This essay examines the history of human knowledge as a history of the gaze. From myth and philosophy through modern physics to artificial intelligence, it argues that observation is never neutral but mediated by conceptual, linguistic, and instrumental frameworks. Drawing on Plato, Kant, Popper, and Wittgenstein, the essay develops the view that scientific knowledge consists not of direct access to reality but of models whose validity depends on their correspondence with structured observation.…
Read moreThis essay examines the history of human knowledge as a history of the gaze. From myth and philosophy through modern physics to artificial intelligence, it argues that observation is never neutral but mediated by conceptual, linguistic, and instrumental frameworks. Drawing on Plato, Kant, Popper, and Wittgenstein, the essay develops the view that scientific knowledge consists not of direct access to reality but of models whose validity depends on their correspondence with structured observation. Modern physics demonstrates that observation depends on experimental context, while artificial intelligence introduces a reversal in epistemology: instead of constructing models to interpret reality, machines derive models from data without semantic understanding. This development raises fundamental philosophical questions about meaning, interpretation, and epistemic authority. The essay concludes that human knowledge remains inherently perspectival and argues for epistemic humility in the age of algorithmic mediation.
