Scientific Breakthroughs in relation to the state of the art.
NEST holds that a fundamental innovative reconsideration of the nature of computational reason is needed.
Discourses on smartness have developed over the course of the last decade, this includes the internet of things, ubiquitous
computing, smart cities, data economy and machine learning (Pfaltz 2014) – this discourse is currently dominated by the
strategic marketing of artificial intelligences. The novel approach of this strategy, which first and foremost consists of
new types of calculations performed on big data, constitutes the most characteristic development of what in this context
could be termed reticular informatics, in reference to Giuseppe Longo, and reticular writing, as defined by Clarisse
Herrenschmidt. By moving beyond the state of the art NEST worked to demonstrate that through this evolution, technological
systems, which submit logic to calculation – and with it logos, and thereby noesis – become the “megaorganisms” in which humans
presently live – everywhere in the world. These techno-logical mega-organisms, which
lead to a generalised loss of knowledge (proletarianisation), pretend to pilot human life almost entirely through their
calculations –both on the individual level (psychic) and a collective level (social). But these calculations are operated
according to the interests of stockholders of these mega-organisms: they are indeed the technospheric firms, especially
in North-America and China. This new reticular arrangement between a technical system, which has become entirely
computational, and social organization, constantly reticulated and piloted by technical systems themselves, requires a
fundamental reconsideration of the nature of computational reason – that is, the virtues and vices of a functional and
generalized submission of decision-making to such apparatus of calculation. It is particularly important at a moment where the European Union,
on the one hand, intends to develop specific policies in the field of artificial intelligences, and, on the other, prioritizes investment to fight against the toxic aspects of the
Anthropocene (of which climate change and the current viral vulnerability are the most prominent aspects of a system
with many other weaknesses). This is why the first axis (Rethinking Computer Theory) of this project was devoted
to reinterpret the potentialities and limits of automatic calculation from the point of view of mathematical theories of
calculability, first order cybernetics (of Norbert Wiener) and information theory simultaneously.
NEST consortium recommends that the work on t contributory research continues after
the life of the project. The assumptions behind contributory research are in line with those
in relation to the European Green Deal and, additionally, they respond to the challenges
related to work/life automation. A continuous effort must be put into translating these
assumptions into territorial research practices and local policies that might contribute
to a positive social change in this context.
