The problem of complexity and common sense

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of complexity, appealing to which is a common argument used by theorists and practitioners to justify failures in their endeavors. In such cases, complexity is presented as an objective property of an object, its ontological parameter. The apology for complexity has three important consequences: (1) its absolutization as an inevitable fact that must be humbly accepted; (2) the recognition of human inability to cope with it independently using natural (species-specific) capabilities; and (3) turning to artificial intelligence as the only possible tool capable of solving the problems associated with it. The purpose of the study is to formulate and substantiate the assumption that complexity is not an objective property of the world, but rather a projection onto it of the subject’s epistemological, linguistic, sociocultural, and other attitudes. What appears as complexity is actually a difficulty arising from the gap between actual human capabilities and capacities, on the one hand, and the world they claim to master, on the other. The contemporary world has become complex for humans because the aforementioned abilities have proven insufficient for accessing, organizing, and controlling it. Hence the hopes placed on artificial intelligence (AI), which, in the belief of its developers, is capable of overcoming the barriers posed by the key characteristics of complex objects: scale and heterogeneity. During the implementation of AI, its developers encountered a difficulty they termed the “AI brittleness problem”: it cannot solve problems that humans, from their emergence to the present day, have handled through common sense. Common sense, as a natural intellectual module, has been and remains the primary tool for human orientation in the world and for solving most everyday tasks that constitute the fabric of human life. As a result, the author formulates and substantiates the thesis that complexity is not an ontological characteristic of the world, but a projection onto it of various attitudes of the subject. The novelty lies in drawing upon common sense, as a manifestation of human rationality, as an epistemological resource for understanding and resolving this problem.