Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
What if the greatest danger posed by artificial intelligence is not that it becomes intelligent, but that we misunderstand its place in reality?
In this episode from Ralston College's symposium on artificial intelligence, Dr. Iain McGilchrist argues that AI is neither conscious nor capable of genuine understanding. Instead, he invites us to consider a far older and more unsettling possibility: that the pursuit of power through technology echoes patterns embedded in the world's oldest myths.
Drawing together neuroscience, philosophy, theology, and the symbolic imagination, McGilchrist explores why civilizations across time have warned against forms of power detached from wisdom, responsibility, and the living world. These recurring stories, he suggests, are not relics of a primitive past but enduring attempts to describe the deepest structures of human experience.
This lecture forms part of Ralston College's landmark symposium on artificial intelligence, where leading thinkers examined the technological revolution through the lens of the humanities, seeking not only to understand what AI is, but what it means for human beings and the future of civilization.
What if the greatest danger posed by artificial intelligence is not that it becomes intelligent, but that we misunderstand its place in reality?
In this episode from Ralston College's symposium on artificial intelligence, Dr. Iain McGilchrist argues that AI is neither conscious nor capable of genuine understanding. Instead, he invites us to consider a far older and more unsettling possibility: that the pursuit of power through technology echoes patterns embedded in the world's oldest myths.
Drawing together neuroscience, philosophy, theology, and the symbolic imagination, McGilchrist explores why civilizations across time have warned against forms of power detached from wisdom, responsibility, and the living world. These recurring stories, he suggests, are not relics of a primitive past but enduring attempts to describe the deepest structures of human experience.
This lecture forms part of Ralston College's landmark symposium on artificial intelligence, where leading thinkers examined the technological revolution through the lens of the humanities, seeking not only to understand what AI is, but what it means for human beings and the future of civilization.
