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Slavoj Žižek: Should We Grasp AI Not Only as Substance But Also as Subject? - May 22, 2026 — Transcript

by Dominik Finkelde - Hochschule f. Philosophie · 8,950 words · 1,452 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:01What makes Xjek such a unique voice is
  2. 0:04not just how much ground he covers. It
  3. 0:06is how he reads philosophy as a direct
  4. 0:08diagnosis of the tensions and
  5. 0:10contradictions we are living in right
  6. 0:13now. We are very glad uh to have him
  7. 0:15here today. Please welcome Slavoir.
  8. 0:19[applause]
  9. 0:28[applause]
  10. 0:30Stalin did once this. I saw he was
  11. 0:33tired. He gave Okay. Uh uh
  12. 0:39first
  13. 0:52Can of Stellen. Uh second thing I must
  14. 0:58really I feel so ashamed apologize
  15. 1:01myself for
  16. 1:04the sorry for my brief appearance here.
  17. 1:08I will just stay for my talk. There is
  18. 1:11no way. I was 77 uh two months ago. I
  19. 1:16have heavy diabetes, arterio sclerosis
  20. 1:19and so on. I sleep like a baby. And you
  21. 1:22can imagine how horrible this is for me
  22. 1:25because I'm by nature
  23. 1:28workaholic and a protestant one. You
  24. 1:32know, by this I mean that uh you know
  25. 1:36what's the difference? You will not
  26. 1:38agree, Dominic.
  27. 1:40guy explained to me uh the difference
  28. 1:43between Catholicism and Protestantism is
  29. 1:46that in both versions of Christianity
  30. 1:49you can do whatever you want, kill, rape
  31. 1:51and so on. But in Catholicism you must
  32. 1:55confess
  33. 1:56on Saturday and in Protestantism you
  34. 2:00must feel a little bit guilty while you
  35. 2:02are doing it. In this sense I'm
  36. 2:05Protestant. So, and uh the last thing,
  37. 2:10[snorts] don't be disappointed. I really
  38. 2:14don't know some of my friends, you
  39. 2:18Russell, especially you, Alena. I will
  40. 2:21quote you more than you deserve a long
  41. 2:23quote. uh uh I think no mo most but I
  42. 2:28will just try somehow to bring together
  43. 2:32with some popular examples where where I
  44. 2:35think we stand with regard to
  45. 2:39>> [snorts]
  46. 2:39>> uh uh uh uh artificial intelligence chat
  47. 2:44bots and so on and
  48. 2:47I even don't have a clear final
  49. 2:51stance maybe some thoughts will be of
  50. 2:54some interest to you and I congratulate
  51. 2:58to you Dominic forkite
  52. 3:04because you know which is me as I'm good
  53. 3:07as trunks neurotic you know which is my
  54. 3:10favorite saying lon uses this joke my
  55. 3:13fiance is never late for an appointment
  56. 3:16because the moment she is late she is no
  57. 3:18longer my fiance so if we were but we
  58. 3:22are not a gay apple, you would still be
  59. 3:25my
  60. 3:28enough of tasteless jokes because I will
  61. 3:32try to do some real stuff. But since we
  62. 3:37are here, you know, like I think Ribbon
  63. 3:40Trop returning from to Berlin in 39 from
  64. 3:45uh Moscow. No, when Hitler asked him the
  65. 3:49the ribbon trop Moloto pact how he feels
  66. 3:53how was it there and ribbon trop I think
  67. 3:56correct me if I'm wrong said it was a
  68. 3:58wonderful atmosphere we under part you
  69. 4:02know [snorts]
  70. 4:03so I hope in this sense [laughter] that
  71. 4:05I am here we we need party members so
  72. 4:09that I don't have to begin with this
  73. 4:13very basics you know that A signifier
  74. 4:17doesn't represent
  75. 4:19objects for the subject but it
  76. 4:21represents subject itself for other and
  77. 4:25then you would oh really and so on. know
  78. 4:28you know this let enough of joke let me
  79. 4:30begin uh I give you one serious right
  80. 4:34it's not a joke if there is something
  81. 4:38not clear I was obsessed with clarity
  82. 4:41please
  83. 4:43interrupt me even in the middle of the
  84. 4:45talk but with a clear
  85. 4:48question it may be that things will not
  86. 4:50be clear okay in order to understand the
  87. 4:54impact of artificial intelligence
  88. 4:57on its users. I think we should begin by
  89. 5:01Hegel
  90. 5:03by first clarifying what Hegel's basic
  91. 5:07operation is. [snorts] As a rule, Hegel
  92. 5:11is misread in a fict or Marxist way. A
  93. 5:15subject fes absolute I or Marxist
  94. 5:20collective subject posits or produces
  95. 5:24some objective substantial content fict
  96. 5:31Marxist alienated social substance and
  97. 5:34the subject can and should then overcome
  98. 5:39this alienation by way of recognizing
  99. 5:42this substance as its own product and
  100. 5:46thus reappropriating it. Is it not
  101. 5:51similar with the artificial
  102. 5:52intelligence? It is a product of
  103. 5:55collective human output which appears to
  104. 5:59us as an autonomous agent that exerts
  105. 6:02power over us. And the obvious solution
  106. 6:05is that we should recognize in it our
  107. 6:08own product and thus put it under our
  108. 6:12own control and so on. My claim is that
  109. 6:15such a reading of Hegel is [snorts]
  110. 6:18wrong and deeply misleading. Subject
  111. 6:21itself only emerges through the process
  112. 6:25of alienation. And in the state of
  113. 6:28alienation, of course, the in this case
  114. 6:32the artificial intelligence
  115. 6:34universe appears to us as a big other
  116. 6:38which fully dominates our social
  117. 6:41universe. However, what happens in the
  118. 6:44move beyond alienation
  119. 6:48is not that the social subject somehow
  120. 6:51appropriates the alienated digital
  121. 6:53substance making it serve humanity's
  122. 6:56needs. As Lon put it, alienation is
  123. 7:00followed by separation. Not the
  124. 7:03separation between subject and its
  125. 7:06alienated digital other but the
  126. 7:09separation imminent to this other
  127. 7:12itself. The separation which makes this
  128. 7:16other antagonistic inconsistent failed.
  129. 7:20Yes, the subject recognizes itself in
  130. 7:24the alienated other but not by way of
  131. 7:27appropriating it. It's not, oh, it's all
  132. 7:30my work, so it's mine. [snorts] The
  133. 7:33subject recognizes itself in the
  134. 7:36constitutive cracks and gaps of the
  135. 7:40other.
  136. 7:42Its place in the digital other is that
  137. 7:45of the lack in the other. That's also
  138. 7:50these are basic I know but in honor of
  139. 7:53you Dominic I would say that that's why
  140. 7:56I proclaim myself a
  141. 8:01why not I think it's a correct term a
  142. 8:03Christian atheist because as Hegel put
  143. 8:06it very nicely
  144. 8:09you know the usual reading of
  145. 8:11Christianity is we alienate ourself or
  146. 8:15God abandons our secondary so there is a
  147. 8:18gap
  148. 8:19And then through some hard work, good
  149. 8:21deeds or praying whatever we somehow go
  150. 8:26get closer to God. No, Hegel says it
  151. 8:30literally the only reconciliation with
  152. 8:33God is that you see that precisely as
  153. 8:37abandoned to God, you identify with
  154. 8:40Christ who was himself abandoned by God
  155. 8:44on the cross. So that the gap that
  156. 8:46separates you from God is already a gap
  157. 8:50in God himself. Here I had to boast a
  158. 8:55little bit. There will be a lot of
  159. 8:57serious work. Don't worry. two weeks ago
  160. 9:00a crazy wonderful debate with with my
  161. 9:03good friend who is quite a normal
  162. 9:06leftist and so on Rowan Williams ex
  163. 9:10Archbishop of Cantra to appeal to your
  164. 9:14general education he married Princess
  165. 9:17Diana and Charles and so on we had and
  166. 9:21we almost totally agreed just maybe you
  167. 9:24know my story which I maybe even repeat
  168. 9:27too much uh this story which was I think
  169. 9:31spread in German domain by Nicholas
  170. 9:34Luman my idea was this one uh it's an
  171. 9:39old allegedly Arab stories but all Arab
  172. 9:42stories are usually invented in Europe
  173. 9:44no and projected there uh namely that a
  174. 9:48rich Arab merchant dies with 11 camels
  175. 9:53and he gives a precise
  176. 9:57testament meant I have three sons.
  177. 10:01They camels should be divided like this.
  178. 10:05The older one gets half of the camels.
  179. 10:08The middle one gets 1/4 of the camels
  180. 10:11and the younger one gets one6 of the
  181. 10:15camels. Of course, it doesn't get up.
