Sociologies (Feb 2019)
Codes et intelligences : externalisation, retour sur soi et brouillage des frontières entre nature et culture
Abstract
The article retains four types of codes and intelligences, according to their historical order of appearance: 1) DNA codes, associated with genomic intelligence, 2) neural codes, associated with sensory-motor intelligence, 3) linguistic codes, associated with symbolic intelligence, and finally 4) computer codes, associated with computer science intelligence. The article describes schematically, these different levels of codes and intelligences by focusing on the feedback effects of higher levels on previous levels and emphasizing their relation to the trend towards the externalization of intelligences, which finds a remarkable expression in the computer revolution. An important loop in the history of life seems to be closing and a second one is initiating its deployment. The boundaries between natural, cultural and technical are blurred. Biological and neurological engineering redesign the staging of the intelligences of life. This return of the living upon itself upsets our ontology and challenges the scientific division of labour.
