Author Archives: user

The case of Moses and Freud: the birth of consciousness

In his last book, “Moses Man and Monotheistic Religion,” Freud argues that the advent of the alphabet marks the transition from prehistory to history, from the primitive unconscious to the consciousness of historical civilization. For the first time, a human group, the Israelites on Sinai, has technology that enables the entire community (not just a…

Technology and wisdom: the invention of alphabetic writing

This is not the first time in history that a technology has revolutionized humanity’s cognitive, religious and ethical ecosystem. An extraordinary precedent, influencing humanity for 3,000 years, is the introduction of the alphabetic writing technique. The advent of Artificial Intelligence has all the characteristics of a profound revolution, destined to affect not only the economy,…

Knowledge or shared wisdom?

Umberto Eco called the encyclopedia “the shared knowledge” of a cultural community. After the multimedia encyclopedias of the 1990s, came the era of the search engine, and ultimately the World Wide Web itself, which can also be called “shared knowledge.” After 20 years in which Google searches gave access to knowledge, it is now generative…

Chatting with tempting devils or guardian angels

In the cultural tradition of various civilizations, humans have also in the past imagined higher forms of intelligence, both positive and negative. In particular, we recall guardian angels and tempting demons, ethical metaphors of great influence, for example, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, but not only. Great authors such as Dante in the Divine…

Confessors, psychologists and spiritual assistants

In our now secularized Western society, we still have several spiritual and ethical assistants shared by different social groups. In the past, the need for a confidential interlocutor to whom one could confide one’s doubts and problems was satisfied, for example for Catholics, by the existence of a confessor. The role of priests and saints…

Artificial politically correct or Trumpian ideology?

Is Artificial Intelligence morally neutral? Absolutely not. We are in fact exposed to a powerful ethical-political filter even in the use of generative AI, which is now within everyone’s reach. Try questioning ChatPGT on morally relevant issues, such as gender equality or racism. The answers will be strongly marked by politically correct filters. We are…

The future influence of AI on ethical values and behavior

What is artificial intelligence? To what extent can it catch up with, surpass or replace human intelligence and in what forms? To find answers to these questions, we need to focus on what we mean by intelligence: is it only knowledge (knowing what), or is it also wisdom (knowing for what)? According to Aristotle, wisdom…

Not in or beside, but on top of the AI

A typical strategy of the Above AI approach is related to positioning: we should avoid being subjected to an oracular and monological AI (such as that of ChatGPT and generative conversational interfaces in general), but we should also be wary of being “flanked” by an AI model that acts as an equal assistant, sooner or…