*The Return of Meaning* *A scientific, existential, and cultural phenomenon* by cognitive scientist John Vervaeke
https://iai.tv/articles/the-return-of-meaning-auid-2043 Some quotations <<As we move into the real possibility of what is called artificial general intelligence (AGI), i.e., intelligence that is like or surpasses our own, we move into a problem centrally entwined with our intelligence, viz., the problem of meaning. Two questions immediately emerge: what is the nature of this meaning so central to our intelligent cognitive agency, and what relation does this cognitive meaning have to the existential meaning that has been of concern to philosophers perennially but especially since the advent of modernity and secularism? When Pascal talks about the infinite spaces of the scientific worldview and how they terrify him or Nagel talks about the problem of the absurd as we pursue objectivity, they are invoking a sense of meaning that has something to do with psychologists and philosophers are calling meaning in life. This is the sense that one’s life makes sense in a way that has depth or realness because it connects one to something larger than oneself that has a value and a reality beyond one’s egocentric concerns and individual existence. This connection makes life worth living in the face of the frustrations, failures, suffering and sorrows that reliably assail human lives.>> <<I want to argue that the meaning so central to AGI has two interrelated components. One is that our mental states are about something, they are directed beyond themselves to something other than themselves. My thought about a tree is not a tree but is directed at a tree. This is known as intentionality or original meaning, and it is problematic how to get this into the computational states of machines. The second component is relevance. You are not like a standard computer because it does not care about the information it is processing. Its results may matter to you, but it does not care about the information for itself. However, it turns out that this ability to care about some information rather than other information is central to being an intelligent cognitive agent. The ability to pay attention to some information and ignore other information as irrelevant is crucial to being an intelligent problem solver. Notice that already the problem of cognitive meaning seems to be overlapping with existential meaning because cognitive meaning involves being directed/connected to something beyond oneself, and it involves sensing the relevance or importance of information.>> <<That sense of caring connectedness to yourself, to others and the world, that is so important to meaning in life, is not some existential add on. It is the lifeblood of your cognitive agency. You find it inherently valuable because it is inherently needed for your general intelligence. If you do not continually solve, re-solve and resolve meaning you will not solve any of your other problems or achieve any of your other goals. In a very real sense, you are this capacity to participate in such meaning making.>> Harry