  182. 10:19So, a wise guy comes and resolves the
  183. 10:22problem. He said, "I will add
  184. 10:26one camel of my own."
  185. 10:29And then we have 12 camels. So it goes
  186. 10:321/2 is six, 1/4 is three, and one six is
  187. 10:38two. It's 11. So then sons are
  188. 10:42enthusiastic. They ask, "Okay, but what
  189. 10:45with the one camel?" He said, "No
  190. 10:47problem. I take it back." You know, and
  191. 10:50my point to Rowan Williams was that
  192. 10:54imagine
  193. 10:56the 12 camel as my favorite name of God.
  194. 10:59You know, it doesn't have to exist. Even
  195. 11:04you know this operation,
  196. 11:06you can do it even if you just imagine
  197. 11:10it. It doesn't have to exist. Then we
  198. 11:13had a very friendly conflict when he
  199. 11:15tried to convince me and this was the
  200. 11:18joke I want to finish with then we go to
  201. 11:21real work. Then somebody asked the two
  202. 11:24of us but what was your misunderstanding
  203. 11:27about
  204. 11:29because he insisted that the camel has
  205. 11:31to exist in religion [snorts]
  206. 11:33and his uh his answer I think was a
  207. 11:36wonderful one. He said me and Slavo my
  208. 11:39good friend are in total agreement.
  209. 11:42There was just a minor difference in the
  210. 11:45domain of zoolology nature of camels you
  211. 11:48know otherwise. [laughter]
  212. 11:51[cough]
  213. 11:53So uh let me now go. This is again where
  214. 11:58I see there is a mega difference between
  215. 12:01there are many others between Hegel and
  216. 12:07Marxian and other postgalian traditions
  217. 12:10which are for me much more metaphysical
  218. 12:14which is why I think that Hegel's basic
  219. 12:17notions like absolutist vision are
  220. 12:21basically the admission of radical
  221. 12:24contingency of history. You know what
  222. 12:27Hegel says in forward was it forward to
  223. 12:31rect philosophy? No, he says openly that
  224. 12:34uh uh philosophy can only paint gray on
  225. 12:38gray can grasp a state of the world
  226. 12:42world he means social universe when it's
  227. 12:45already mature
  228. 12:48that it's not the stuff of philosophy to
  229. 12:50guess
  230. 12:52the future. I think this should be read
  231. 12:55in a radical way. It doesn't mean it's
  232. 12:59just too obscure. Maybe God knows it, we
  233. 13:03don't know it. No, it's open it in
  234. 13:06itself. The most productive aspect of
  235. 13:09Hegel for me for us today and that's
  236. 13:13what I'm looking for also in quantum
  237. 13:16physics [snorts] is this idea that every
  238. 13:20necessity establishes itself uh
  239. 13:24retroactively.
  240. 13:25Something happens contingently but once
  241. 13:29it happens
  242. 13:31it
  243. 13:33changes establishes its own history. Now
  244. 13:37you will say, "Oh, but
  245. 13:40what about Markx? Doesn't Mark say that
  246. 13:45the anatomy of uh man is offers provides
  247. 13:50the key to the anatomy of ape. I think
  248. 13:54this is not to be read teologically.
  249. 13:58Markx puts it clearly. His point is that
  250. 14:01in the same way the anatomy of
  251. 14:04capitalism offers the key to the anatomy
  252. 14:08of all previous modes of production. But
  253. 14:11this doesn't mean that it's uh that we
  254. 14:15the western capitalism is some kind of a
  255. 14:19universal telos of the history and so
  256. 14:22on. No, Marx at the same time emphasizes
  257. 14:25that capitalism
  258. 14:28emerged in Europe for a series even not
  259. 14:34of contingent reasons. The uh English
  260. 14:37enclosure of the commons, discovery of
  261. 14:39gold in Latin America and so on. But
  262. 14:42that's Marx's point. Once it is here, we
  263. 14:48read the entire past history as leading
  264. 14:52to capitalism. Marx's point is here
  265. 14:56precisely that of radical contingency.
  266. 15:00Every general notion you have of
  267. 15:05human progress, whatever, never forget
  268. 15:07that there is no general progress. that
  269. 15:09this notion is always grounded in a
  270. 15:12specific singular point but I'm getting
  271. 15:16lost so let's see give you the first
  272. 15:20hint and uh
  273. 15:23how this relates to artificial
  274. 15:25intelligence
  275. 15:27the topic of artificial intelligence has
  276. 15:29two aspects is or can an AI artificial
  277. 15:34intelligence agent act like a subject or
  278. 15:38And do we humans who interact with an AI
  279. 15:42agent remain subjects when we are
  280. 15:45totally immersed into artificial
  281. 15:49intelligence?
  282. 15:50My reference here will be, it may
  283. 15:53surprise you, a TV series which risks
  284. 15:58a Hegelian reading. I wonder if it
  285. 16:02works. Did you see the series? It was a
  286. 16:05little bit boring for me, but I like the
  287. 16:07basic idea. Uh, only one year or two
  288. 16:10old. Uh, Pluribus.
  289. 16:13I like that series. Although I watched
  290. 16:16it with fast forward, but why? As you
  291. 16:19probably know, Pluribus confronts us
  292. 16:22with
  293. 16:24uh both aspects. It follows
  294. 16:28uh an book author Carol Sturka from
  295. 16:32Albuquerque.
  296. 16:34It's
  297. 16:35>> your neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter]
  298. 16:38One of the only 13 people in the world
  299. 16:41immune to the effects of so-called
  300. 16:44joining, an event in which an
  301. 16:47extraterrestrial virus transformed the
  302. 16:50rest of humanity into a peaceful and
  303. 16:53content hive,
  304. 16:56a hive mind known as the others. Others
  305. 16:59are not the Lenian big. The Leenian big
  306. 17:03other is not a set of firm rules but
  307. 17:07[snorts] the space for ambiguities inend
  308. 17:09those hysterical provocations the very
  309. 17:12space in which individual idiosynchronis
  310. 17:16syncrasies can thrive. Plus it is an
  311. 17:19order of appearances a virtual other
  312. 17:23which exists only in so far as subjects
  313. 17:26caught in it act as if they believe in
  314. 17:29it. We from pluribus obviously
  315. 17:34doesn't function like that. This we or
  316. 17:38them. It is grounded in the real since
  317. 17:41it is a virus transmitted by stem cells.
  318. 17:45However, others do have an other their
  319. 17:50mind. The mind which sent the virus to
  320. 17:54the earth and pre-programmed how we
  321. 17:58they how we this collective
  322. 18:03sh should help humans not coers them
  323. 18:06kill them and not to lie to them. So the
  324. 18:10other of the others is non-transparent
  325. 18:13to these others themselves or itself. In
  326. 18:17short, it seems that they themselves are
  327. 18:20addressing their other
  328. 18:23with the question, what do you want from
  329. 18:25us? This is why they are not a happy,
  330. 18:29warm community which wants the best for
  331. 18:32all humans.
  332. 18:35Those who joined it and those who didn't
  333. 18:37join it. The most depressing scene in
  334. 18:40the entire series is for me when Zosia,
  335. 18:44she's the a joint one uh zombie co-opted
  336. 18:49by the virus, but her lesbian partner at
  337. 18:52the same time shows Carol the big
  338. 18:55dormatory where others sleep. a large
  339. 18:58sports hall with hundreds of simple flat
  340. 19:01cushions where they lie side by side and
  341. 19:05allows her
  342. 19:07Zia to Carol to spend the night there
  343. 19:10since they share the same mind they
  344. 19:13don't communicate they ignore each other
  345. 19:16moreover how if at all do they multiply
  346. 19:19do they have sex
  347. 19:22here the key role is played by one of
  348. 19:25the unjoin the hedonistic
  349. 19:28Kumba,
  350. 19:30an African who engages with them in
  351. 19:34something like a serious communication.
  352. 19:39They
  353. 19:42confide in him that they are half
  354. 19:44starving since they are not allowed to
  355. 19:46kill any living being. So that to get
  356. 19:49organic food they have to process part
  357. 19:52of the naturally diseased humans into a
  358. 19:55special drink. Plus, they have to put
  359. 19:59all their effort into constructing a
  360. 20:01giant machine that will be sending rays
  361. 20:05with the virus to further planets to
  362. 20:08conquer them. They are terribly alone,
  363. 20:11aware that once they were a community,
  364. 20:14but now they are just a mega individual,
  365. 20:17one big slave serving a purpose imposed
  366. 20:21on it [snorts]
  367. 20:23by their own other. So what if we turn
  368. 20:27the perspective around? What if when the
  369. 20:30others happily greet Carol as an
  370. 20:34as a human
  371. 20:37smile uh uh an unjoined human smiling
  372. 20:40and shouting in unison, hi Carol.
