try to see the world as a set of loops between bodies and places, perception and movement, constraint and choice. It’s hard to do that right now without running into AI. And one thing that keeps nagging at me is how AI is usually described as this super-brain perched in the cloud, or in a machine nearby, thinking on our behalf. That framing inherits an old habit of mind. Since Descartes, we’ve been tempted by the idea that the “real” mind sits apart from the messy body, steering it from some inner control room. Computer metaphors reinforced the same split by calling the CPU the “brain” of the machine. And now we’re extending the metaphor again with AI as the brain of the internet, hovering overhead, crunching data, issuing guidance. An intelligence box directing action at a distance is a tidy picture but it risks making us miss what’s actually doing the work. Let’s dig into how the brain leverages the loops of people, places, and interfaces we all move through to extend it’s richness and reach. GRADIENTS GUIDE…

People in this episode

Host: Brad Weed

Topics covered

• AI
• brain
• behavioral geography
• perception
• movement
• society
• technology

Keywords

• AI
• brain
• Descartes
• behavioral geography
• perception
• movement
• technology

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