To Think Human out of the Machine Paradigm: Homo Ex Machina

Abstract

This article attempts to show that the metaphorical conception of human being as a machine takes a very specific epistemological standpoint. To make short the complex task of considering the implication of this paradigm for psychological and behavioral sciences, three important mismatches between the machine and the living human will be considered. Experience, agency and plasticity of human being are excluded in the scientific models and research activities when they are situated in the machine paradigm. For this reason, I claim that the machine paradigm does not offer the relevant frame for integrating results from various domains or approaches within human sciences, even if it can sometimes produce relevant scientific knowledge in certain domain at the scale of detailed investigation. Due to the importance of overcoming the fragmentation of scientific knowledge to solve the crisis in psychology, an "organic paradigm" should be elaborated which provides a new epistemological framework.

Experience the World with Archetypal Symbols: A New Form of Aesthetics

“…A fundamental premise is that people do not directly react to the ontological-existing reality, but respond to their understanding of this reality. Contrary to the traditional view of human in the machine paradigm, humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings that they ascribe to these things [2]. People interact with each other by interpreting each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions.…”

Flow-based Physical Security

“…This is sent to the Controller (7), which processes it (8) to trigger a release (9) of the calculated amount of insulin, which is sent to the Pump (10) where it is processed (11) to trigger releasing (12) the corresponding dose to the needle (13). Finally, the needle delivers the dose (14) into the patient"s blood (15).…”

“…Thus, a session is opened (13) in which he/she issues commands (14) that are transmitted to the control unit (15), which rejects implementing them (16). Accordingly, the session and the login are terminated (17 and 18, respectively).…”

From the Machine Paradigm to Brain Plasticity and How Culture Overrules Biology in Humans

“…What is called perception in humans cannot be simulated by a machine or a computer (Kohler, 2010). Perception, giving meaning to sense impressions, is a fundamental capacity of humans; it represents the relationship to the "outside" world.…”

“…Contemporary human sciences have inherited the Western focus on isolated single elements not submitted to the whole, and the variables representing the isolated elements are knit together in a mechanical or additive way by multivariate statistics in research. To gain knowledge about complex living organisms by treating them and their context this way gives as Kohler (2010) writes "a distorted knowledge about real human beings".…”