What Can Count as Intelligence at All?

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Every Sunday, a new lecture. Our meeting begins at 9:00 AM with informal conversation, followed by a focused dialogue at 9:15 AM, and an open Q&A discussion afterward.

This week, we continue to explore what intelligence is and where it resides. If intelligence does not live inside the mind, then what can count as intelligence at all? Must intelligence belong only to humans, or even to minds? Or can it exist at the level of objects, systems, and structures in the world?

We begin with Graham Harman, who argues that objects exist independently of how we think about them. For Harman, reality is not exhausted by human perception, interpretation, or use. Objects have their own existence and their own powers, whether or not anyone is aware of them. This challenges the idea that intelligence or meaning must depend on a human viewpoint. It opens the possibility that intelligence can be understood at the level of objects themselves, not just inside conscious minds.

We then turn to John Doyle, who approaches intelligence from an engineering perspective. Doyle argues that complex systems should be understood as informational structures shaped by constraints, tradeoffs, and control mechanisms. Intelligence, on this view, is not a mysterious inner property. It is something that emerges when systems reliably manage complexity, uncertainty, and risk. An intelligent system is one that maintains order and function under pressure. Intelligence becomes something that can be built, tested, and engineered.

Finally, we look at Hilary Putnam, who rejected the idea that understanding depends on the material substance of the mind. Putnam argued that what matters is function, not physical makeup. If a system performs the right kinds of operations, then it can count as understanding, regardless of whether it is made of neurons, silicon, or something else. Intelligence, on this view, is not tied to biology. It is tied to what a system does.

Together, these thinkers shift our focus away from inner mental meanings and toward object level reality. Intelligence becomes something real, structured, and functional. It exists in systems, architectures, and patterns of organization. It can be informational rather than psychological. And it can be engineered rather than merely observed.

This shift has major consequences for how we think about artificial intelligence. If intelligence is object level, informational, and functional, then the key questions change. What structures support intelligent behavior? What constraints shape reliable performance? And what does it mean to build systems that act intelligently in the world?

Join Plato’s Cave and the Orlando Stoics for a discussion on objects, systems, intelligence, and the philosophical foundations that connect ontology with engineering reality.

READING MATERIALS
Graham Harman
Graham Harman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Harman
Object Oriented Ontology (overview):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ontology
Tool Being:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool-Being

John Doyle
John C. Doyle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Doyle
Robust Control and Complexity:
https://www.cds.caltech.edu/~doyle/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Complexity and Robustness (overview):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robust_control

Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Putnam
Functionalism (philosophy of mind):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(philosophy_of_mind)
The Meaning of “Meaning”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_%22Meaning%22

TIMEZONES
For our members in other states:
6:00 AM — Pacific Time USA
7:00 AM — Mountain Time USA
8:00 AM — Central Time USA
9:00 AM — Eastern Time USA
For members in other countries, please convert time using:
https://www.worldtimebuddy.com

The meeting begins at 9:00 AM Eastern, with dialogue starting 9:15 AM sharp.