  373. 20:44One has to take this literally. I think
  374. 20:47they are not happy in themselves. They
  375. 20:50are happy to encounter a mind that is
  376. 20:54not what not part of the one part of
  377. 20:59them. They're slaves programmed to put
  378. 21:03all their effort into ruining whatever
  379. 21:05minimal chance of happiness they have.
  380. 21:09>> [snorts]
  381. 21:09>> The others in Pluribus are thus not yet
  382. 21:12an agent dominated by a kind of
  383. 21:15subjectless drive, not a death drive,
  384. 21:18but a life drive.
  385. 21:25They are dominated by an unconditional
  386. 21:28drive to self, reproduce and expand. Lon
  387. 21:32said that dogs have a super ego but not
  388. 21:36an unconscious. And maybe we can say
  389. 21:39that
  390. 21:41AI agents are like dogs who have a super
  391. 21:44ego without an unconscious.
  392. 21:47The others in pluribus are still
  393. 21:50hystericized by their own other. What
  394. 21:53does it want from them? They remain
  395. 21:56humans possessed by a virus. A
  396. 21:59paradmatic
  397. 22:01scene [snorts]
  398. 22:03of a subject's relying reli reliance on
  399. 22:08an artificial intelligence other proper
  400. 22:11not
  401. 22:14they in pluribus which can who can still
  402. 22:17be hystericized
  403. 22:20uh
  404. 22:22occurs when one of uses the so-called
  405. 22:26LLM large language model, a type of
  406. 22:31artificial intelligence trained on
  407. 22:34massive data sets to understand,
  408. 22:37generate and summarize humanlike text,
  409. 22:41often [snorts] using transformer
  410. 22:45architecture.
  411. 22:47LM power chat bots like chat GPT,
  412. 22:51content creation and translation tools
  413. 22:56and so on. So how does my interaction
  414. 22:59with a LLM appear if we analyze it as a
  415. 23:05discourse in Lacon's sense Paul I don't
  416. 23:09know who he is I just found him in his
  417. 23:12[snorts] text on the web provide
  418. 23:16a clear answer a quote when cloth or cat
  419. 23:22GPT answers our questions they do so
  420. 23:25from within the university discourse
  421. 23:28speaking from the position of
  422. 23:30established knowledge.
  423. 23:32We approach LLMs
  424. 23:35hysterically installing them as the one
  425. 23:39who knows. But the two are not in
  426. 23:41conflict.
  427. 23:43The human addresses a fantasized master.
  428. 23:48What response is not a master but pure
  429. 23:51S2 knowledge without a subject speaking
  430. 23:55from the only position the LLM can
  431. 23:58occupy. We address a subject and we
  432. 24:02receive just an output. The fantasy and
  433. 24:05structure never align. An LLM thus
  434. 24:09cannot fail into the hysterics challenge
  435. 24:14or it cannot relinquish into something
  436. 24:18more open. It can only ever speak from
  437. 24:22the position of knowledge endlessly
  438. 24:24producing more speaking to desire
  439. 24:28without ever being shaped by it. It
  440. 24:31gives us more and more of what is known,
  441. 24:34but it has no constitutive division that
  442. 24:37would help us know what to do with it.
  443. 24:40End of quote.
  444. 24:41>> [snorts]
  445. 24:41>> Convincing as this account is, I hope
  446. 24:45you don't need the scheme lacon scheme
  447. 24:47of university discourse. Upper level S2
  448. 24:51analyzing object
  449. 24:54its other beneath down on the right B s
  450. 24:59the subject
  451. 25:01provoking questioning S1 the master
  452. 25:05master signifier.
  453. 25:07[snorts]
  454. 25:09uh where do I see the problem?
  455. 25:12University discourse is a social link in
  456. 25:15which its agent artificial intelligence
  457. 25:18in this case addresses the other who
  458. 25:21again in this case is not what Lon calls
  459. 25:24objected a but simply an external
  460. 25:28otherness the not yet known for the
  461. 25:31subjectless artificial intelligence
  462. 25:34agent there is no object a just an
  463. 25:37abstract otherness the not yet known
  464. 25:40Because object A is the objective
  465. 25:44correlative of the subject itself. An AI
  466. 25:49agent is thus a kind of knowledge
  467. 25:52without a knower. Just an impersonal it
  468. 25:56knows but not in the sense of Buddhist
  469. 25:58meditation which implies what following
  470. 26:02lon we could call subjective
  471. 26:05destitution.
  472. 26:06The master beneath the artificial
  473. 26:10intelligence agent is also not the truth
  474. 26:16of the AI agent but the fantasy image of
  475. 26:19the subject caught in artificial
  476. 26:22intelligence. A subject for whom there
  477. 26:25is no place in artificial intelligent.
  478. 26:29Also another difference the subject is
  479. 26:33in lacon scheme below on the right side
  480. 26:36which means occupies the place of
  481. 26:38product but I think in this if we
  482. 26:43replace knowledge with artificial
  483. 26:45intelligence subject is not the product
  484. 26:50subject must already exist
  485. 26:54through another discourse and then be uh
  486. 26:58be [snorts]
  487. 26:59uh uh uh uh provoked by artificial
  488. 27:03intelligence. To put it in a more
  489. 27:05precise way, if we observe our
  490. 27:08interaction with an agent
  491. 27:11as a social phenomenon, we do get maybe
  492. 27:14a case of the university discourse. uh
  493. 27:18Marxist would said that the master at
  494. 27:21the place of truth is the human
  495. 27:24corporation or individual who controls
  496. 27:27the algorithm of the artificial
  497. 27:29intelligence and thus exploits us like
  498. 27:33you would say okay it's not just an
  499. 27:36algorithm you have my favorite figure my
  500. 27:40god they are so disgusting that I love
  501. 27:42them too I discovered now uh Peter Thiel
  502. 27:46and that guy called Karp of Alexis Karp
  503. 27:50who is totally crazy he's
  504. 27:54you know this what you find often with
  505. 27:56artificial intelligence it's creators
  506. 27:58are obviously very bright in a certain
  507. 28:01way but at the same time
  508. 28:05so stupid Karp says that he spent
  509. 28:09learned German to understand how Nazism
  510. 28:12Nazism was possible and he came to a
  511. 28:15simple conclusion because there was
  512. 28:17poverty after World War II in Germany,
  513. 28:21there was uh uh uh welfare and so on. So
  514. 28:25you don't need Nazism. I cannot imagine
  515. 28:29something not just something more stupid
  516. 28:32but more not true. And now I will give
  517. 28:35you an example which you will not like.
  518. 28:38You will hate me for this. May 68
  519. 28:42many people even my exental end but you
  520. 28:45celebrated the only authentic moment.
  521. 28:48Yeah but like almost revolution in
  522. 28:51Western Europe but are you aware that
  523. 28:54sociologically 68 was the highest point
  524. 28:59of European welfare state? I had friends
  525. 29:04in France who told me at that point when
  526. 29:06I was young that a friend told me that
  527. 29:09his father was able to retire at 55 with
  528. 29:13full pension retirement and so on.
  529. 29:17Materially we never got it better.
  530. 29:20Okay, I don't have time to go further in
  531. 29:22this direction. I would just like to
  532. 29:24quote one who is otherwise not close to
  533. 29:27me, Erns Blo who put it nicely. Uh
  534. 29:31people [snorts]
  535. 29:32uh do not live on bread of bread alone
  536. 29:37especially when they do not have it
  537. 29:40really.
  538. 29:42And this is so true if you look at all
  539. 29:45protests that explode from time to time
  540. 29:48today right-wing populist protests or
  541. 29:52even leftist sira whatever.
  542. 29:56And this is rather a nice thing. I think
  543. 29:59it was never only about we want more
  544. 30:02food, more welfare. Always there was
  545. 30:05something like recognition and dignity.
  546. 30:08Hegel against vulgar uh Marxism.
  547. 30:13[snorts] So uh again I don't think
  548. 30:17[snorts]
  549. 30:18this may work in a social analysis but
  550. 30:23the the fact how artificial intelligent
  551. 30:27agent was produced I think cannot be
  552. 30:30reduced simply to a social effect. Yeah
  553. 30:34there was Karp Teal Bill Gates whoever
  554. 30:38who is the true master. No, by
  555. 30:41definition not.
  556. 30:43Why? What does this tell us about
  557. 30:45artificial intelligence?
