The ideal of artificial intelligence can firstly be set as the ability of a mechanical (or electronic) agent to be able to, as a human, observe, reason, learn, communicate and act in complex environments and secondly, to explain this type of behaviour in humans, animals or any other type of agent. The aim of this study is firstly to determine whether this ideal is feasible and secondly, to look at the physicalist premise thereof, viz., everything is physical according to Dooyeweerd’s view of the creation, fall and redemption motive. First we determine the essence of artificial intelligence through the Curch–Turing thesis. We then place the essence of artificial intelligence alongside the essence of life firstly to see whether the construction of an artificial intelligence agent is possible and whether the subject artificial intelligence has something to say regarding intelligent behaviour in humans, animals and similar agents. Lastly we look at the physicalist premise of artificial intelligence viz., everything is physical from the reformative creation, fall and redemption motive. The Church–Turing thesis forms the boundary of what is feasible in artificial intelligence and what is not feasible. Every component of the thesis is limited to the arithmetic law sphere of Being, i.e. the succession of discrete elements in a set of elements. Any effort to reduce the spatial aspect of the being to the arithmetic aspect of Being, like the enumeration of irrational numbers, ends in an antinomy. Any artificial intelligence agent is in its nature limited to the arithmetic law sphere of Being. The structural intertwinement, which such an artificial intelligence agent has with its underlying physical components is, in contrast with living organisms that of an irreversible grounded enkapsis. Life and mind has, in contrast to the arithmetic seclusion of an artificial intelligence agent, a fullness and totality. It has an ability to unlock Being in its fullness, which comes to the fore in a way that any living organism unlocks the plastic horizon of Being in the respective internal and phenomenological horizons. The unlocking of the spatial aspect plays a key role with its kernel of totality, simultaneity and continuousness. In both these horizons, the organism is in a living enkapsis with both its underlying physical substrate and the physical things in its external surroundings. The ideal of artificial intelligence is thus a phantasm. The only comment it can give on biology is that which has to do with the succession of discrete elements in a system. Hempel’s dilemma and the halting problem expose the physicalist point of departure of everything is physical as a religious premise, which is not empirically verifiable. Instead of getting a better view of Being the contours of meaning of life as well as all the supra physical aspects of Being fades away or is denied with concealment of Being. The only way in which we can get the broadest possible insight into Being is in the light of the Word of God. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The ideal of artificial intelligence can firstly be set as the ability of a mechanical (or electronic) agent to be able to, as a human, observe, reason, learn, communicate and act in complex environments and secondly, to explain this type of behaviour in humans, animals or any other type of agent. The aim of this study is firstly to determine whether this ideal is feasible and secondly, to look at the physicalist premise thereof, viz., everything is physical according to Dooyeweerd’s view of the creation, fall and redemption motive. First we determine the essence of artificial intelligence through the Curch–Turing thesis. We then place the essence of artificial intelligence alongside the essence of life firstly to see whether the construction of an artificial intelligence agent is possible and whether the subject artificial intelligence has something to say regarding intelligent behaviour in humans, animals and similar agents. Lastly we look at the physicalist premise of artificial intelligence viz., everything is physical from the reformative creation, fall and redemption motive. The Church–Turing thesis forms the boundary of what is feasible in artificial intelligence and what is not feasible. Every component of the thesis is limited to the arithmetic law sphere of Being, i.e. the succession of discrete elements in a set of elements. Any effort to reduce the spatial aspect of the being to the arithmetic aspect of Being, like the enumeration of irrational numbers, ends in an antinomy. Any artificial intelligence agent is in its nature limited to the arithmetic law sphere of Being. The structural intertwinement, which such an artificial intelligence agent has with its underlying physical components is, in contrast with living organisms that of an irreversible grounded enkapsis. Life and mind has, in contrast to the arithmetic seclusion of an artificial intelligence agent, a fullness and totality. It has an ability to unlock Being in its fullness, which comes to the fore in a way that any living organism unlocks the plastic horizon of Being in the respective internal and phenomenological horizons. The unlocking of the spatial aspect plays a key role with its kernel of totality, simultaneity and continuousness. In both these horizons, the organism is in a living enkapsis with both its underlying physical substrate and the physical things in its external surroundings. The ideal of artificial intelligence is thus a phantasm. The only comment it can give on biology is that which has to do with the succession of discrete elements in a system. Hempel’s dilemma and the halting problem expose the physicalist point of departure of everything is physical as a religious premise, which is not empirically verifiable. Instead of getting a better view of Being the contours of meaning of life as well as all the supra physical aspects of Being fades away or is denied with concealment of Being. The only way in which we can get the broadest possible insight into Being is in the light of the Word of God. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.