Virtual versus Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Many evidences suggest that: 1) Our sensory organs give a poor representation of the world around us; 2) Free will (FW) is an illusion of the mind, so, we cannot decide our actions at will; moreover, we become aware of our actions late; 3) We cannot objectively/scientifically define what is our consciousness for an obvious conflict of interest (“The hard question of consciousness”). Yet, it is interesting to note that the activity of our mind is compatible with proactive cognitive processes, i.e. with individual “Autopoiesis”. “The Bignetti Model” (TBM) explains that Cognition (i.e. “Autopoiesis”) is a thermodynamically-driven computational process that elaborates the so-called “voluntary” reactions against perturbing stimuli. This is a statistical process carried out by a physiological dual state of the mind, i.e. the Unconscious mind (UM) (with a biochemical/biophysical language) and the Conscious Mind (CM) (with a spoken language). UM and CM guide the individual mind in Cognition (Autopoiesis), like in a virtual game in which UM and CM play the roles of the Avatar and of the Player, respectively. In summary, our mind behaves like a Virtual Intelligence (VI) that adjusts the expectations to match reality, though in a virtual context. According to TBM, VI is committed to achieving individual “Autopoiesis” by means of the ability of problem solving, on the one hand, by collecting the relevant data and, on the other one, by improving scientific and technological tools. The most promising tool with a wide application is Artificial Intelligence (AI). The credit to AI is so much inflating that someone might fear that it might substitute for VI in creative and intellectual works. However, this hypothesis is scientifically unattainable. In fact, we know that both UM and CM play a crucial role in cognition, but we don’t know how they reciprocally translate their languages to get this target (see point 3, above); so that VI cannot artificially reproduce UM and CM in AI. While VI is a dual state of the mind that is genetically encoded to carry out Cognition (Autopoiesis) by itself, AI is a product elaborated by VI and not a clone of it. We confirmed this conclusion by interviewing Chatgpt on the meaning of TBM. Though TBM is exhaustively reported in the current, scientific literature, AI could not define it, by itself. AI could approach the solution by fitting a sort of template, only with the aid of the clues and the relative “Data” given by us.