The Critique of Instrumental Reason circa 1976: Joseph Weizenbaum, Seymour Papert, Artificial Intelligence, and the Frankfurt School
A talk by Scott Richmond.
Thursday, November 27, 2025 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Deluxe Screening Room, IN-222E, Innis College
A Return from Research and Study Leave Lecture featuring Prof. Scott Richmond.
This talk draws on new archival research I conducted while on leave in February of 2025, and was written in February and March of this year. It presents the work of two computer scientists working at MIT in the 1970s, Seymour Papert and Joseph Weizenbaum. Both were early pioneers of AI in the 1960s, both came to criticize the AI program, and both resisted the tendency of computers to expand the empire of instrumental reason. And yet, they disagreed bitterly. I elucidate this disagreement by noting a rhyme between Weizenbaum and Papert and foundational Frankfurt School thinkers: Horkheimer and Adorno and Benjamin. I also propose a new way to understand the salience of the Frankfurt School in the 1970s by taking account of rising computerization of society.