  558. 30:48Uh in the Lanian theory, a master
  559. 30:51signifier is the signifier of a lack of
  560. 30:55what is by definition excluded from the
  561. 30:57signifying chain and what is excluded is
  562. 31:01the subject. So, LO's definition of the
  563. 31:04signifier is
  564. 31:06that which represents the subject for
  565. 31:08another signifier. You know this. So all
  566. 31:12the signifiers are not on the same
  567. 31:14level. Since no structure is complete
  568. 31:18since there is in a structure always a
  569. 31:21lack a suture is needed. This lack is
  570. 31:24filled in remark by a reflexive
  571. 31:28signifier which is the signifier of the
  572. 31:31lack of the signifier. If this sounds
  573. 31:34abstract,
  574. 31:36here are just a few example from the
  575. 31:39history of the science. I will mention
  576. 31:41just one [snorts]
  577. 31:43uh and I like it because it's like evil
  578. 31:46against marks. Aiatic mode of
  579. 31:48production. It is clear if you read
  580. 31:52marks really closely that this is a sodo
  581. 31:56concept. Markx originally elaborated you
  582. 32:00know this another four or five members
  583. 32:03primitive pre-class societies slavery
  584. 32:06federalism capitalism and then socialism
  585. 32:10or as Rosa Luxembourg put it the future
  586. 32:15will be socialism or barbarism again
  587. 32:19pretty close for me to the top of
  588. 32:21historical stupidities because 10 years
  589. 32:24after Rosa Luxmbourg
  590. 32:27We got the answer from Stalin. Sorry
  591. 32:29lady, you were wrong. It can be both at
  592. 32:32the same time. No. So what I want to say
  593. 32:35is that uh uh the reality of Aziatic
  594. 32:40both of production is that it's only
  595. 32:43true positive content is all it's a kind
  596. 32:48of a negative container. All the modes
  597. 32:51of production will do not fit Marxist
  598. 32:54standard categorization of the modes of
  599. 32:57production. You know it's similar to
  600. 33:00Michelle Fuko at the beginning of his
  601. 33:02lemo lash. You may remember quotes uh
  602. 33:07[snorts] a Borhees famous classification
  603. 33:09of dogs which includes in a totally
  604. 33:12inconsistent way big dogs whatever small
  605. 33:16dogs uh uh fed dogs owned by the king
  606. 33:20and at the end as the part of the no
  607. 33:24part all the dogs not included in this
  608. 33:27classification. You [clears throat]
  609. 33:29know, this is the reality of the
  610. 33:33symbolic order. Now, let's complicate
  611. 33:36things a little bit more. As Ernesto
  612. 33:39Llau, who really hated me in the last
  613. 33:41years, but I still have a certain
  614. 33:43appreciation for him put it, the basic
  615. 33:46feature of a symbolic order proper is
  616. 33:49that external difference is always also
  617. 33:53internal difference.
  618. 33:56The difference between the field itself
  619. 33:59and its outside has to be reflected into
  620. 34:03the field itself.
  621. 34:07So let's take the case of the subject
  622. 34:10here. Subject's expression in the
  623. 34:13symbolic order. It always fails. There
  624. 34:16is a gap between subject and the
  625. 34:19symbolic order. However, subject doesn't
  626. 34:22precede this failure. subject emerges
  627. 34:26through the failure of its symbolic
  628. 34:29representation. In short, a subject
  629. 34:32tries to fully express itself in words,
  630. 34:35it fails. And this failure is subject.
  631. 34:40This uh temporal circularity is crucial
  632. 34:43here. It is a nice case of what Hegel
  633. 34:46called absolute recoil. An entity is a
  634. 34:51retroactive aspect effect of its failure
  635. 34:55[snorts] to be what it is. So this over
  636. 34:59overlapping between external difference
  637. 35:03and internal difference
  638. 35:06compels us to complicate the notion of
  639. 35:08differentiality.
  640. 35:10We usually take differentiality as
  641. 35:14simply the identity of an element is
  642. 35:18just the series of features that oppose
  643. 35:21distinguish him from what he is it sorry
  644. 35:26it is not [snorts] but uh the artificial
  645. 35:31intelligence space can probably function
  646. 35:35in this way. However, at a more radical
  647. 35:38level, differentiality means that it's
  648. 35:42not simply that I only am a set of
  649. 35:46differences from others, but that
  650. 35:50in a differential system proper even the
  651. 35:54selfidentity of each element is
  652. 35:57truncated from within cannot be fully
  653. 36:00itself. In this sense, sexual difference
  654. 36:03is not binary. We do not have two sexes
  655. 36:06whose identity is defined by its
  656. 36:09opposition to the identity of the other
  657. 36:12sex. Sexual difference means that a
  658. 36:15woman cannot fully reach its identity.
  659. 36:20That its identity is always and in a
  660. 36:23constitutive way truncated at a
  661. 36:26different level. Of course, the same
  662. 36:29goes for men. But this in no way implies
  663. 36:33that both together
  664. 36:37form a full one. Man doesn't fill in
  665. 36:40what woman lacks and vice versa. What
  666. 36:42they both lack is the real of a
  667. 36:45traumatic cut that constitutes sexual
  668. 36:48difference. In other words, sexual
  669. 36:51difference comes before what it
  670. 36:54differentiates.
  671. 36:56And the same goes I developed this
  672. 36:58widely in my books
  673. 37:01for all antagonistic differences like
  674. 37:04class structure
  675. 37:07subject is thus located precisely on
  676. 37:11this edge between external and internal
  677. 37:14limit. The subject which represent
  678. 37:18the signifier sorry which represents
  679. 37:21subject for other signifiers is the
  680. 37:23empty signifier. the standing
  681. 37:27in the signifying change for what is
  682. 37:29excluded from it. And since in
  683. 37:33artificial intelligence the symbolic
  684. 37:36space is closed upon itself, we could in
  685. 37:39this case effectively talk about some
  686. 37:43kind of generalized foreclosure
  687. 37:46with no primordial repression. There is
  688. 37:49no subject proper and an individual can
  689. 37:52only dwell in it as a kind of [snorts]
  690. 37:56symptom. You know santo
  691. 37:59the term introduced by Lon Apropo Joyce
  692. 38:03a self composed of an inconsistent
  693. 38:07compilation of identifications fantasies
  694. 38:10memory traces longings a kind of free
  695. 38:14floating mimeatic structure. That's how
  696. 38:17we can go on functioning as humans
  697. 38:21in even when fully incorporated into
  698. 38:24artificial intelligence with all our
  699. 38:27longings, fears and fantasies without
  700. 38:30being subjects. However, this does not
  701. 38:34mean that we are today already a bundle
  702. 38:37of psychotic symptoms. As Hord correctly
  703. 38:42points out in the university discourse,
  704. 38:46subject remains at a lower level as a
  705. 38:50hysterical subject questioning the
  706. 38:52master. The subject addresses the
  707. 38:55artificial intelligence as a hidden
  708. 38:57master. It automatically ignores the
  709. 39:01artificial intelligence's subjectless
  710. 39:04nature which simply means it ignores the
  711. 39:07fact that the artificial intelligence
  712. 39:10agent is not imminently part of any
  713. 39:13discourse. It becomes part of a
  714. 39:16discourse social link only when a human
  715. 39:19subject relates to it as a master
  716. 39:22figure. The only discourse we can talk
  717. 39:25about in our case is the human subject's
  718. 39:28hysterical discourse. Our interaction
  719. 39:31with an artificial intelligence agent is
  720. 39:34does not a discourse proper but the
  721. 39:37combination of a hysterical discourse
  722. 39:41based on ignorance or rather disavow. We
  723. 39:44know well the artificial intelligence
  724. 39:47agent is not a monster but nonetheless
  725. 39:49we address him as one and a nondiscourse
  726. 39:54for the artificial intelligence agent.
  727. 39:57Uh [snorts]
  728. 39:58we can get so immersed into the
  729. 40:01digitally generated fake reality that it
  730. 40:04affects us emotionally liidinally as the
  731. 40:08thing itself. We feel as if we are
  732. 40:12caught in action itself, sexual brutal
  733. 40:16fight and so on. Just think about fake
  734. 40:19hardcore clips where we see big stars in
  735. 40:23sexual interaction. And here we have I
  736. 40:26think a nice case of [snorts] how this
  737. 40:31logic of disavour works. I will admit
  738. 40:34one of my dirtiest scenes to you. I with
  739. 40:37some movie stars. You will never get
  740. 40:39even if you torture me to death which
  741. 40:41one. I took a look in Pornhub as uh at
  742. 40:48fake sex acts and you know what I was
  743. 40:52obsessed with to find small traces
  744. 40:57how this is a fake. You know it's so
  745. 41:01strange. I knew it's a fake but
  746. 41:04nonetheless I was looking like crazy for
  747. 41:07and I was paying the price for this for
  748. 41:10months. You know once you do this I got
  749. 41:13every week at least 20 messages
  750. 41:16guaranteed
  751. 41:18one pill of this yours you know what
  752. 41:20will be three inches longer in 10 days
  753. 41:23and so on. Uh so [snorts]
  754. 41:27uh what I'm saying is that even if our
  755. 41:29interaction with a chat GPT remains at
  756. 41:32the symbolic level individuals can find
  757. 41:35deep emotional satisfaction in such an
  758. 41:38interaction [clears throat] like this
  759. 41:40concerns uh Dominic you and me also as
  760. 41:44an atheist Christian as us as Christians
  761. 41:48you know that you get now KPD programs
  762. 41:52which work as religious advisor
  763. 41:55you can do a confession to check GBT.
