Why Artificial Intelligence is Impossible

Plato’s Pod host James Myers brings the logic of the characters in ten of Plato’s dialogues to bear on the question of “what is intelligence?” and concludes that “artificial intelligence” is impossible. Plato’s message, that intelligence is developed only in a soul on the basis of the soul’s understanding of motion, is especially empowering for the potential of intelligent humans when big tech companies are racing to generate and profit from algorithmic intelligence that exceeds any human capacity. But the path to intelligence is very different from “machine learning,” because algorithms have no experience of motion and no access to the timeless characteristics of motion. Plato’s characters say that a soul is that which possesses self-generating motion, so that the universe itself has a soul, human souls are part of the universal soul, and understanding the causes and effects of motion – all of which springs from the self-generating motion of the universe – is key to intelligence. Changing our mindsets toward intelligence, and deleting the word “intelligence” in relation to algorithms, could put humanity on a path to a very bright future with our creative intelligence and the technology we are fully capable of developing to serve human intelligence.