AI and the Battle for the Soul with Stephen Wolfram and Iain McGilchrist - Conversation: What is Artificial Intelligence?

Generously sponsored by the Ben Delo Foundation.

Ralston College welcomed Iain McGilchrist and Stephen Wolfram in May of 2026 for a public conversation during our symposium, AI and the Battle for the Soul. Beginning with the promises and implications of this technology, the discussion opens onto a deeper inquiry concerning consciousness, computation, purpose, and the irreducible constitution of reality itself. 

Setting out from seemingly distant philosophical commitments, these thinkers demonstrate an uncommon willingness to follow first principles wherever they lead. After decades in physics, computer science, and the study of complex systems, Wolfram shares his vision through the lens of computation, looking for the simple rules underlying complexity in the natural world. Drawing upon decades studying philosophy, literature, and neuropsychiatry, McGilchrist makes the case that reality exceeds computation, suggesting that consciousness is grounded in embodiment, receptivity, and participation. The two thinkers do not remain at the level of disagreement, but examine one another's fundamental assumptions with a rare seriousness and intellectual charity. 

 

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Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:

• Alan Turing

• Isaac Newton

• Albert Einstein

• Charles Darwin

• Aristotle

• René Descartes

• Ludwig Wittgenstein

• John von Neumann 

• Roger Penrose