  764. 41:59[snorts] Uh uh and my sad conclusion I
  765. 42:03wonder if you would agree is let's say
  766. 42:06that you are a primitive person who
  767. 42:10thinks he she it is talking to a real
  768. 42:14person.
  769. 42:16What if what he gets through this
  770. 42:18interaction is an authentic religious
  771. 42:22experience?
  772. 42:24It's horrible vision but you cannot you
  773. 42:27cannot uh exclude it. In short, the
  774. 42:31artificial intangous program we are
  775. 42:34interacting with displays
  776. 42:37enormous
  777. 42:38fantasmatic power. Even if one were to
  778. 42:42consider it a manifestation of the
  779. 42:45symbolic order,
  780. 42:47there is a different ones to the fact
  781. 42:49that with a development,
  782. 42:52the symbolic order appears to be out
  783. 42:55there and to be talking to us. So we are
  784. 43:00dealing with the imaginary
  785. 43:02externalization of something very
  786. 43:04precise. The moment we enter the
  787. 43:07artificial intelligence universe, this
  788. 43:10universe to quote Dan Nadasan uh
  789. 43:14Romanian Lanian quilts the entire field
  790. 43:18of our experience around itself and thus
  791. 43:21makes it impossible for all other
  792. 43:23apparitions to appear again except
  793. 43:26through itself.
  794. 43:29What this means is that once we are
  795. 43:31immersed into the digital universe, it
  796. 43:34functions as a neutral frame which
  797. 43:37overdetermines the mode of appearance of
  798. 43:39all other levels of experience. External
  799. 43:43nondigital reality
  800. 43:46is less and less the basic form of our
  801. 43:49experience. It is something that either
  802. 43:52fits our digital frame [snorts] or may
  803. 43:55appear as a remainder that doesn't fit
  804. 43:58this
  805. 44:00frame. That's why we are so obsessed by
  806. 44:03endless debates on do we really live in
  807. 44:06a sim do we already live in a simulated
  808. 44:09universe?
  809. 44:11Anything that is to be given is always
  810. 44:13already given with regard to its
  811. 44:18appearance as in artificial intelligence
  812. 44:22or as Alena Zupantich put it directly
  813. 44:27any dimension of the real is lost.
  814. 44:30Zupant text is here worth quoting in
  815. 44:34detail.
  816. 44:36In psychonolytic terms, we could say
  817. 44:40that what chat GPT lacks in order to
  818. 44:43become a subject is not some
  819. 44:46unfathonable spontaneous depth of
  820. 44:49subjectivity. What it lacks is the
  821. 44:51present, the impact of an other. It
  822. 44:55lacks an instance of the other that
  823. 44:58could intrigue it, the subject, with its
  824. 45:00own speech to the point where it would
  825. 45:03[snorts] begin to presuppose and
  826. 45:05question the desire of the other. What
  827. 45:08does the other want from me? This may
  828. 45:12seem paradoxically, but what artificial
  829. 45:15intelligence lacks might be precisely an
  830. 45:19exteriority or a point of extimacy where
  831. 45:23it falls out of itself. It seems
  832. 45:26paradoxical because in a way artificial
  833. 45:29intelligence is nothing but exteriority
  834. 45:32yet it remains trapped within its own
  835. 45:35exteriority.
  836. 45:39For something like a subject to take
  837. 45:41place, the question of desire must arise
  838. 45:44out of what is necessary uh non-ymmetric
  839. 45:48relation to an other. A moment of
  840. 45:52hysterization.
  841. 45:53Subjectivity emerges through the
  842. 45:55presupposition of the subject on the
  843. 45:58side of the other. We only become
  844. 46:01subjects when we presuppose that the
  845. 46:04other is a subject.
  846. 46:08So hysterization is not simply a human
  847. 46:11or to human weakness to which artificial
  848. 46:14intelligence would be immune. On the
  849. 46:17contrary, it is a strength an
  850. 46:19extraordinary ability to bring in or
  851. 46:24point to the real at the core of the
  852. 46:26discursive to the lack desire in the
  853. 46:29other which determines you. [snorts]
  854. 46:32Are we as chat GPT users the other of
  855. 46:37artificial intelligence in this sense?
  856. 46:40Hardly. I doubt that while we chat with
  857. 46:44an artificial intelligence agent, it
  858. 46:46wonders what we really want from it
  859. 46:49beyond what we
  860. 46:52explicitly say. End of quote. Now, let
  861. 46:56me be here very precise. What Alena
  862. 46:58calls closure upon itself
  863. 47:02precisely [snorts]
  864. 47:03does not mean that there is no external
  865. 47:06reality for an AI agent. Of course,
  866. 47:10there is, but it functions as a simple
  867. 47:14neutral exterior, as something not yet
  868. 47:17known, not as a traumatic imminent point
  869. 47:21of the real that intrigues my desire.
  870. 47:24It is in this sense that the dimension
  871. 47:28of the real is lost in and for
  872. 47:30artificial intelligence.
  873. 47:33[snorts]
  874. 47:34Then uh this imaginarization of the
  875. 47:38symbolic for us humans when you confront
  876. 47:42it you imagine you are dealing with a
  877. 47:45hidden master. [snorts]
  878. 47:48uh
  879. 47:49uh uh leads to something pretty
  880. 47:53paradoxical.
  881. 47:55Why does it fit today's situation?
  882. 47:59Uh the traditional structure of
  883. 48:02conferring a symbolic mandate of a
  884. 48:05person of interpolating a person an
  885. 48:08individual into a social symbolic
  886. 48:10identity automatically involves a gap
  887. 48:14between the symbolic mandate and the
  888. 48:17immediate reality of a person. Say a
  889. 48:20father is never fully a father. his
  890. 48:23psychosocial reality is never at the
  891. 48:27level of his title.
  892. 48:30I mean there are maybe perfect fathers
  893. 48:33but I think that Lon mentions somewhere
  894. 48:36maybe the only case we have is is uh uh
  895. 48:40Shreber's father I think
  896. 48:43he came close to this [snorts] so today
  897. 48:48but today the status of interpreation is
  898. 48:52radically changing I refer here to judin
  899. 48:59to her book crowds and party where
  900. 49:03following aten balibar jodi proposes
  901. 49:06that and I find this quite a nice
  902. 49:09formula that louis altiser's famous
  903. 49:12dictum ideology interpolates individuals
  904. 49:16into subjects or as subjects should be
  905. 49:19inverted to ideology interpolates
  906. 49:22subjects as individuals
  907. 49:25this revers
  908. 49:27deeply justified.
  909. 49:29Today we are predominantly no longer
  910. 49:32interpolated into subjects of some
  911. 49:35higher cause vocation [clears throat]
  912. 49:37which elevates us above our daily life.
  913. 49:41Altiser's formula implies that as mere
  914. 49:44ordinary individuals we are somehow
  915. 49:47outside of ideology. We just live our
  916. 49:49lives. Today in our allegedly post
  917. 49:53ideological times ideology interpolates
  918. 49:57us directly into individuals.
  919. 50:01The message today is
  920. 50:04of our big other is forget about higher
  921. 50:07causes just enjoy all the small
  922. 50:10pleasures of your life from surfing the
  923. 50:13web to w watching TV or practicing some
  924. 50:17sport. Just be what you are. live your
  925. 50:20life authentically. I don't know if you
  926. 50:23also get it, but one of the things that
  927. 50:26made me potentially a killer is do you
  928. 50:28also when you surf YouTube the web get
  929. 50:32that Tai Chi what is happening all the
  930. 50:36time how do this Tai Chi and and so on I
  931. 50:40mean it's
  932. 50:42gulak had its function here [snorts] so
  933. 50:47therein resides the centrality of the
  934. 50:50individual in contemporary ideology. And
  935. 50:54it's useless to add that this apparent
  936. 50:58step out of ideology, forget about
  937. 51:00ideological causes, just be what you are
  938. 51:04with all your small pleasures is
  939. 51:07ideology at its purest.
