Lotman prima dell’Intelligenza Artificiale: il ruolo della mente collettiva

This article is an attempt to assess the effectiveness of certain elements of Lotman’s semiotics in contemporary AI research. In the late 1970s, Lotman has critically analyzed the nature of the mind in relation to AI researches, employing the distinction between individual and collective mind. The tool exploited in this analysis is the concept of information, closely linked to that of culture in Lotman’s theoretical framework. Starting from the issue of memory challenged by contemporary technology, we will provide the reconstruction of the concept of the collective mind through an article by Lotman published in 1977, devoted to the problems of artificial intelligence. The collective mind requires interpersonal communication and the role of translation for the effectiveness of interaction between two subjects. We will try to show that Lotman’s thinking is still relevant and some considerations regarding the value of information and the collective mind are forerunners of the current AI