AI-v-Biological-Wisdom | New School Futures

AI v. Biological Wisdom

By John Wood
Emeritus Professor of Design
Goldsmiths University of London
November 2024

INTRODUCTION

In seeking to extend humanity's long-term future, a 2021 report from UNESCO (Carney, 2022) proposed the re-purposing of education as a catalyst to cultural change. However, this would mean defining the ecological purpose of universities, together with a fresh look at terms such as 'learning' and 'knowing'. One approach might be to redefine the concept of 'wisdom' in a broader, more holistic and ecosystemic way. However, such a radical shift might call for individual learning pathways that are bespoke, comprehensive, transdisciplinary, self-reflexive, situated and embodied. Unfortunately, if the customary operational framework prioritises fairness and transparency over curiosity and learning then universities may retain their writing-oriented assignments and examinations and common curricula. Their scholastic approach emerged from the mediaeval monastic tradition of the printed book but it was also shaped by the digital mindset. Now that mainstream institutions have welcomed the use of Artificial Intelligence within their learning programmes the task of re-purposing university education to enhance biological forms of wisdom may now seem even more threatening to the status quo.

Re-purposing the Education Paradigm

Responding to our worsening climate and biodiversities predicament, UNESCO’s 2021 'Futures of Education' report called for the radical re-purposing of education towards a global strategy for change. Helping Homo sapiens to become more attentive to its Earthly habitat may mean challenging some cherished habits and reinventing some of its practices. We might start by consolidating and augmenting what we currently understand as ‘knowledge’ into a broader spectrum of ‘wisdom’. Currently hardly any universities apply the term in their academic discourse. Perhaps this is because it is less reducible than ‘information’ and harder to quantify than ‘knowledge’. This is a challenging idea for the education industry, especially as its business model still operates without the need to declare a fundamental purpose. Yet, without a radical raison d'être, how could universities meet UNESCO's requirements?

PAY ATTENTION!

You will all now indulge me in a multiple choice test. Wake up your screens and answer these questions. They are extremely important because your answers will influence your final grades, so you’d better put on your thinking caps. No conferring. The system will immediately know if you try to cheat. It also has your bank details.

QUESTION 1: What’s the Point of Education?

	POSSIBLE ANSWERS:	agree	disagree
A	To train citizens to choose stuff
B	To train them for jobs in yesterday's ‘real world’
C	To enable them to better enhance the value and potential of others
D	To help Homo sapiens to find its ecological purpose
E	To train a new artificial species to outperform us in exams, art, sports, warfare etc.

Alright, stop clicking now. We’re going to have a discussion in which I will do most of the talking (after all, I am highly qualified and have spent my whole life in institutions). You are yawning….

Natural Wisdom v. Human Genius

Why does the concept of ‘wisdom’ remain absent from academic curricula? Presumably it is because we cannot imagine education systems without standard examination processes. Upgrading 'knowledge' into 'wisdom' might reduce the emphasis on the 'Head-oriented' skills of writing while bringing more emphasis on the 'Heart', 'Hand' and 'Humour'.

The Customary Definition of Wisdom

Current notions of wisdom have yet to acknowledge ways of knowing that fully include its somatic and endocrinal aspects. The Oxford English Dictionary still defines wisdom from a rather narrow, presumptuous and humanist standpoint:

"....the capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgment in the choice of means and ends; sometimes, less strictly, sound sense, esp. in practical affairs: opp. to folly; knowledge (esp. of a high or abstruse kind); enlightenment, learning, erudition"

A More Helpful Definition of Wisdom

A diversity and requisite variety of working and thinking knowledges that sustain our Earthly web of living systems.

I offer the above definition as a starting point for others to develop.

Why We Need a New Definition

It is sad that, as we are learning more about the distributed ‘wisdom’ of the Earth’s biosphere, our dictionaries still define it as a characteristically human set of competences. Worse still, populist politics is helping to revive the fallacy of individual genius that emerged in the Enlightenment and which some associate with the rise of fascism in Europe. If citizens see no danger in pandering to the messianic whims of cult figures, their faith in genius may become an increasingly dangerous factor. By continuing to limit our understanding of 'wisdom' to exclusively human attributes we may easily forget that individual knowledge is always incomplete, idiosyncratic and often anthropocentric. In the 19th century Francis Galton (1822–1911) discovered that decisions/choices made by crowds can be superior to those of individual experts (Miner, 2005).

