N. Katherine Hayles: A New Theory of Mind, from ’Bacteria to AI’ | #46

What if the ongoing devastation of the biosphere and the ascendancy of complex AI are rooted in the same anthropocentrism? What if there were a new theory of mind that incorporated our biological kin and AI? What if such a theory foregrounded ecological relationality and a broadening of our idea of what cognition is—and what can be a cognizer?

Today's guest, N. Katherine Hayles, proposes such a theory—the integrated cognitive framework (ICF)—in her new book, Bacteria to AI. It's a wild mutant of a read, drawing ideas from evolutionary biology, feminist theory, speculative fiction, and more—and I cannot recommend it enough.

Grab your copy of Bacteria to AI here!

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N. Katherine Hayles is the Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University. Her research focuses on the relations of literature, science and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries. Her twelve print books include Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational (Columbia, 2021), Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2017) and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (Univ. of Chicago Press 2015), in addition to over 100 peer-reviewed articles. Her books have won several prizes, including The Rene Wellek Award for the Best Book in Literary Theory for How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Literature, Cybernetics and Informatics, and the Suzanne Langer Award for Writing Machines. She has been recognized by many fellowships and awards, including two NEH Fellowships, a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller Residential Fellowship at Bellagio, and two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her latest book will be is, Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts from University of Chicago Press.

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