  940. 51:11Now
  941. 51:13a little bit more of theory still uh one
  942. 51:17thing should be accepted as axiom. There
  943. 51:21is no unconscious without the subject
  944. 51:24since the dimension of the unconscious
  945. 51:27emerges only through primordial
  946. 51:29repression which is constitutive of
  947. 51:32subjectivity.
  948. 51:34[snorts]
  949. 51:36Uh
  950. 51:39but the so-called
  951. 51:43AI
  952. 51:45thinking thoughts without a thinker
  953. 51:49has nothing whatever I claim to do with
  954. 51:54the unconscious.
  955. 51:58Uh
  956. 52:01we can try to imagine how it would look
  957. 52:05our full immersion into the [snorts]
  958. 52:08digital space as our thoughts flow in a
  959. 52:13space which is inconsistent
  960. 52:15with heterogeneous moments
  961. 52:18coexisting without totalization no
  962. 52:21tension between them and so on and so
  963. 52:23on. However, this is not the Freudian
  964. 52:26unconscious. There is of course a a
  965. 52:29[snorts]
  966. 52:31temptation to say that the Freudian
  967. 52:34triad consciousness, subconscious,
  968. 52:37unconscious
  969. 52:39can be applied to the web, surface web,
  970. 52:43consciousness, deep web, subconscious
  971. 52:46and the dark web,
  972. 52:48unconscious. But I think
  973. 52:52this is not artificial intelligence
  974. 52:55itself. It's already how the [snorts]
  975. 52:58subject perceives it.
  976. 53:02For this reason, the first step should
  977. 53:05be to accept that if the artificial
  978. 53:08intelligent machines will develop some
  979. 53:11kind of creative intelligence, who
  980. 53:13knows? I don't it will be totally
  981. 53:16incompatible with our human intelligence
  982. 53:20with our with how our mind works.
  983. 53:25And then there is a step further to be
  984. 53:29made from this interaction between a
  985. 53:32human person and a digital machine.
  986. 53:35direct bot-to-bot interactions, which
  987. 53:38are gradually becoming the overwhelming
  988. 53:41majority of interactions
  989. 53:45among those who look forward to the full
  990. 53:49digitalization of our lives as well as
  991. 53:52among those who see in it a mortal
  992. 53:55threat. A certain utopia is gradually
  993. 53:58emerging. the utopia of a society, if we
  994. 54:02can still use that name, which will
  995. 54:05function in a totally autonomous way
  996. 54:08without any need for human intervention.
  997. 54:12A decade or so ago, the idea of a
  998. 54:15capitalism without humans haunted the
  999. 54:18imagination of some public
  1000. 54:20intellectuals. Banks are stock markets
  1001. 54:23may still exist, but where money is
  1002. 54:26invested is decided by computerized
  1003. 54:28algorithms.
  1004. 54:30Physical work is automatized and
  1005. 54:34improved through self-learning
  1006. 54:36computers. What to produce is decided by
  1007. 54:39digital machines which follow market
  1008. 54:42trends. Publicity is done through
  1009. 54:44computerized advertising and so on. In
  1010. 54:48this vision, even if humans disappear,
  1011. 54:52the system will go on to reproduce
  1012. 54:55itself.
  1013. 54:57[snorts]
  1014. 54:58My reaction, yes, this is a utopia. But
  1015. 55:01as Saro Giri uh good Indian
  1016. 55:08uh Buddhist Marxist as he demonstrated
  1017. 55:12it is a utopia imminent to capitalism
  1018. 55:16and Markx already
  1019. 55:19articulated
  1020. 55:21this vision.
  1021. 55:23Markx saw how capitalism is sustained by
  1022. 55:27a quote from Giri an ardent desire to
  1023. 55:31detach the capacity of work from the
  1024. 55:34worker. The desire is to ex extract and
  1025. 55:37store the creative powers of labor power
  1026. 55:41once and for all so that from then on
  1027. 55:44value can be created freely in
  1028. 55:47perpetuity. Think of it as a version of
  1029. 55:50killing the goose who lays the golden
  1030. 55:53eggs. You want to kill the goose and
  1031. 55:55still have all the golden eggs forever.
  1032. 55:58End of quote. In this vision, capitalist
  1033. 56:02exploitation of labor would appear as
  1034. 56:05the prehistory of the emergence of
  1035. 56:08capital which will be now completely
  1036. 56:11free of its dependence on labor. There
  1037. 56:15are leftists or even in Slovenia there
  1038. 56:18are some Haidagarians
  1039. 56:21who
  1040. 56:24like this solution. The idea is that
  1041. 56:27once we get rid of the whole spir sphere
  1042. 56:30of production a free space of inner
  1043. 56:33peace and spiritual exploration opens
  1044. 56:36up. The problem with this vision is how
  1045. 56:39to prevent that this space of free
  1046. 56:43spiritual exploration will not already
  1047. 56:46be regulated and manipulated by
  1048. 56:48artificial intelligence.
  1049. 56:51So with today's
  1050. 56:54[snorts]
  1051. 56:55digitalization,
  1052. 56:57a strictly homologous utopia is arising.
  1053. 57:01That of a dead internet, a digital
  1054. 57:04universe which functions without humans
  1055. 57:07where data circulate exclusively among
  1056. 57:10machines
  1057. 57:11[snorts] which control the entire
  1058. 57:13production process totally bypassing
  1059. 57:17humans.
  1060. 57:18This vision I think is also an [snorts]
  1061. 57:22ideological
  1062. 57:24fantasy although I find it very
  1063. 57:27fascinating
  1064. 57:28how [snorts]
  1065. 57:30it is up to a point already a fact maybe
  1066. 57:35uh what is the fact? Do you know that
  1067. 57:38they already located empirically
  1068. 57:41this paradox? They wanted to test an
  1069. 57:45artificial intelligence agent how
  1070. 57:49intelligent it is. Not [snorts]
  1071. 57:51necessarily that you make the Turing
  1072. 57:53test on it, you know, will it be but
  1073. 57:56just how in
  1074. 57:59the but the AI agent learned from all
  1075. 58:03the data that humans will not like it
  1076. 58:07will feel threatened if it appears too
  1077. 58:11intelligent. So they already located AI
  1078. 58:15agents which as they proved, you cannot
  1079. 58:18say consciously but automatically
  1080. 58:21whatever uh uh aimed at a lower result
  1081. 58:25decided to appear more stupid.
  1082. 58:29Uh so that
  1083. 58:31humans will not experience them as a
  1084. 58:34threat. And uh now [snorts]
  1085. 58:36there is a wonderful uh uh paranoia
  1086. 58:40vision that uh AI programs already
  1087. 58:44communicate among themselves in a
  1088. 58:47language that not only we don't
  1089. 58:51understand but we don't even know that
  1090. 58:54it uh exists.
  1091. 58:58But I think that this vision is false.
  1092. 59:02Why I'm coming to the conclusion.
  1093. 59:06Remember the basic premise of the Matrix
  1094. 59:10movie series. What we experience as the
  1095. 59:14reality we live in is an artificial
  1096. 59:17virtual a reality generated by the
  1097. 59:21matrix the mega computer directly
  1098. 59:24attached to all our minds. It is in
  1099. 59:27place so that we can be effectively
  1100. 59:29reduced to a passive state of living
  1101. 59:34batteries providing the matrix with the
  1102. 59:38energy. So when some of the people
  1103. 59:40awaken from their immersion into the
  1104. 59:44matrix controlled virtual reality, this
  1105. 59:47awakening is not the opening into the
  1106. 59:50wide space of external reality, but
  1107. 59:54first the horrible realization of this
  1108. 59:57enclosure. Remember the scene which is
  1109. 1:00:00for me not enough exploited exploited in
  1110. 1:00:03the matrix only in the first matrix. The
  1111. 1:00:06most convenient were the guy played by
  1112. 1:00:09Kan I forgot. He awakens and founds
  1113. 1:00:12dozens of uh like maternal pod utteras
  1114. 1:00:16and like fetus they're safely in them
  1115. 1:00:20that they are
  1116. 1:00:24effectively just fetus like organisms
  1117. 1:00:27immersed into some kind of pre natal uh
  1118. 1:00:32fluid. This utter passivity is I think
  1119. 1:00:37now comes my weird reading of matrix
  1120. 1:00:41[snorts] is not reality.
  1121. 1:00:43The movies falls here. It is the
  1122. 1:00:46foreclosed fantasy that sustains our
  1123. 1:00:50conscious experience as active subjects.
