What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to explore Alan Turing's ideas and their implications for understanding the human self in the context of AI.

December 1, 2015Open Access

Alan Turing: Artificial intelligence as human self‐knowledge

Key Points

The aim is to explore Alan Turing's ideas and their implications for understanding the human self in the context of AI.
Analysis of Turing's life and ideas
Illustration of the self-reconceptualization process in AI development
Examination of connections between Turing's work and contemporary digital life
Turing's ideas reveal the transformative potential of AI on human self-perception.
The notion of self-knowledge is redefined through the lens of machine intelligence.
Turing's work raises significant questions about existence and existential concerns in a digital age.

Abstract

This article explores the life and ideas of Alan Turing (1912–1954), commonly known as the father of artificial intelligence (AI), and highlights the process whereby the human self is reconceptualized in the development of Turing's ideas of machine intelligence. I will further illustrate how this process of self‐reconceptualization – composed of the pursuit, adaptation and transformation of self‐knowledge – is closely related to contemporary digital life. In doing so, I wish to reveal the ways in which Turing's underlying self‐transforming agenda of AI can contribute to our understanding of the human self, for AI, as I will argue, leads to questions of existence and existential anxieties.

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