I saw this cartoon the other day and thought how sad that people have been hoodwinked into a brain-centric understanding of personhood.

All the research in neuroscience, consciousness and embodied being demonstrates that this kind of cartoon is just the perpetuation of myth. Myth is made by semiotic affirmation of a narrative).

The idea that humans are a carcass with a computer on top (in the head) is nonsense. Indeed, just do a little research into the nature of human consciousness and unconscious and you will find out quickly that it continues to be a mystery.

Do any research into the nature of human embodiment and you will find out quickly that there is no correlation between humans, AI or robots (https://safetyrisk.net/essential-readings-neuroscience-and-the-whole-person/).

Then interrogate the propaganda being generated and ‘follow the money’. Who and what benefits from propaganda.

The idea that the human endocrine, neurological, immune and fallible anatomy systems can be replicated by AI or robotics is nonsense. The Mind is NOT the brain but rather the whole human person. Indeed, our whole body ‘thinks’ in unified inter-connected ecological being. As Claxton rightly observes (Intelligence in the Flesh):

The brain doesn’t issue commands, it hosts conversations.

If we explore just how the human skin works and how feelings are accelerated through the nervous system instantaneously, we are now thinking of something that AI and robotics (machines) can never do. Without a human fallible body, skin, neurons and embodiment, there can be no comprehension of weakness, experiencing life/being, fallibility, mystery, emotions or learning. What can AI experience of life and death? Does AI feel pain if you smash it with a hammer? Does AI dream when it is put to ‘sleep’?

So, when it comes to safety and risk and tackling risk, what can AI know about risk to life? What can AI know about social relational being where harm and suffering direct how we life? What can an AI/computer know about how fallibility directs meaning, cosmology, metaphysics, suffering and belief?

The place where Safety really loses the plot in all this is that it doesn’t understand that advising in risk and safety is moral, relational and ethical.

If one thinks Safety is about paperwork and replicating systems then AI and the production of algorithms look like a threat. But, if you understand safety as a relational, social and helping process, AI will never be a threat.

Just imagine that warmth you get from shaking hands or a hug. Just imagine what happens when you receive a smile or any human gesture. Now translate that to what machines do.

Indeed, even the logic of Large Language Models (LLMs) and so-called ‘generative AI’ is all founded on erroneous ideas of how humans learn language and what language is.

What we observe in the many myths spread through AI propaganda is the outcome of a Western-centric philosophy that proposes rationality as god. The ideologies of rationalism and behaviourism are what dominates this philosophy, and Safety has consumed the cool-aid, further read:

• Johnson, M., (1987) The Body in Mind, The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
• Johnson, M., (2007) The Meaning of the Body, Aesthetics of Human Understanding. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
• Johnson, M., (2014) Morality for Humans, Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science. University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
• Johnson, M., (2017) Embodied Mind, Meaning and Reason. How Our Bodies Give Rise to
• Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M., (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh, The Embodied Mind and Its Challenges to Western Thought. Basic Books, New York.

All of this only scratches the surface.

This takes us back to the importance of thinking critically in safety, questioning sources, interrogating Discourse and asking the uncomfortable questions that Safety doesn’t want to hear.

You don’t get this kind of questioning from compliance thinking or joining safety cults.

If you are interested in developing your critical thinking and learning more about a different kind of philosophy, you can register for the free Philosophy and Safety workshops to be held in May: admin@spor.com.au