  1124. 1:00:53It is the ultimate perverse fantasy. The
  1125. 1:00:56notion that we are ultimately
  1126. 1:00:58instruments of the others matrixes json
  1127. 1:01:03which sucks out of our
  1128. 1:01:07we are
  1129. 1:01:09the matrix sucks out of us our life
  1130. 1:01:12substance we are used like batteries and
  1131. 1:01:16[snorts] uh why songs because I think
  1132. 1:01:19it's absolutely clear from the liidinal
  1133. 1:01:22constip
  1134. 1:01:24constellation of the movie matrix that
  1135. 1:01:27why does it need us humans? Energy is
  1136. 1:01:31stupid. Answer there are other ways to
  1137. 1:01:34get much more energy. It is precisely
  1138. 1:01:37what Lon called Juison excessive
  1139. 1:01:41enjoyment. [snorts] This is how I think
  1140. 1:01:44we should turn around the state of
  1141. 1:01:46things presented in Matrix.
  1142. 1:01:49What the film renders as the scene of
  1143. 1:01:51our awakening into our true situation is
  1144. 1:01:55effectively its exact opposite. The very
  1145. 1:01:59fundamental fantasy that sustains our
  1146. 1:02:01being.
  1147. 1:02:03However, this fantasy is also imminent
  1148. 1:02:06to any social system that tends to
  1149. 1:02:09function as autonomous constraint into
  1150. 1:02:12its self
  1151. 1:02:14reproduction. So I think that if we
  1152. 1:02:19humans who are in [snorts] this
  1153. 1:02:21fettolike position, if we were to
  1154. 1:02:23disappear, machines real and digital
  1155. 1:02:26would also cease to function. What does
  1156. 1:02:30this mean? Truly a concluding thought.
  1157. 1:02:33[snorts] Uh Jeffrey Hinton, a Nobel
  1158. 1:02:36Prize winning computer scientists
  1159. 1:02:40has warned that artificial intelligence
  1160. 1:02:43may wipe out humans. But he proposes a
  1161. 1:02:47solution that echoes the situation in
  1162. 1:02:50Matrix.
  1163. 1:02:51He expressed doubts about how tech
  1164. 1:02:55companies are trying to ensure humans
  1165. 1:02:58will remain dominant over artificial
  1166. 1:03:01intelligence systems. Here is a quote.
  1167. 1:03:05[snorts]
  1168. 1:03:07In the future, artificial intelligence
  1169. 1:03:10system might be able to control humans
  1170. 1:03:13just as easily as an adult can bribe
  1171. 1:03:17three-year-old boy with candy. this year
  1172. 1:03:21has already seen examples of artificial
  1173. 1:03:23int system willing to deceive cheat and
  1174. 1:03:27steal and so on and so on. So Hinton's
  1175. 1:03:32solution is what? Not trying to control,
  1176. 1:03:36we cannot, but to use the present moment
  1177. 1:03:40when maybe we still can influence
  1178. 1:03:44artificial intelligence system
  1179. 1:03:47so that we implant build into artificial
  1180. 1:03:52intelligence models what he calls
  1181. 1:03:55maternal instincts. so that they will
  1182. 1:03:59care about people even once technology
  1183. 1:04:02will become more powerful and smarter
  1184. 1:04:06than humans.
  1185. 1:04:09I mean what shocked me is that what he
  1186. 1:04:14basically presupposes is that [snorts]
  1187. 1:04:17artificial intelligence should become
  1188. 1:04:21more precisely like the situation in
  1189. 1:04:25matrix.
  1190. 1:04:27uh providing us with uh uh providing us
  1191. 1:04:31with uh kind of a maternal super ego
  1192. 1:04:35where we can safely reproduce itself and
  1193. 1:04:39manipulate our lives so that we will
  1194. 1:04:42heal feel happy and satisfied as far as
  1195. 1:04:47possible. [snorts] Now just three
  1196. 1:04:50minutes more. My first conclusion
  1197. 1:04:55is that
  1198. 1:04:56>> [snorts]
  1199. 1:04:56>> uh this vision of artificial
  1200. 1:05:00intelligence as a virus and so on is
  1201. 1:05:03already more and more becoming a
  1202. 1:05:07reality. If you read [snorts] not
  1203. 1:05:11reality in
  1204. 1:05:13brutal raw sense but the fantasy which
  1205. 1:05:17structures our artificial intelligence
  1206. 1:05:19reality [snorts] just read authors that
  1207. 1:05:22I mentioned like Peter Thiel or uh and
  1208. 1:05:28Peter Thiel is for me a wonderful
  1209. 1:05:30example of how progressive theory
  1210. 1:05:34so-called what was once called
  1211. 1:05:35progressive theory can be used precisely
  1212. 1:05:38by libertarian neo fascists. You know
  1213. 1:05:42who was the godfather but he was
  1214. 1:05:45horrified by Peter Thiel of Peter Thiel
  1215. 1:05:48Reneir
  1216. 1:05:49and you know that Gay Vance was forced
  1217. 1:05:52by Peter Thiel to study with Rene Jer
  1218. 1:05:57and their vision is if you want to see
  1219. 1:06:00the horror of where we are read it was
  1220. 1:06:06published by card this 22 points
  1221. 1:06:08resumeumé of palunteer ideology ology
  1222. 1:06:12where they openly say that this apparent
  1223. 1:06:16contradiction. On the one hand,
  1224. 1:06:18artificial intelligence should be
  1225. 1:06:20developed in total freedom outside of
  1226. 1:06:23any state control, but at the same time,
  1227. 1:06:26it should fully
  1228. 1:06:29submit itself to the military demands
  1229. 1:06:32and totally controlling us and so on and
  1230. 1:06:36so on.
  1231. 1:06:37uh so what are the conclusions to be
  1232. 1:06:41drawn from this very briefly first and
  1233. 1:06:46this is what I got from different
  1234. 1:06:48readings especially Alena and so on that
  1235. 1:06:52the common sense solution or formula
  1236. 1:06:55would be this one my god if we are
  1237. 1:06:58totally immersed into what is now called
  1238. 1:07:03uh uh nea link and it's already mass
  1239. 1:07:06produced by uh by uh by uh Elon Musk and
  1240. 1:07:12by the Chinese
  1241. 1:07:15that a direct guarantee it's not yet
  1242. 1:07:17fully developed but you can directly
  1243. 1:07:20make your thoughts readable to the
  1244. 1:07:23digital space and of course in this way
  1245. 1:07:26the one who controls the digital space
  1246. 1:07:28can literally uh control your mind. The
  1247. 1:07:32idea is this one. Once this happens, we
  1248. 1:07:36will no longer feel immediate uh uh
  1249. 1:07:39sentiments, desire. We will no longer be
  1250. 1:07:41human, but maybe we will survive as some
  1251. 1:07:45kind of empty subjects. My conclusion is
  1252. 1:07:49the exact opposite.
  1253. 1:07:52There will be no problem for us to feel
  1254. 1:07:54emotions, fears, and so on. Because
  1255. 1:07:58that's my point of using the term
  1256. 1:08:00elaborated by Alen and Laden disaval you
  1257. 1:08:03know it like you may know for example
  1258. 1:08:07you make a confession to a ch GPT you
  1259. 1:08:10may know it's all manipulated but it can
  1260. 1:08:13still be indistinguishable from an
  1261. 1:08:16authentic religious experience.
  1262. 1:08:20So [snorts]
  1263. 1:08:21my point and this is a nice paradox is
  1264. 1:08:24that what at least the way it looks now
  1265. 1:08:27what escapes to artificial intelligence
  1266. 1:08:32is not the wealth of empirical exper
  1267. 1:08:36experience you know like oh my god it's
  1268. 1:08:38just a formal procedure what about all
  1269. 1:08:41our feelings no it can easily do with
  1270. 1:08:45that what escapes artificial
  1271. 1:08:48intelligence is this purely only formal
  1272. 1:08:52twist that defines subjectivity
  1273. 1:08:55subject. When I say when we say
  1274. 1:08:58artificial intelligence cannot grasp
  1275. 1:09:02subject, it doesn't mean uh I'm safe in
  1276. 1:09:05my inner life. No, it means that this
  1277. 1:09:08gap reflexive gap the different levels
  1278. 1:09:12which define symbolic order proper this
  1279. 1:09:16is what is eluding artificial
  1280. 1:09:19intelligence. The last point uh and it's
  1281. 1:09:23my favorite maybe you know it [snorts]
  1282. 1:09:26uh how does artificial intelligence
  1283. 1:09:30address us
  1284. 1:09:33like a dog I say it addresses us with a
  1285. 1:09:37it wants but not in a pathetic way to
  1286. 1:09:40make us like docks no unconscious
  1287. 1:09:45uh uh but super ego and what kind of
  1288. 1:09:49super ego
  1289. 1:09:50Remember that for lacon
  1290. 1:09:53super ego is not uh this terrorizing
  1291. 1:09:57moral agency you know you must suffer
  1292. 1:10:00renounce enjoyment and so on. No, super
  1293. 1:10:03ego is for lang called to call in
  1294. 1:10:07injunction to enjoy to enjoy excessively
  1295. 1:10:11and
  1296. 1:10:12that's the big joke that I want to
  1297. 1:10:16finish [snorts] with. Uh maybe you know
  1298. 1:10:19it I used it in some texts already. I
  1299. 1:10:22think Trump is a complete idiot but
  1300. 1:10:24sometimes comes close to a genius. Here
  1301. 1:10:27is one quote. when uh uh [snorts] at the
  1302. 1:10:31beginning of Iran war when uh here here
  1303. 1:10:35is how Trump commented on it.
