Ebook: Logiciel: Six Seminars on Computational Reason

Originating in a series of seminars held at The New Centre for Research & Practice, the book traces developments in cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, logic, mathematics, and computer science, outlining a novel model of computation rooted in topology. Grounded in a spatial theory of types, the topological view marks a departure from received notions of continuity and computability, ushering in a perspectival shift with broad implications. Calling for a reappraisal of Turing orthodoxy—the image of a Universal Machine guided by axiomatic rules—AA Cavia proposes an inferential view of logic enacted by self-supervised agents. In a challenge to the classical account of automata, computation is cast as a theory that emerges from a diagnosis of contingency, leading to new positions on autonomy and automation, interaction and language, realizability and truth.

This multidisciplinary text addresses many contemporary debates central to the philosophy of computation, from the simulation hypothesis to singularity, universal learning to the multiple realizability of mind, offering a radically open-ended view of the epistemological limits of AI. In treating computational reason as a distinct form of explanation, a catalytic agent bootstrapping its own logos, the author contributes key insights to a nascent philosophy of intelligence.

“A marvelous achievement, AA Cavia’s Logiciel is an astute historical investigation which takes as its object the philosophy of computation itself. It brings the premises, frameworks, and implications of the latter into much-needed focus, presenting a novel view and horizon of research through which a genuinely diasporic theory of intelligence emerges.”

– Reza Negarestani, author of Intelligence & Spirit