On Life, AI and Technosymbiosis with Katherine Hayles

In this wide-ranging conversation, I met with acclaimed literary theorist, philosopher and technology scholar N. Katherine Hayles, whose pioneering work has reshaped how we understand the boundaries between humans and machines, cognition and computation, biology and code, artificial intelligence and artificial life. We primarily discussed Katherine's new book Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts. We also discuss elements of Hayles' other works such as How We Became Posthuman and Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious. Hayles has long argued that cognition is not the exclusive domain of conscious, rational minds. In her work, cognition is distributed, embodied, and extended across human, nonhuman, and technical systems. In this chat we explore what it means to take that seriously in a moment when large language models (LLMs), AI, and synthetic biology are reconfiguring the nature of agency and intelligence. [Also available via my other podcast Posthumanism and Technology].   If you would like to study with me you can find more information about our online education MAs in Philosophy here at Staffordshire University. You can find out more information on our MA in Continental Philosophy via this link. Or, join our MA in Philosophy of Nature, Information and Technology via this link. Find out more about me here.  September intakes F/T or January intakes P/T. You can listen to more free back content from the Thales' Well podcast on TuneIn Radio, Player Fm, Stitcher and Pod Bean. You can also download their apps to your smart phone and listen via there. You can also subscribe for free on iTunes. Please leave a nice review.