Responsibility and Self-reflexivity

If universities are to support the aims of UNESCO's (2021) Futures of Education report, we might need to establish a context at the scale of the Universe. But this should also make learners attentive to their role in the whole process. Arguably, the way we are taught to reason is sometimes alienating, for example, when facts seem too vast in scale, remote in the future, or disconnected from the average individual's behaviour that they leave us feeling alienated or impotent (c.f. Wood, 2008). Wise maps of knowledge should therefore include their mappers. This would help to show why a sense of personal responsibility should attach to all models of the whole (see figure 1). Some generalities are more resistant to change than others. While it is true that humans currently have hardly any influence over the height of the highest mountains we are currently having a very real impact on the amount of snow at their summits.

Creativity + Indomitable Optimism

Our future education systems should encourage a growing sense of curiosity, awe, gratitude and optimism.

We live on a planet that is incredibly beautiful.
Earth has another billion years of free solar energy left.
Our biggest global challenges are in the hands of my species.
If I am pessimistic or cynical I will not make things better.
Although I am only a tiny part of a larger system, my positive leadership is important.
If I can remain creatively optimistic I will facilitate new and unforeseen opportunities.

Those who always see the glass as 'half-full' (rather than half-empty) are in a luck-attracting state. This is because they see 'impossible' things that the 'glass-half empty' people don't notice. If tell everyone that a given problem cannot be solved I discourage everyone around me and contribute to the general assumption that it can't.

Living in the here-and-now whilst living-for our long-term futures

Ecological Wisdom

As our definition of wisdom includes all of the non-human wisdoms that are sustaining the planet, Jakob von Uexküll's use of the term 'Umwelt' is useful (Ingold, 2011, p. 64). Although it appears to describe different phenomenological horizons of experience that limit communication between species we are learning ways to bridge them. Perhaps our new definitions of wisdom will lead us to shamanistic ways to re-attune to new modes of rapport at the ecological level.

Knowledge Includes Ignorance

Marx's notion of alienation is relevant here as it exemplifies organisational systems that reduce their own potential. Here, we might need to include different types of ignorance or self-delusion within our definitions of Wisdom.

The Johari Window

Donald Rumsfeld’s famous distinction between ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’ is an important one that seems to derive from the Johari Window (Luft & Ingham, 1955). It would also be useful to extend the map to include things we know, yet remain unaware that we know them (c.f. Ehrig & Foss, 2022).

An Opportunity-finding Model of Wisdom

would need to map itself far beyond the more Head-oriented limits of literacy and numeracy associated with mainstream universities. in order to develop other, perhaps uniquely human, skills and competences. We might want to give more weight to our complex emotional and embodied capacities. We need some ingenuities at the ‘hands-on’ level that would help us adapt and survive in practical situations. We might also want to licence the kind of spontaneity and playfulness that can turn work into fun. This also lacking in mainstream education.

Human Agility v. Academic Rigour

In 1968, NASA commissioned research to help them to recruit more innovative engineers. The George Land consequently devised a creativity test for this purpose. After testing 280,000 adults he then gave five year olds the same exam questions, subsequently re-testing them at ten, then fifteen years of age. The scores were surprising:

5 year olds:	98%
10 year olds:	30%
15 year olds:	12%
Adults:	2%

Land concluded that non-creative behaviour is learned. If he was correct we need a new paradigm in education. Halfway through the 20th century the UK began to integrate art schools into the more scholastic institutes of education (c.f. Wood, 2021). At best their pedagogies were tolerated by their host organisations. At worst they became buried beneath the rubble of a monastic culture of bookish reasoning that will soon to be usurped by machines. Part of the problem is the privileging of bureaucratic organisation (e.g. standardisation and 'fair' assessment) over the act of learning? The reason we invented alphabetical writing and numerical accounting systems some five thousand years ago was in order to sustain big hierarchies of governance such as empires and systems of production. Today, what we deem to be viable is measured in numbers and codes, rather than valued for its wise and unique potential.