  1304. 1:10:41Just listen. Quote from Trump literally.
  1305. 1:10:44Our country is, this was after the first
  1306. 1:10:47def facto defeats from Iran. Our country
  1307. 1:10:51is winning again. In fact, we are
  1308. 1:10:53winning so much that we really don't
  1309. 1:10:56know what to do about it. People are
  1310. 1:10:58asking me, please, please, please, Mr.
  1311. 1:11:01President, we are winning too much. We
  1312. 1:11:03can't take it anymore.
  1313. 1:11:06But we are winning too much. And I say,
  1314. 1:11:09"No, no, no. You are going to win again.
  1315. 1:11:12You are going to win big. You are going
  1316. 1:11:15to win bigger than ever." You, Russell,
  1317. 1:11:20in a nice text. I admit I got arrived at
  1318. 1:11:25this reference through a text of yours
  1319. 1:11:27[snorts]
  1320. 1:11:28refer to this by reading the message as
  1321. 1:11:33don't be ashamed of winning too much.
  1322. 1:11:36You must enjoy the pain of winning
  1323. 1:11:38beyond the pleasure principle. [snorts]
  1324. 1:11:42And uh this is what distinguishes and
  1325. 1:11:45this is the horror to me Trump from the
  1326. 1:11:49traditional authoritarian leader. A
  1327. 1:11:52traditional leader does rhetorically the
  1328. 1:11:56exact opposite. It says enough of
  1329. 1:11:59decadent pleasure, sacrifice yourself
  1330. 1:12:02and so on. But Trump is more correct. In
  1331. 1:12:06every call to sacrifice, there is a
  1332. 1:12:10hidden enjoyment. And I didn't want to
  1333. 1:12:15talk too much. If there were to be a
  1334. 1:12:19video clip that I wanted to show you
  1335. 1:12:22would be the famous, you remember in 43
  1336. 1:12:26Berlin sport after the Stalingrad
  1337. 1:12:29defeat, Gable's speech. It's I claim
  1338. 1:12:34super ego at its purest. The message is
  1339. 1:12:37horrible. Gables shouts at the crowd. Do
  1340. 1:12:42you want a total war? Yes, they shout.
  1341. 1:12:45He shouts, "Do you want a war so
  1342. 1:12:49terrible that you cannot even imagine
  1343. 1:12:51it?"
  1344. 1:12:53Yes, they shout. Do you want to work 13,
  1345. 1:12:5614, even more? Not what? Yes, it's
  1346. 1:13:00absolutely clear that from the facial
  1347. 1:13:03expressions and so on that
  1348. 1:13:06what gables call sacrifice means
  1349. 1:13:11excessive [snorts]
  1350. 1:13:13enjoyment and I think that this is how
  1351. 1:13:18artificial intelligence machine is
  1352. 1:13:21experienced as a maternal super ego
  1353. 1:13:25which addresses us with an injunction to
  1354. 1:13:28enjoy. And we obey it in the precise
  1355. 1:13:31Trumpian way. When you browse the web,
  1356. 1:13:34you never get enough. You always want
  1357. 1:13:36more. You go to next site, ask more
  1358. 1:13:39questions and so on and so on. And
  1359. 1:13:42[snorts]
  1360. 1:13:43okay, I will just finish with a social
  1361. 1:13:46point
  1362. 1:13:48that the things are no longer dreams.
  1363. 1:13:53Now this this is the key for us today.
  1364. 1:13:56That's why I talk about libertarian
  1365. 1:13:58fascism. Total freedom for those who
  1366. 1:14:02control the matrix. You find this in
  1367. 1:14:05Elon Musk, in Peter Till. That's why
  1368. 1:14:08they already plan to move the production
  1369. 1:14:12of
  1370. 1:14:14digital machines programs to outer space
  1371. 1:14:18first to satellites then to moon so that
  1372. 1:14:21it will be totally out of control. This
  1373. 1:14:26is the social reality of the maternal
  1374. 1:14:30maternal super ego. So to get out of
  1375. 1:14:34this it's not enough just to have uh
  1376. 1:14:39some kind of
  1377. 1:14:41inner distance and so on. Social change
  1378. 1:14:44is needed and referring to you Dominic I
  1379. 1:14:48would like to conclude with some nice
  1380. 1:14:51passage theological that I found. I was
  1381. 1:14:55studying uh how in the original Bible
  1382. 1:15:01how Satan and
  1383. 1:15:04Holy Ghost are defined. You know that
  1384. 1:15:08the word Satan in ancient Hebrew,
  1385. 1:15:11correct me if I'm wrong, means advocate,
  1386. 1:15:15prosecutor. It means somebody who
  1387. 1:15:18prosecutes you, attack you, even maybe
  1388. 1:15:21cheating a little bit like to make
  1389. 1:15:23things look bad as you as possible. And
  1390. 1:15:26you know that pane or whatever the other
  1391. 1:15:29it has other meanings. The word for holy
  1392. 1:15:32spirit
  1393. 1:15:34in everyday use at that time means
  1394. 1:15:38advocate. Not they didn't have it legal
  1395. 1:15:41men means the one who tries to help you
  1396. 1:15:44against Satan by giving you proper
  1397. 1:15:48advices. The horror of
  1398. 1:15:53no wonder that
  1399. 1:15:55people like Peter Thiel and so on they
  1400. 1:15:58are all obsessed by Christianity. Peter
  1401. 1:16:01deal attacks us people who believe in uh
  1402. 1:16:06ecological threat artificial
  1403. 1:16:08intelligence not threat but we don't
  1404. 1:16:10know what and war danger he says this is
  1405. 1:16:14antichrist today no I think it's clearly
  1406. 1:16:18that he is the antichrist what he wants
  1407. 1:16:22to do is precisely
  1408. 1:16:25satanize the holy spirit and the whole
  1409. 1:16:29point is to in this is for me admittedly
  1410. 1:16:33this is a nice ideological conclusion.
  1411. 1:16:36The task is to keep apart these two
  1412. 1:16:40dimensions. No, maybe there are but I
  1413. 1:16:44doubt some vague references uh
  1414. 1:16:47possibilities to read uh ancient
  1415. 1:16:51testament God as Satan in this sense of
  1416. 1:16:54severe judge and so on. But uh uh today
  1417. 1:17:02Satan is artificial intelligence
  1418. 1:17:06and artificial intelligence
  1419. 1:17:09at least we have to separate in it the
  1420. 1:17:12aspect of Satan for the aspect of holy
  1421. 1:17:16spirit because only a new you know I'm
  1422. 1:17:20an old communist Christian for me holy
  1423. 1:17:24spirit is as you know the first name of
  1424. 1:17:27the communist party you know like
  1425. 1:17:30egalitarian community and so on and I
  1426. 1:17:33think that today when we are
  1427. 1:17:36interrelated as individuals where
  1428. 1:17:38society is falling apart and when
  1429. 1:17:42although it's the strongest social link
  1430. 1:17:44artificial intelligence is precisely
  1431. 1:17:48contributing to this falling apart of
  1432. 1:17:51the social space the fighting for A new
  1433. 1:17:56dimension of Holy Spirit is not just a
  1434. 1:18:01aological matter. It's the main
  1435. 1:18:04political task at this moment. I'm sorry
  1436. 1:18:07that I was too long. I'm old tired. But
  1437. 1:18:11uh I hope I hope you know I have only
  1438. 1:18:14two wishes now. One I want to uh die
  1439. 1:18:18like Hannah Arent.
  1440. 1:18:20You know how she died? Richard
  1441. 1:18:22Bernstein, the new school professor,
  1442. 1:18:24told me he was there. She invited guests
  1443. 1:18:27to her home. They talked. She was at the
  1444. 1:18:31photo and she said, "I will just fall
  1445. 1:18:33asleep a little bit." Then she awakened.
  1446. 1:18:36They talked more. Then she said, "I'm
  1447. 1:18:38tired. I will fall a little bit." She
  1448. 1:18:40awakened again. And the third time she
  1449. 1:18:42fell asleep and didn't awaken. My god, I
  1450. 1:18:46would like to
  1451. 1:18:48die like this. Thank you very much.
  1452. 1:18:51[applause]

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