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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20260603T170000
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CREATED:20260318T104450Z
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SUMMARY:Causation as Sign Action: Semiotic Empiricism and the Causal Complexity of Large Language Models - M. Beatrice Fazi (University of Sussex)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: \nCan large language models (LLMs) engage with causation\, or are they confined to detecting correlations in data? This talk argues that addressing this question requires rethinking what causation itself is and how it becomes intelligible. Drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic theory of signs\, the talk develops the position that causation is semiotically constituted: causal relations become meaningful not through experiential grounding alone but through irreducibly triadic sign processes involving signs\, objects\, and interpretants. Albert Michotte’s “launching effect” experiment provides a key departure point\, demonstrating that causal perception is already semiotic rather than a matter of direct apprehension or Humean inference. This reframing challenges Judea Pearl’s influential “ladder of causation”—which positions LLMs as processors of correlations incapable of causal reasoning—while also taking seriously Pearl’s own acknowledgment that causal information is embedded in the training texts on which these models operate. The talk proposes “semiotic empiricism” as a framework in which experience is structured by meaning-making rather than preceding it\, and examines its consequences for understanding how LLMs might participate in causal reasoning as semiotic machines\, thus moving the debate beyond both dismissive critique and anthropomorphic overclaiming. \nThis event is part of our summer term 2026 Lecture Series Digital Complexity: Beyond Human Understanding. \nIf you would like to attend\, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.
URL:https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/event/causation-as-sign-action-semiotic-empiricism-and-the-causal-complexity-of-large-language-models-m-beatrice-fazi-university-of-sussex/
LOCATION:Stadtpalais/Online\, Theaterstraße 75\, Aachen\, 52062\, Germany
CATEGORIES:Lecture Series 2026
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20260617T170000
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CREATED:20260318T104735Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260428T100423Z
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SUMMARY:Cybernetics and Critique: A Theory of Digital Governmentality - Anna-Verena Nosthoff (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\n \nElon Musk describes X as a “cybernetic superintelligence\,” Mark Zuckerberg views companies as “learning organisms\,” and the inventor of Google Glass says\, “Cybernetics is everywhere\, like air.” These statements are not coincidental. Anyone who seeks to understand the digital transformation must look at its cybernetic origins. In her lecture\, Anna-Verena Nosthoff offers insights into her recent book\, “Cybernetics and Critique: A Theory of Digital Government” (Suhrkamp Verlag)\, and illustrates its fundamental theses with the current authoritarian shift in Silicon Valley. Indeed\, contemporary techno-fascism\, as promoted by figures like Musk\, can be understood particularly well from the perspective of cybernetic constructs. This brings into focus not only transhumanist cyborg fantasies and solutionist\, post-ideological concepts of technology\, but also binary and affect-centered concepts of the public sphere and technocratic\, information-centered understandings of the state. These topoi find totalitarian parallels in the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency\,” in Musk’s decidedly right-wing management of his platform “X\,” and also in the current AGI hype. Against this backdrop\, contemporary “Muskism” (Lepore) proves to be a simultaneously disruptive and incremental form of digital governance: it is primarily recognizable as cybernetic authoritarianism. \n  \nThis event is part of our summer term 2026 Lecture Series Digital Complexity: Beyond Human Understanding. \nIf you would like to attend\, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.
URL:https://khk.rwth-aachen.de/event/cybernetics-and-critique-a-theory-of-digital-governmentality-anna-verena-nosthoff-carl-von-ossietzky-university-oldenburg/
LOCATION:Stadtpalais/Online\, Theaterstraße 75\, Aachen\, 52062\, Germany
CATEGORIES:Lecture Series 2026
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