The development of machine intelligence in a computational universe

The paper is dedicated to the study of the theoretical and technological development that occurred, in particular in the XX century, in the sector of Artificial Intelligence. According to the theoretical framework of mechanical rationalism, we study how the development of machine intelligence is a continuation, through different means, of the old process of outsourcing of cognitive activities by humans onto parts of their physical environments. Because of this process, an increasingly larger portion of the non-human environment performs perceptive and cognitive activities. From this follows that machine systems, not necessarily humans anymore, are the components of the physical environment that perform measurements on the universe of which the humans are also components. We suggest that the scientific discussion on the topic of AI development could be framed in the context of a more general phenomenon of an increase in the computational and perceptual capabilities of the physical universe, as opposed to a merely human and technological problem. This is because, ever so slightly, humans are being removed from the cognitive processes of technological systems they created, which continue to perceive and think autonomously. The act of machine cognition, or rather, of machine measurements, causes an effect on the environment in which humans live, and ever more so than the human measurements. Finally, we discuss the current approach to the development of viable AI systems that aim at increasing the reciprocal intelligence of humans and machines, rather than the replacement of the former's cognitive faculties by the latter.