On the origin of objects

by Brian Cantwell Smith

On the Origin of Objects represents the final stage in Brian Cantwell Smith's decades-long investigation into the philosophical and metaphysical foundations of computation, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. Based on a sustained critique of the formal tradition underlying reigning views, he argues for an embedded, participatory, "irreductionist," metaphysical alternative. Smith seeks nothing less than to revise our understanding not only of the machines we build but also of our world with which they interact.