AI and the Battle for the Soul with Iain McGilchrist - Lecture 2: True Freedom in an Artificial World

Generously sponsored by the Ben Delo Foundation.

The final lecture of Ralston College's symposium, AI and the Battle for the Soul, asks a question that turns from the future of artificial intelligence to something far older and more enduring: What does freedom require? Weaving together neuroscience, philosophy, physics, and literature, Dr Iain McGilchrist examines free will, consciousness, and the forms of attention that compose our engagement with the world. Over several decades at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience, Dr McGilchrist's contributions have transformed contemporary discussions of consciousness, attention, and meaning. At a moment so often dominated by mechanical explanations and computational models, he emphasizes the indispensable role of openness, receptivity, and participation in understanding, arguing that reality exceeds reductionist accounts. 

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Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode:

• Henry Stapp

• Pierre-Simon Laplace

• Benjamin Libet

• Immanuel Kant

• Plato

• Socrates

• Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound

• Charles Darwin

• William Blake

• Carl Jung

• Albrecht Altdorfer

• Daniel Phillips