QUESTION 2: What’s the Point of AI?

Yes, what is the deep purpose of AI? DISCUSS.
Nobody knows. Many say it’s ‘just another tool’.
(Hint: can anyone think of another tool that makes decisions about its own design evolution?)
In an education context my understanding of AI is that it is a widget designed to emulate the outward appearance of human learning & problem-solving. This suggests that it is like a robotic exo-skeleton that makes the wearer look much stronger and more capable than they really are. They may stop going to the gym and lose their own strength. If users forget they are wearing them they will acquire a dependency problem. The more they allow the AI widget to take decisions and set new agendas the less they will be in touch with their own role in the game. The more we depend on AI in the learning context, the less we will acquire the ability to learn for ourselves. AI systems cannot process direct, or tacit knowledge as they have no bodily sensors or organs. This is a serious omission, given the challenges of biodiversity depletion. By adopting a more systemic approach, the importance of conventional (i.e. individual) wisdom is reduced and the question of consciousness becomes more important.

What does the Turing Test tell us?

Humans love to be fooled by cute gadgets and pets. We are so charmed by AI that we don’t have time to think about its purpose. We are also impressionable. We were too gullible to notice that the Turing test mainly proves how easily we can discern a human presence from the most dubious of signals. This is not the first time that we allowed inanimate products to push us around. Cars are designed to go fast so we drive them fast. Clocks are spectacularly ignorant, yet we let them tell us when we are hungry or tired. Money has no intrinsic value, yet it can produce unsatisfiable cravings for more than we could ever spend. Anyway, I’m ranting again, so let’s move on. As your homework, get your favourite bot to make up a few random ‘conclusions’ then post your essay on the Dark Web.

Could AI Re-Map Wisdom…?

Why don't academics use the word ‘wisdom’ in their professional discourse? (c.f. Maxwell, 1984) Perhaps it merely reflects a broader human failure to manage ourselves safely at an operational level. As E. O. Wilson explained it, “(humanity has)…Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” History may remind us that having new toys does not guarantee we will use them in our best interests. Our political and corporate playbooks now include new habits of conspiracy mongering, fiendish fakery, and flagrant lawlessness. Perhaps humans have become too stupid to redefine ‘wisdom’ for themselves and we will ask ‘Artificial Intelligence to do it for us. Here, I am optimistic about the potential for AI. But I am yet to be convinced about the acceptance of AI within the education system. My friends tell me I am a Luddite and assure me that ChatGPT has already improved how they learn and manage their lives. What could possibly go wrong? Perhaps Stephen Hawking’s warning (Medeiros, 2017) that Artificial Intelligence “could spell the end of the human race” was just click-bait hyperbole…

QUESTION 3: What does the ‘I’ (in ‘AI’) stand for?

Is AI intelligent? That depends on how you define intelligence. Often, the ambiguities generated by innovation get explained in a way that radically changes previous assumptions. Some say humans always dreamed of flying. Leonardo did a few sketches but in 1903 the Wright Brothers built the first fixed wing machine that carried a human being above the ground for a prolonged interval. But was this really ‘flying’? A few people challenged this claim on the grounds that it was merely a way to achieve a brief ‘gliding’ experience. One person even refused to acknowledge it as flying because he’d assumed that we would emulate birds with flapping wings. So what do we mean by ‘intelligence’? If we define it in the context of a standard IQ test, it’s hard to disagree with the claim that AI gadgets are intelligent. This is fortuitous for AI evangelists. IQ tests evolved from an industrial mindset that standardizes the average person’s behaviour within narrow parameters. On the other hand, we may soon attain the more enlightened position where we value the uniqueness in everyone (n.b. neurodiversity is only one aspect). This would mark an important shift in consciousness but it would force academics to reflect deeply upon their habits and assumptions. Until then we will continue to justify the absence of requisite variety within SATS and IQ tests in schools by invoking the risible metaphor of ‘rigour’ (c.f. Wood, 2012)… (OK, I’m ranting again).

QUESTION 4: What is Quality Assurance?

N.B. This is one of the key questions in our syllabus because it underpins your university’s legal framework and business model. You might care to invite ChatGPT to write something for you about the importance of Communication Theory within technocracy.
Subsidiary Question: Can a university education be piped into a student’s bedroom via cables and wifi signals?

The business model says ‘yes’. Education is at its 'fairest' where there is a common curriculum and examinations with multiple choice questions. Prioritising fairness is a convenient way to achieve accountability in quality assurance terms. Some universities even promise to ensure equal access to all ‘taught material’. This only makes if one accepts the idea that the whole content of a lesson can be summarised in text. Perhaps universities are hesitant to use the term 'wisdom' because it is less reducible than ‘information’ and more quantifiable than ‘knowledge’. A new definition of wisdom might map different types of knowledge that include what we don’t know. This idea derived from a larger map of possibilities that its inventors (Luft & Ingham, 1955) called the Johari Window. We might also extend the map to include things we are unaware that we know.

Useful Terms

These pre-digested buzzwords will come in handy when you prepare for your final assessment. Don’t overthink it.

DATA = imagined subsets of ‘information’ that ratify the numerical certainties of calculation and accountancy.
INFORMATION = in a sense, information is only data that is recognised as making sense to a human being. As ’making sense’ is subjective it therefore exists in a twilight world between what humans can know, do know, might know and could know.
KNOWLEDGE = embodied capacities that, at best, we boil down to ‘knowing that’ and ‘knowing how’. N.B. Caution - this definition of ‘knowledge’ raises awkward questions about when, where, and in what tangible context/s the act of ‘knowing’ takes place. Here, there is often a lack of clarity about the importance of the Viva voce relative to that of the written thesis (c.f. Lockheart, 2022). Currently, AI systems weave ‘answers’ to questions by reshaping patterns found in strings of alphanumerical characters, rather than from humanly embodied and emergent aspects of knowing. As Wittgenstein noted, “Everyday language is a part of the human organism and no less complicated than it. It is not humanly possible to gather immediately from language what the logic of language is (c.f. Zednik, 2021)… the tacit conventions on which the understanding of everyday language depends are enormously complicated.” We need to acknowledge this vital distinction and to reframe ‘knowledge’ accordingly. Donald Schön went even further by defining all types of human knowledge in quasi-biological terms. “All knowledge is tacit if it rests on our subsidiary awareness of particulars in terms of a comprehensive unity” (Schön,1969). Here, we might wish to introduce the idea of wisdom as a way to shift from this humanistic perspective to one that accommodates the whole living biosphere.
i.e. WISDOM = eco systemic? / infinitely extensive? / a superset of eco-semiotic meta-phenomena?

QUESTION 5: Why?

Precisely where, when and in what context does ‘knowledge’ reside? For example, what purpose does the ‘viva voce’ have in a doctoral examination, relative to the written thesis? If we acknowledge that many aspects of knowledge are ineffably embodied (c.f. McGilchrist, 2009) and, or, implicit in the learner’s artifactual and natural surroundings we may find it hard to justify the way we mark the student’s achievements in a single grade or percentage. A wisdom-based agenda would probably value the respective roles of Heart and Hand (& Humour?) rather than focusing so much on the Head?

QUESTION 6: What the Actual F***?

In 2014, Stephen Hawking warned that AI “...would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said. "I fear that AI may replace humans altogether"....as a..."new form of life that will outperform humans". Many universities now appear to expect undetectable plagiarism as a fact of life. Yet in 2024, aware of these controversies Vice-chancellors at the 24 Russell Group research-intensive universities agreed to a code of practice that asked students and staff simply to become more ‘AI literate’. They invited UK universities to exploit the opportunities of artificial intelligence, whilst ‘maintaining academic rigour’ and upholding the importance of ‘integrity in higher education’. A little later the same year, undercover researchers at a UK university submitted exam answers generated by ChatGPT-4. Their deception was kept secret until the papers had been marked. Out of 33 papers submitted, only one was detected as questionable. The rest achieved grades higher than those awarded to human students (Scarfe et al, 2024).

A Conclusion

Unless academics are willing to reform old habits, assumptions and procedures they may become impotent bystanders in the arms race between widgets that simulate evidence of a learning process and the bots designed to hunt them down.